Synopses & Reviews
The two sagas of the Faroe Islanders and Greenlanders may be counted among the Sagas of Icelanders', though Icelanders play no part in the first and little in the second, and events in both are remote from Iceland. They may be so categorized on account of their style, which is that of sober history, and not less so when events that we would consider supernatural occasionally take place in them. Both have been assigned approximate dates of composition early in the thirteenth century, among the first sagas to have been written down, yet their narrative lines have the assurance of a fully developed art. Their stories are told with finesse, many events in Faroe Islanders are given a comic slant that seems sophisticated, and both have small casts and little clutter of genealogies. Thrand of Gotu, in Faroe Islanders, is the most fully developed character in either, and one of the more complex and memorable villains of European literature.The chief success of Johnston's translation lies precisely in his ability to suggest the kinds of parody, burlesque, and dark comedy Thrand of Gotu depends on as the saga turns the audience's sympathies from a conventional hero, Sigmund Brestisson, a man whose prowess suggests Gunnar of Hlitharendi or Olaf Tryggvason, to Thrand of Gotu, s devious schemer, a wisely ruthless enemy more than a match in wisdom for Sigmund and for successive rulers of Norway, who in saga convention are wiser than their subjects, even including Icelanders.' - University of Toronto QuarterlyGeorge Benson Johnston was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1913 and educated at the University of Toronto. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the RCAF and served as a reconnaissance pilot inAfrica. After the war he returned to U of T for graduate studies and then taught at Mount Allison University for two years before joining the faculty of Carleton University where he taught until his retirement in 1979. During that time he became recognized internally as a translator of the Icelandic sagas.
Table of Contents
Saga of the Faroe Islanders -- Saga of the Greenlanders.