This was an incredible, and short, saga. The more I read the Icelandic sagas the more I love them, even compared to the legendary sagas. The Icelandic sagas feel more grounded with characters that feel more tethered to reality. The story of The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue is not fantastical or mythological — but it’s so wonderful and tragic. I also love stories about poetry, which made this saga all the better.

Unlike most Old Norse/Icelandic sagas, this short volume does not have an introduction at all. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, it’s nice to get straight into the story; but on the other, I like having context. Just a short introduction explaining who the translator is, what the Icelandic sagas are, and what the cultural context of the saga is would have been great.

Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue is such a fun character to follow. He’s cocky, clever, but not too wise. He’s the kind of person who thinks their invincible, and it’s all the more fun that he gets his way through poetry. Perhaps it’s because I’m currently reading through The Folk of the Air series, but Gunnlaug reminds me of a more clever young prince Cardan.

The poetry in this saga is also incredible. I couldn’t find much on the translator, Katrina C. Attwood (which feels very suspicious to me), but whoever they are they did an amazing job translating the poems. They made a point of keeping the poetic language in-tact (including making the poems rhyme and alliterate in an authentic way), and explained all the kennings used. I do wish there were more poems, though. There are many times when the saga says that a pork was recited, but isn’t recorded in the saga. The contest between Gunnlaug and Hrafn in front of King Olaf in chapter 9 would have been particularly interesting to see.

Something I wish we had gotten more of was Hallfred the Troublesome Poet. Why is he troublesome? What kind of poetry does he write? This isn’t a criticism of the saga in any way, I’m simply just curious.