What have you recently finished reading?
The last thing I finished reading waaaaas… Neil Oliver’s Vikings, which was interesting and kind of contradicted what I was reading in Francis Pryor’s books! More research necessary to see if the two views can be reconciled? Anyway, a pretty easy read for non-fiction, with a bit of a tendency to veer off into fictional imaginings of individual Vikings.
What are you currently reading?
Most of the books I was reading last week, because I suck. But also Britain After Rome, by Robin Fleming (also contradicts Pryor) and a reread of Every Heart A Doorway.
What are you planning to read next?
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, obviously!
Have you read any of the Sagas?
Yeah — during my degree, of course, and some for fun too. Some even at least partially in the original Old Icelandic!
Cool! Is the Old Icelandic a big stretch from Anglo-Saxon? I was wondering if the Sagas gave you any sense of which of the competing theories seems more likely to be correct?
It’s definitely a stretch, but experience with one helps with the other. They’re related, though not so closely you don’t need a glossary. And no, the sagas cover Scandinavia and show how the Vikings travelled, but I don’t recall any that really deal with the Viking incursions into Britain.
Egil’s Saga spends time in Britain; one of the few I’ve read. Several sagas are still sat on Mount TBR, being sorely neglected. They’re all translated, though.
That’s one I didn’t get round to! I should’ve said “the sagas I’ve read”; I know there’s some I definitely haven’t looked at.
The combined Sagas and Tales totals to a pretty large body of work; I didn’t expect you’d read all of them! It just so happens that one of the few I’ve read involves some time spent in Britain – I have no idea if any of the others I haven’t read do.
Britain After Rome sounds fascinating, and I’ve been thinking of trying the Every Heart a Doorway novellas as well.
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The novellas are great, I love them a lot. The first one is my favourite, though.