"[The most influential writer of the Middle Ages] wasn't Chaucer, or Malory or the writers of Arthurian romances but...a politically powerful Icelander called Snorri Sturluson..."Song of the Vikings" puts the works and the man together...His life deserves to be better known."--Thomas Shippey, "The Wall Street Journal""An important undertaking...The first English-language book published on Snorri in 30 years...Readers will feel affected by the loss of this powerful and complicated man."--"Kirkus Reviews""For readers who've long sensed that older winds blow through the works of their beloved Tolkien, "Song of the Vikings" is a fitting refresher on Norse mythology. Without stripping these dark tales of their magic, Nancy Marie Brown shows how mere humans shape myths that resonate for centuries--and how one brilliant scoundrel became, for all time, the 'Homer of the North.' "--Jeff Sypeck, author of "Becoming Charlemagne""In medieval Iceland, one of the most remote corners of the known Earth, a very un-Viking Norseman named Snorri Storluson crafted the heroic mythology on which rests everything from Wagner's Ring cycle and the Brothers Grimm to Tolkein (who considered Snorri's work more central to English literature than Shakespeare's) and even the evils of Nazism. In "Song of the Vikings," Nancy Marie Brown brings to vivid life this age of poetic Viking skalds, of blood feuds and vengeance raids, of royal intrigue and fierce independence, when the barren, beautiful landscape of the North was haunted by trolls, giants and dragons - all of which Snorri, the most important writer the world ever forgot, captured for eternity."--Scott Weidensaul, author of "The First Frontier""With wry wit and graceful prose Nancy Marie Brown takes us back to medieval Iceland and introduces us to perhaps the greatest storyteller of the period, Snorri Sturluson. Her depth of knowledge of the era, the rugged landscape, the Vikings, and their lifestyle is impressive." - Pat Ship

Nancy Marie Brown is the author of highly praised books of nonfiction, including The Abacus and the Cross and The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. She has studied Icelandic literature and culture since 1978. Formerly the editor of the award-winning magazine Research/Penn State, Brown lives in Vermont, where she keeps four Icelandic horses and an Icelandic sheepdog. She blogs at nancymariebrown.blogspot.com.

Introduction: The Wizard of the North Odin's Eye The Uncrowned King of Iceland On the Quay at Bergen Norse Gods and Giants Independent People The Ring Acknowledgments Notes Further Reading