the Norse Atlantic Saga Author:Gwyn Jones The theme...is the Norsemen's search for new land, 'habitable and trespassable', westward across the North Atlantic from their homes in continental Scandinavia. It deals with their voyages of discovery, and the period of Viking expansion and decline which saw these land-hungrt, wealth-hungry, fame-hungry men establish a new and vigorous civiliz... more »ation in Iceland, a long-lasting but doomed colony in Greenland, and attempt the settlement of Vinland on the east coast of North America. It has been written at at time when significant discoveries in the Scandinavian homelands, in Greenland and Newfoundland-Labrador, together with important advances in the interpretation of saga evidence, make it possible to throw new light on the geographical, historical, and maritime problems involved. _The Norse Atlantic Saga_ is presented in two parts. The first is the author's re-telling of a story which is frequently heroic, often deeply moving, and always exciting; in Iceland of stern and rewarded endurance, in Greenland of resolution and disaster, in Vinland of hopeful venture and forced withdrawal. The second presents in translation the literary and historical documents, including the _Book of the Icelanders_, the _Book of the Settlements_ (in selection), the _Greenlanders' Saga_, and _Eirik the Red's Saga_.« less