The Icelandic Sagas

This collection gathers medieval Icelandic prose sagas, composed mainly in the thirteenth century, that recount feuds, lawsuits, voyages, and the conversion of Iceland in the settlement and commonwealth centuries. Typical pieces follow farmers and chieftains through assemblies at the Althing, blood-feuds, verse-making, and exile to Norway or the British Isles, among them figures such as Njal, Egil Skallagrimsson, and the people of the Eyrbyggja district. The narratives mix law, genealogy, and staged dialogue. The volume is an anthology of family and regional sagas, not a single continuous epic and not a modern history of Iceland.

Quarter-bound in black buckram blocked in gold with hand-drawn lettering by John Andrew, cloth sides printed and blocked with a colour design by Simon Noyes.