Book
Sagas of Warrior-Poets
First published 2002
This collection brings together Kormak’s Saga, The Saga of Hallfred Troublesome-Poet, The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People, and Viglund’s Saga. Their protagonists are poets as well as fighters, moving between Icelandic farmsteads, Norwegian courts and other parts of the Viking world while using verse to defend reputation, challenge rivals and express love or resentment.
Romantic rivalry runs through the collection, often placing poetic ambition and personal honour in direct conflict with marriage arrangements, family loyalties and social expectations. The sagas preserve the distinctive role of the skald in Viking-Age culture: a figure whose words could earn royal favour, provoke enemies or record a private emotion with the same intensity as a feud.
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