Song of the Vikings

Today I received a copy of the book Song of the Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown from Linda and Russ. Nancy and Chuck have Edda Rún one of the puppies from Linda and Russ.

Snorri Sturluson wrote Edda, Heimskringla, and  Egil's Saga and thereby saved for posterity Norse sagas and the names and events associated with them. 

Snorri included the myths and legends that he had heard about Valhalla, the Valkyries, dwarfs, dragons, elves, gods, et cetera in his writings. Much or most of what we know about Odin, Loki, Baldur, Thor, Freyr, Freyja, Sleipnir, Ragnarok, Yggdrasil, etc. we know because of Snorri. Before Snorri wrote them down saving them, those stories were passed from one generation to the next aurally as Icelanders and other Nordic peoples sat around the hearths especially on long winter nights.

I've read (in English, of course) most of the Sagas as an elderly adult. It's hard for me to imagine the influence they must have had on people who experienced them early in life. We know that authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, Ursula LeGuinn, C. S. Lewis and many, many others were profoundly influenced by the sagas Snorri wrote down.

I have suggested, strongly suggested, that people new to Icelandic Sheepdogs delve into the Icelandic sagas. They are endlessly fascinating and open up whole new worlds of thinking. Some that we used to think of as pure myth, we now know are reality based like the voyages of Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red.

Please go to Amazon.com or similar sites and treat yourselves to some of these sagas. 

Perhaps a good place to start would be with Nancy Marie Brown's Song of the Vikings.