Laxdaela Saga (The Folio Society)

270 pp. Black leather spine, gilt titles and rules, marbled paper over boards, maps on endpapers. Translated into English with an introduction by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, with wood-cut illustrations by Peter Pendry. The woodcuts consist of 21 half-page illustrations, and the frontispiece. The text is revised from the translators' 1968 Penguin Classics edition. Laxdœla saga is the saga of the clan/family of Laxardalur. It is one of the most important Icelanders' sagas, originally written in medieval Icelandic (descended from Old Norse); probably in western Iceland sometime around the year 1245 AD. It is noted for its mention of the first known Norseman in the Varangian Guard: the Icelander Bolli Bollason. The author is unknown. Covering 150 years in the lives of the inhabitants of the community of Laxriverdale, the saga focuses primarily upon the story of Gudrun Osvif's-daughter: a proud, beautiful, vain and desirable figure, who is forced into an unhappy marriage and destroys the only man she has truly loved - her husband's best friend. A moving tale of murder and sacrifice, romance and regret, the Laxdaela Saga is also a fascinating insight into an era of radical change - a time when the Age of Chivalry was at its fullest flower in continental Europe, and the Christian faith was making its impact felt upon the Viking world.