Njal's Saga

Njal's Saga, written by an unknown author in the late thirteenth century, is the mightiest of the great Icelandic prose sagas. Based on historical events in Iceland some 300 years earlier, it describes a fifty-year blood feud from its violent beginnings to its tragic end. The spare, simple narrative centres loosely upon the prophetic Njal Thorgeirsson who, with his family, is finally burnt alive in his home by a league of enemies. This translation by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson illuminates for us a grim world in which justice means vengeance and all men are either lucky or doomed.

The cover shows a gold relief from Stockholm Antikvitets Akademie. (Snark International)