Vinland

by George Mackay Brown

Book Overview

This book takes the reader on a journey from Orkney, over to Norway, into Iceland and Ireland, recreating with historical accuracy the customs and landscapes of the time while bringing the age to life through a large cast of engaging characters. Through the telling of Ranald's story, Mackay Brown displays abundant knowledge about many facets of early Orkney life, of seamanship, marriage customs, beliefs and traditions and his portrayal of this age...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1904598331
• ISBN13: 9781904598336
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Birlinn
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A Different Sort of Saga

There was a time when saga novels (based on the old Norse literature, in some fashion or other) were hard to come by. I can remember combing the bookstores for them. Yes, there was E. R. Eddison's STYRBIORN THE STRONG and H. Rider Haggard's ERIC BRIGHTEYES. And, if you were lucky, you also found the little known but truly wonderful tale of Harold and William and their struggle for the throne of England in 1066: THE GOLDEN WARRIOR by Hope Muntz. But there wasn't much else besides. Eventually I stumbled on Cecelia Holland's TWO RAVENS (on a remainders table) and Jane Smiley's THE GREENLANDERS, but it was always tough going looking for novels like this. (I wrote my own saga type novel in 1996, partly in answer to what I had come to think was a dearth of interest in the saga world and its literary traditions because of this.) But lately vikings are all the rage. Cecelia Holland has given us her own three-book series about the Gaelic and Norse world, taking us to all the well-known areas of viking history including the North American coast. And Bernard Cornwell has given us a series of three, as well, dealing with the Danish invasions of England and the valiant defense mounted by King Alfred of Wessex (who would come to be called the Great by those who succeeded him). Irish travel writer Tim Severin has given us his own trilogy about a certain Thorkel (mentioned briefly in Erik the Red's Saga as an illegitimate son of Leif Eriksson) who starts out as a youngster in Greenland and eventually goes nearly everywhere and meets nearly everyone who's anyone in the viking world of his day. And then there are some older and forgotten works like Margaret Elphinstone's THE SEA ROAD, about Gudrid, Leif Eriksson's sister-in-law, and Joan Felicia Henriksen's ASTRID: A VIKING SAGA about the mother of the future King Olaf Trygvesson, one of the heroic Norwegian kings of saga legend. These can still be found if you look hard enough. But there are plenty more new ones, too. I can no longer count them all on two hands. But that's a good thing for those of us who love the Norse thing. VINLAND, by Scottish writer George MacKay Brown, is in this tradition. Written in the early nineties, I was yet unaware of it in the days when I was actively searching out saga-based fiction in every used and new bookstore I could find. But now I've gotten hold of, and read, it. It's a moving, poetic tale, written in a way that evokes the old saga literature from which it is sprung. Tracing the life of Ranald Sigmundson, an Orkney farmer, from his boyhood, when he is taken to sea by a fierce father against his will (and rebelliously finds his way to the North American coast -- Vinland in the old sagas -- on Leif Eriksson's ship) until old age and hermit-like seclusion on his Orkney farm, this is, in a very real sense, an anti-saga. Relying on the saga tone and many of its conventions, Brown's story of Ranald is not one of action, as is so often found in the original sagas, but of conte

Simple saga full of profound wisdom

I bought this book on a whim, expecting intrepid and swashbuckling escapism. What I discovered was something quite different, but no less enthralling for that and I feel that Vinland will surely leave a more lasting impression on every reader than most conventional historic adventures. George Mackay Brown has written a saga in the traditional scandinavian style. The usual characterisation and prosaic descriptions are kept to a minimum. The personae speak to us almost entirely through their deeds. The saga unfolds around the life of Ranald Sigmundson who, as a boy and young man is priviledged to have a surfeit of adventure, journeying with Leif Ericsson on his epic voyage to the New World, meeting with kings and fighting in history-changing battles. As maturity sets in, Ranald turns his back on such matters and, echoing Voltaire's "il faut cultiver notre jardin", settles down to life as a farmer. Ranald's increasingly reclusive and ascetic lifestyle is in stark contrast to the violent acts engendered by the ruthless power struggle of earls and kings around him. Like the eye of the hurricane, Ranald finds fulfillment through his lone meditations. Yet, in so doing, has Ranald chosen the coward's way out in running from worldly things, including distancing himself from his beloved family? This book will make you question your personal values, the path you have chosen through life and will make you face your own mortality. The elegiaic and poetic conclusion is deeply moving and will stay with the reader for a long time.