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Published by B.W. Huebsch, Inc.,, New York:, 1925
Seller: Zephyr Used & Rare Books, Vancouver, WA, U.S.A.
First Edition
8vo. xv, [3], 302 pp. Embssd & decrtd red cloth, drk blue lettrng on spine (mnr shlfwr, slght rubbng), w/ d.j. drk gray colour w/ red viking ship on frnt cvr, VG/NF copy. First edition of this translation by the famed economist (1857-1929) -- considered by him to be an invaluable ethnological document of the time chronicling a society driven by the blood feud, comprising the close of the Viking Age, and the advent of the Christian faith in Scandinavia. This famous saga, probably composed in the mid-13th century (some have posited that a woman living in Western Iceland authored the work) was set between 890 and 1031 A.D., and contains some of the greatest characters and grandest scenes in Scandinavian sagas, and is second only to Njal's saga in preserved medieval manuscripts.
Published by Godiche, Copenhagen, 1775
Seller: William Reese Company - Americana, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.
[8],xxxii,318,[81]pp. plus two folding plates, printed on light blue paper. Illustrations in text. Quarto. Original drab paper boards, printed paper label. Spine split but holding, paper chipped. Minor foxing to first and last few leaves, a few gatherings loose from stitching. Most of second half of text unopened; untrimmed. Good plus. A scholarly edition of Gunnlaugi's Saga, "A love story of great sentimental charm" (EB). Written in Icelandic and Latin, the work is extensively annotated and includes a copious dictionary. The folding plates are of a meeting house and banquet hall from the period 1000 A.D., when the Sagas were actually recited. The Icelandic Sagas hold the seed for all early Norse literature and history and are one of the great sources for Western literature, influencing such works as the Arthurian legends and the operas of Wagner. The editor has contributed extensive footnotes, sometimes longer than the text itself, and the appendix includes several genealogies. BRUNET V, p.28. FISKE I:211. GRAESSE VI, p.216. EB XXIII, p.1001.