Vikings!
We are a hardy race, being independent booksellers, so of course we are interested in those Norse entrepreneurs who made Europe a lively place in the so-called Dark Ages.
One of the standard-setting writers about medieval Scandinavia was Nobel Prize-winning Sigrid Undset. I have assembled all her works that we carry on this page, even though they technically do not involve Viking culture and history (a few are even contemporary to Undset’s own time). Other than that, she needs no defense as one of the greatest of historical novelists.
Norse Mythology: Great Stories from the Eddas
Norse Mythology: Great Stories from the Eddas
Rooted in an oral tradition, fantastic sagas of Norse mythology found their way into print seven centuries ago, in documents known as the Eddas. This book presents 17 of the most popular tales, from the creation of the world to the death of the gods and the world’s destruction.
Masterfully retold, the legends include Odin's trip to Mimer in search of knowledge, the making of Thor's hammer, the loss of Idun's wondrous apples, and the task of securing the dreaded Fenris-wolf with unbreakable silken twine devised from "the sound of a cat’s footsteps, the roots of the mountains, the breath of a fish, and the sinew of a bear." Here, too, are accounts of "The Wooing of Gerd," "Thor Goes a Fishing," "The Death of Balder," "How Loki Was Punished," "The Twilight of the Gods," and "The New Earth."
Reprint of Norse Stories Retold from the Eddas, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1918.