Saga of the Jomsvikings

Book Description
In A.D. 986, Earl Hâkon, ruler of most of Norway, won a triumphant victory over an invading fleet of Danes in the great naval battle of Hjôrunga Bay. Sailing under his banner were no fewer than five Icelandic skalds, the poet-historians of the Old Norse world. Two centuries later their accounts of the battle became the basis for one of the liveliest of the Icelandic sagas, with special emphasis on the doings of the Jômsvikings, the famed members of a warrior community that feared no one and dared all. In Lee M. Hollander's faithful translation, all of the unknown twelfth-century author's narrative genius and flair for dramatic situation and pungent characterization is preserved.


Language Notes
Text: English, Icelandic (translation)


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In the year A.D. 986, Earl Hakon, ruler of most of Norway, won a triumphant victory over an invading fleet of Danes in the great naval battle of Hjorunga Bay. Sailing under his banner were were were no fewer than five Icelandic skalds, the poet-historians of the Old Norse world. Like good war correspondence of the present, they went home after the battle to relate what they had seen and heard; and, being poets as well as reporters, no doubt they seasoned their versions well with imagination.


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