Post: #1

The Icelandic sagas are a series of stories that details life in Iceland around the year 1000. They remain very important to Iceland today.

Here's some background:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...sagas.html

There are about 20 sagas available in English:

http://sagadb.org/index_az

Any recommendations on which to read first?

Post: #2

The best of them is probably Njal's Saga (listed on sagadb as "The Story of Burnt Njal"). Laxdaela Saga is also a classic, as are Egil's Saga, Eyri's Saga, and Gisli's Saga.

It might be better to start with a shorter saga - try Thorstein Staff-Struck or Hrafnkel's Saga.

There are better translations out there than the ones I see on sagadb, but you might have to pay for them in book form. Well worth it though. Icelandic sagas are unapologetically red pill.

Post: #3

Yea, read Hrafnkel´s saga first to get used to the style of prose.

A favorite "red pill" saga quote:

"Cold are the counsels of women"

Post: #4

Maybe knowing the sagas is a good icebreaker with Icelandic ladies

Post: #5

Saga prose is almost comedically pithy. A lot of interactions are like this:

It was a clear morning. (Clear mornings = someone is about to die.) Thorgrim Blood-Axe saw Sigurd riding through the meadow, wearing a tunic of bright green. Thorgrim ran at Sigurd, cleaving him in two with one blow. Thorgrim pulled Sigurd's lungs out of his body with his bare hands and left the corpse in the field.

Down the trail, Thorgrim ran into Snorri Bjanarson. Snorri sneered at Thorgrim, and asked "Have you seen my cousin Sigurd?"

Thorgrim smiled. "I think I cured his cough."

(Generations-long bloodfeud commences.)

Post: #6

I second what Lurker said. Its hard to beat the Icelandic sagas for comic understatement. They were written by Christians who seemed to enjoy subtly poking fun at their pagan forebears.

Egil's Saga is the best in my opinion, about a cantankerous murderous warrior-poet who rebels against the king of Norway. He kills his first man at age 7 for being excluded from games and then recites a poem about it.

Post: #7

Egil's Saga takes every opportunity possible to rip on the main character and his dad for both being bald by 25, even going so far as to name the dad Skalla-Grim (Skull). Njal's Saga points out repeatedly that Njal can't grow a beard, and that his nastiest son has ugly, "sharp" features. The Vikings were not shy about mocking characters for physical appearance.