Author Description

The voyages of the Norsemen, or Vikings, across the North Atlantic to Iceland c. 860-70, Greenland c. 986, and the east coast of North America was a turning point in world history and one of the greatest adventures of all time. In Norse Atlantic Saga, Gwyn Jones re-tells the dramatic story of the Viking voyages in vivid, striking prose and includes translations of six classic Viking epics: "The Book os the Icelanders," "The Book of the Settlements", "The Greenlander's Saga", "Eirik the Red's Saga", "Karlsefni's Voyage to Vinland", and "The Story of Einar Sokkason". Published to great acclaim in 1964, The Norse Atlantic Saga is now available in an expanded edition, which takes into account the tremendous gains that have been made in Viking scholarship in the past 22 years: the discrediting of the Vinland Map, greatly extended knowledge of the Vikings' life in Greenland and proof that Norsemen did indeed land and establish a settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the New World. For this expanded edition, Jones has largely rewritten his account of the Viking voyages, and added numerous new maps, plates, and illustrations, as well as appendices in which Robert McGhee, Thomas H. McGovern and Brigitta Linderoth Wallace, three prominent archaeologists, discuss their recent findings. The incorporation of this latest research into Gwyn Jones's narrative account of the Viking story guarantees its continued importance to Viking scholars as well as to readers interested in tales of bravery and heroic adventure.