Politics is a dirty business
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This saga is a series of wars, mercenaries, plundering, raiding, razing, destructions (`islanders lost their lives there, flames devoured their houses'), murders, revenges, jealousies, cruelties, maiming, confiscations, taxations by an autocratic and vindictive king (`I kill without compunction').
But in the end, `birds of carrions follow to feast on valiant seamen.'
All in all, this tale is not a very beautiful picture of one of the masters of mankind.
Snorri Sturluson wrote a unique and original (a mixture of poetry and prose) historical document.
He builds fluently the historical events into a saga. But at the end he is very hard for his hero: `He was brutal to his enemies ... he was exceptionally greedy for power and valuable possessions ...he went to war for fame and power and he forced everyone he could into submission.'
His ultimate fate was well deserved: `and so he was killed in another king's land.'
Not to be missed by all lovers of world literature.
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Wonderful introduction to the sagas
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On a long car trip, my very cool 16-year-old son finally gave in to my urgings and started grudgingly to read this book (the only one in the car). After grumbling his way through the first page or so, he became completely caught up in it and started to exclaim aloud: "Whoa! Listen to this! Harald has just put out the Byzantine emperor's eyes!" "He just threw all the prisoners overboard so that the pursuing fleet would have to stop and rescue them!" "He just told the enemy earl to 'kiss my thin-lipped axe'!" The saga starts with the fifteen-year-old Harald fleeing for his life through the Norwegian forest after the battle that killed his older brother, King Olaf (Saint Olaf). Harald is a historical figure, and if one-tenth of the stories about him are true, he was a towering leader and villain. The translation is wonderful, the language is vivid, and the emotions and intelligence of these eleventh-century figures are as modern as those of any story of our own times. I can't think of a better introduction to the world of the sagas. After this, read Njals Saga and Egils Saga!
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A life enough for ten men
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Harald fits into English history as the character who sapped Harold's strength in 1066, distracting him north to Stamford Bridge before his defeat by William in the south. This saga shows Stamford Bridge was the climax of a far more fascinating life. A swash buckling epic around the Mediterranean, Africa, Russia, the Byzantine Empire and Scandanavia. Written around the 1220-30s, this is epic stuff in a pithy style.
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