Introduction: The Wizard of the North Odin's Eye The Uncrowned King of Iceland On the Quay at Bergen Norse Gods and Giants Independent People The Ring Acknowledgments Notes Further Reading
Nancy Marie Brown is the author of highly-praised books of nonfiction, including The Abacus and the Cross and The Far Traveler. Her work has also appeared in Loquitor, News from Iceland, The Penn Stater, Spektur, and Vermont Magazine. She is fluent in Icelandic and has deep ties to the Scandanvian cultural institutions in the US, which will help promotethebook. Formerly the editor of award-winning magazine Research/Penn State, Brown lives in Vermont.
"[The most influential writer of the Middle Ages] wasn't Chaucer,
or Malory or the writers of Arthurian romances but...a politically
powerful Icelander called Snorri Sturluson...Song of the Vikings
puts the works and the man together...His life deserves to be
better known." --Thomas Shippey, The Wall Street Journal "An
important undertaking...The first English-language book published
on Snorri in 30 years...Readers will feel affected by the loss of
this powerful and complicated man." --Kirkus Reviews "Nancy Marie
Brown has taught me that the roots of this part run deeper than I
knew -- down through "Norse Gods and Giants" to the imagination of
a gouty poet, historian, and lawyer drinking beer in his hot tub
eight centuries ago." --The Boston Globe
"If you want books that are very readable, those by Nancy Marie
Brown are highly recommended." --Medievalists.net "From magic
swords and giants' gloves to murders in dank cellars, Brown's story
of Snorri Sturluson's Iceland raises some interesting questions
about the literary cannon and shines light on an author whose
history could easily have lost." --Portland Book Review "'Snorri is
the Homer of the North, ' says Brown in this wonderfully evocative
biography, rich with Norse myths, told against the stark backdrop
of Iceland in the middle ages...thanks to his 'wizardry with words'
he lives on in our imaginations, inspiring the likes of Richard
Wagner, Neil Gaiman and Tolkien, whose Bilbo Baggins is like Snorri
himself: 'fat, cowardly, clever, a collector of old lore, and
overly fond of his food and drink'. A remarkable insight into a
lost world of magic and myth, best read with a flagon of golden
mead - Odin and Snorri's favourite drink." --PD Smith, The Guardian
"For readers who've long sensed that older winds blow through the
works of their beloved Tolkien, Song of the Vikings is a fitting
refresher on Norse mythology. Without stripping these dark tales of
their magic, Nancy Marie Brown shows how mere humans shape myths
that resonate for centuries--and how one brilliant scoundrel
became, for all time, the 'Homer of the North.' " --Jeff Sypeck,
author of Becoming Charlemagne "In medieval Iceland, one of the
most remote corners of the known Earth, a very un-Viking Norseman
named Snorri Storluson crafted the heroic mythology on which rests
everything from Wagner's Ring cycle and the Brothers Grimm to
Tolkein (who considered Snorri's work more central to English
literature than Shakespeare's) and even the evils of Nazism. In
"Song of the Vikings," Nancy Marie Brown brings to vivid life this
age of poetic Viking skalds, of blood feuds and vengeance raids, of
royal intrigue and fierce independence, when the barren, beautiful
landscape of the North was haunted by trolls, giants and dragons -
all of which Snorri, the most important writer the world ever
forgot, captured for eternity." --Scott Weidensaul, author of The
First Frontier "With wry wit and graceful prose Nancy Marie Brown
takes us back to medieval Iceland and introduces us to perhaps the
greatest storyteller of the period, Snorri Sturluson. Her depth of
knowledge of the era, the rugged landscape, the Vikings, and their
lifestyle is impressive." --Pat Shipman, author of To the Heart of
the Nile "For lovers of Medieval history, Norse legend, and myth in
general, "Song of the Vikings" is a must read. Nancy Marie Brown
has transformed her extensive knowledge of thirteenth-century
Iceland into an accessible and interesting book. Bravo!" --Marilyn
Yalom, author of Birth of the Chess Queen and How the French
Invented Love "Drawing upon her broad knowledge, Nancy Marie Brown
not only skillfully situates Snorri's powerful voice, his tales and
his (mis)deeds, in their context, she also adeptly illuminates his
modern appeal and curious afterlife in popular culture. This is a
sober, well-informed, and imaginative take on Norse mythology."
--Gisli Palsson, author of Travelling Passions and professor of
anthropology, University of Iceland "Nancy Marie Brown, a clear and
careful writer, has crafted a compelling evocation of Snorri
Sturluson in his place and time, the Icelandic-Norse commonwealth
of the turbulent thirteenth century. Although Snorri always remains
at the center of this tale, Song of the Vikings is in many ways the
biography of an entire, unusual people. Medieval Icelanders
struggled for hundreds of years with their political allegiance,
religious adherence, social structure and their remote island home
itself with its awesome challenges to human existence. Furnished
nine hundred years ago with the Latin alphabet, Icelanders began
writing remarkable narratives of their own lives and of their Norse
heritage--and clever, wily Snorri has long been considered by many
scholars foremost among the medieval authors of Iceland as well as
the leading power broker of his day on the island. Nancy Marie
Brown concludes her Song of the Vikings in truly constructive
fashion with an absorbing essay on the reception of medieval
Icelandic literature in the modern world, confirming the indelible
signature of this sophisticated people on the texts of our global
civilization, from Wagner and Tolkien to Thor (from Marvel Comics)
and A.S. Byatt. Like her earlier The Far Traveler, on the expansive
journeys of the Norse, Nancy Marie Brown's Song of the Vikings
belongs in the hands of every discerning student of Western
civilization." --Patrick J. Stevens, Curator, the Fiske Icelandic
Collection, Cornell University Library "Nancy Marie Brown concludes
her Song of the Vikings in truly constructive fashion with an
absorbing essay on the reception of medieval Icelandic literature
in the modern world, confirming the indelible signature of this
sophisticated people on the texts of our global civilization, from
Wagner and Tolkien to Thor (from Marvel Comics) and A.S. Byatt.
Like her earlier The Far Traveler, on the expansive journeys of the
Norse, Nancy Marie Brown's Song of the Vikings belongs in the hands
of every discerning student of Western civilization." --Patrick J.
Stevens, Curator, the Fiske Icelandic Collection, Cornell
University Library
Ask a Question About this Product More... |