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Vikings in Russia: Yngvar's saga and Eymund's saga
English (translation)
Original Icelandic
Original Icelandic
102 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 19, 2020
Yngvar's Saga features two journeys to Russia. Yngvar's is first, in which he seeks to find the source of a river, then his son makes a return journey to bury his father and convert the Russians. There's plenty of dragons, giants, femme fatales, camouflaged ships (with early guns?), an elephant with a howdah, a really weird guy with a beak who throws apples. Imaginative stuff.
Eymund's saga is about some Norwegian mercenaries in a war between three Russian kings. Eventually they kidnap a queen and force her to arbitrate the conflict. There are some discussions on strategy that are maybe a little over simplified and an episode I didn't quite follow where they tie down some trees with rope to lift up the enemy pavilion. They stop working for their stingy patron king and go to his rival after they kill the third brother.
Eymund's saga is about some Norwegian mercenaries in a war between three Russian kings. Eventually they kidnap a queen and force her to arbitrate the conflict. There are some discussions on strategy that are maybe a little over simplified and an episode I didn't quite follow where they tie down some trees with rope to lift up the enemy pavilion. They stop working for their stingy patron king and go to his rival after they kill the third brother.
October 24, 2016
The Icelandic translator, or, as the introduction prefers to call him, the author, of these sagas took them from Latin works by the learned monk Odd Snorarsson. I started with the sagas, then read the detailed and fascinating introduction, and then re-read "Yngvar's Saga" ( I found "Eymund's Saga" less interesting, as it is more stylised and also repetitive).
"Yngvar's Saga", according to Pálsson and Edwards, could be described as a "quest romance" and I wondered, when I discovered how well-educated and often well-travelled were the religious and literary figures of Iceland at that time, whether Odd Snorarsson may have been influenced by the "Chansons de Geste" or courtly romance tales, as several of the elements of these tales appear in "Yngvar's Saga". (Skip the next bit if you don't want to know the story).
A young man, unable to claim kingship in Sweden because of the circumstances of his birth, leaves to find a kingdom in foreign lands. His journey turns into a quest to find the source of a great river, and in so doing he enters into a relationship with a beautiful queen as well as encountering giants, dragons and other mythical creatures, while seeking to maintain Christian purity. After his death he is sanctified, though the efforts of Queen Silkisif, and his son (by a concubine) continues his travels, as well as marrying the queen. Iceland had its own tradition of "riddarsögur" or chivalric romances, but both sagas here are developed from an historical nucleus.
"Eymund's Saga" centres on what the authors of the introduction call the stereotyped figure of "the young defender" who helps defend the realm of a host king (or in this case, the king who pays better). Eymund, after pursuing a career as a mercenary turned diplomat, "lived to no great age and died peacefully", which the introduction describes beautifully as "in saga terms something of the equivalent of a yawn".
The sagas "open a small window on the hazy world of Sandinavian Vikings in eleventh-century Russia." The introduction opened a window for me on the intellectual achievement of the medieval Icelanders, and made me want to delve into more sagas!
"Yngvar's Saga", according to Pálsson and Edwards, could be described as a "quest romance" and I wondered, when I discovered how well-educated and often well-travelled were the religious and literary figures of Iceland at that time, whether Odd Snorarsson may have been influenced by the "Chansons de Geste" or courtly romance tales, as several of the elements of these tales appear in "Yngvar's Saga". (Skip the next bit if you don't want to know the story).
A young man, unable to claim kingship in Sweden because of the circumstances of his birth, leaves to find a kingdom in foreign lands. His journey turns into a quest to find the source of a great river, and in so doing he enters into a relationship with a beautiful queen as well as encountering giants, dragons and other mythical creatures, while seeking to maintain Christian purity. After his death he is sanctified, though the efforts of Queen Silkisif, and his son (by a concubine) continues his travels, as well as marrying the queen. Iceland had its own tradition of "riddarsögur" or chivalric romances, but both sagas here are developed from an historical nucleus.
"Eymund's Saga" centres on what the authors of the introduction call the stereotyped figure of "the young defender" who helps defend the realm of a host king (or in this case, the king who pays better). Eymund, after pursuing a career as a mercenary turned diplomat, "lived to no great age and died peacefully", which the introduction describes beautifully as "in saga terms something of the equivalent of a yawn".
The sagas "open a small window on the hazy world of Sandinavian Vikings in eleventh-century Russia." The introduction opened a window for me on the intellectual achievement of the medieval Icelanders, and made me want to delve into more sagas!
September 17, 2015
Prose translations of two short sagas that involved Vikings who went east rather than west, combined in this edition with a lengthy introduction. "Yngvar's Saga" features a disinherited Swedish Prince of the 11th century, who decides to seek out the source of a great river. It is saga as entertainment rather than history and features standard folkloric features such as giants and dragons. It also has one rather disturbing incident that probably says a lot about the psychosexual issues of the recently Christianised Vikings. "Eymund's Saga" features another disinherited Prince, Norwegian this time, who travels to a Russia divided between 3 ruling brothers, and is an early version of that now well-worn story of the mercenary who switches sides as it suits him. A quick and easy read, but nothing to compare with a great piece of literature like Njal's Saga.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews