If you are interested in the way in which America came to be known in the European world, this book is an excellent "place" to explore. However, as literature (because thats what the sagas were in the end) the two sagas in this book are not much, i.e., there are quite a few better and more substantial sagas around. So its kind of hard to give a rating here, using the amazon system, and so Ive compromised, splitting the difference, so to speak, to rate this a three! But that shouldnt stop anyone who is interested in this stuff from reading it!This book contains the two extant sagas, sparse and perfunctory both, that record the Norse excursions to North America around the year 1000 and over the decade or so following. Although they ostensibly tell the same story with the same players, they actually contain some very distinct and contradictory elements. Both recount the events which led up to and culminated in the discovery of North America by Norsemen out of Greenland but they offer decidely different versions. In Eiriks Saga, Leif Eiriksson stumbles onto North America on a journey home from Norway where he was commissioned by King Olaf Tryggvesson to spread Christianity in Greenland but its not clear that he ever really lands there. On the other hand, in the Tale of the Greenlanders Bjarni Herjolfsson does the stumbling, fails to make landfall and later, after much criticism for being incurious by the Greenlanders, sells his ship to Leif who does go there and makes the first settlement.
In the Tale, this commences a series of expeditions, first by Leif, then one of his brothers, then his brother-in-law, Thorfinn Karlsefni, out of Iceland, and finally Leifs illegitimate sister who commits a bloody crime there.
In Eiriks Saga, on the other hand, the main settler is Thorfinn who, with three ships, seems to compress most of the other expeditions into his own. Leifs illegitimate sister in this saga is a heroine in a battle with American Indians, during Thorfinns abortive colonization effort, rather than the murderess she is in the Tale.
But Eiriks Saga also has some very odd entries including mysterious natives rising up out of the ground, attacking Unipeds and strange white-robed people who are described as marching around with some kind of flails. In both sagas there does appear to be a realistic portrayal of American Indians, suggesting the fundamental truth behind the events reported, however, given the discrepancies in the sequence and characterization of many of the events, it is not unfair to question if either saga is fully reliable.
Besides, based on the saga evidence alone, the actual landing locations have never been pinpointed (though there is clear archaeological evidence since the sixties that there was at least a Norse waystation built on the northern most tip of Newfoundland in roughly that period). In sum, these are interesting, indeed fascinating, stories if your interest is in history, especially of the Norse in the New World. However, as literature, they are skimpy and unsatisfying. There are much better sagas out there including Njals Saga, Laxdaela Saga, Orkneyinga Saga, Grettirs Saga and Egils Saga, among others. The Vinland sagas, except for the obvious historical interest they inspire, do not even come close.
An awesome read!
Excellent choice but not as literature . . .