Icelandic sagas 1

A highlight of the 125th anniversary year of the S. Fischer Verlag is the new translation of the medieval Icelandic sagas for the 2011 Book Fair. In European literature, the sagas are unique: nowhere else did such exciting prose literature emerge in the vernacular. Dashiell Hammett listened to their dialogues, Borges admired their cynical realism, and their presence is astonishing: when you step into the landscapes of their settings today, it seems that only the old heroes are missing. The 64 sagas of the new S. Fischer edition tell of the lives of the first settlers in Iceland, of land-taking, their farm foundations, family feuds, and legal disputes - and of course their journeys that led to Scotland, England, and even Rome, which contributed to the legendary rough reputation of the Icelanders, as things did not always go peacefully.