Jesse Byock
Professor of Old Norse and Medieval Scandinavian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and professor at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Prof. Byock is head archaeologist and director of the Mosfell Archaeological Project in Iceland. He teaches Old Norse – Icelandic, Viking History and Archaeology. In Iceland he is professor at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands) affiliated with the Department of History and the Program in Viking and Medieval Icelandic Studies.
The author of Viking Age Iceland, Medieval Iceland, and Feud in the Icelandic Saga. His translations from Old Norse include The Prose Edda, The Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, Sagas and Myths of the Northmen, and Grettir´s Saga.
The author of Viking Age Iceland, Medieval Iceland, and Feud in the Icelandic Saga. His translations from Old Norse include The Prose Edda, The Saga of the Volsungs, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, Sagas and Myths of the Northmen, and Grettir´s Saga.
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Books by Jesse Byock
Combining history and anthropology, this remarkable study explores in rich detail all aspects of Viking Age life: feasting, farming and battling with the elements, the power of chieftains and the church, marriage, the role of women and kinship. It shows us how law courts, which favoured compromise over violence, often prevented disputes over land, livestock or insults from becoming ‘blood feud’. In Iceland we can see a prototype democracy in action, which thrived for 300 years until it came under the control of the King of Norway in the 1260s.
This was a unique time in history, which has long perplexed historians and archaeologists, and which provides us today with fundamental insights into sometimes forgotten aspects of western society. By interweaving his own original and innovative research with masterly interpretations of the Old Icelandic Sagas, Jesse Byock brilliantly brings it to life.
Publisher: Penguin History, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140291155
A sweeping epic of the Viking Age, Grettir’s Saga follows the life of the outlaw Grettir the Strong as he battles against sorcery, bad luck, and the vengefulness of his enemies. Feared by many, Grettir is a warrior and also a poet and a lover who is afraid of the dark. Unable to resolve the dispute that has outlawed him, he lives outside the bounds of family life and he roams the countryside, ridding Iceland and Norway of berserker warriors, trolls, and the walking dead. The saga presents a poignant story of medieval Icelandic society, combining details of everyday legal disputes with folklore and legend. Written in the fourteenth century, but based on earlier oral and written sources, Grettir’s Saga, with its scathing humour, explicit verses, and fantastic monsters, is among the most famous and widely read of Iceland’s sagas.
This new translation features extensive maps and illustrative material.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford World’s Classics
ISBN: 9780192801524
Based on Viking Age poems, the Volsung (Völsunga) Saga combines mythology, legend and sheer human drama. At its heart are the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer who acquires runic knowledge from one of Odin’s Valkyries.Yet it is also set in a very human world, incorporating oral memories of the fourth and fifth centuries, when Attila the Hun and other warriors fought on the northern frontiers of the Roman empire. An illuminating Introduction links the historical Huns, Burgundians and Goths with the events of this Icelandic saga, whose author claimed that Sigurd’s name was ‘known in all tongues north of the Greek Ocean, and so it must remain while the world endures’.
With its ill-fated Rhinegold. the sword reforged and the magic ring of power, the saga resembles the Nibelungenlied. It has been a primary source for fantasy writers such as William Morris, and for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and for Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140447385
The Prose Edda is the most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature and our most extensive source for Norse mythology. Written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, it tells ancient stories of the Norse creation epic and recounts the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. It also preserves the oral memory of heroes, warrior kings and queens. In clear prose interspersed with powerful verse, the Edda provides unparalleled insight into the gods’ tragic realization that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok, when the world will be destroyed.
These tales from the pagan era have proved to be among the most influential of all myths and legends, inspiring modern works as diverse as Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
This new translation by Jesse Byock captures the strength and subtlety of the original, while his introduction sets the tales fully in the context of Norse mythology. This edition also includes detailed notes and appendices.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140447552
In the Old Norse/Viking world, King Hrolf was a symbol of courage. Sharing rich oral traditions with the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Hrolf’s Saga recounts the tragedy of strife within Denmark’s royal hall. It tells of powerful women and the exploits of Hrolf’s famous champions – including Bodvar Bjarki, the ‘bear-warrior’, who strikingly resembles Beowulf. Combining heroic legend, myth and magic, Hrolf’s Saga has wizards, sorceresses and ‘berserker’ fighters, originally members of a cult of Odin. Most startling is the central love triangle: Hrolf’s father, a man of insatiable appetites, unknowingly abducts his daughter, who later marries the despised sorcerer King Adils of Sweden.
A powerful human drama with deep historical roots, extraordinary events and fierce battle scenes, Hrolf’s Saga ranks among the masterworks of the Middle Ages, influencing writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140435931
Papers by Jesse Byock
Quoi que périphérique pour beaucoup d’Européens, l’Islande ancienne a beaucoup à nous dire sur la vie paysanne au Moyen Âge et sur les cultures de village. Les sources médiévales y sont en effet nombreuses et variées : ce sont les sagas, les histoires, les livres de loi, les vies d’évêques et de saints, écrites en vieux noirois, la langue des fermiers libres (bændr, singulier bóndi). D’une manière originale, les sources littéraires fournissent des descriptions détaillées sur la vie séculière,..
Combining history and anthropology, this remarkable study explores in rich detail all aspects of Viking Age life: feasting, farming and battling with the elements, the power of chieftains and the church, marriage, the role of women and kinship. It shows us how law courts, which favoured compromise over violence, often prevented disputes over land, livestock or insults from becoming ‘blood feud’. In Iceland we can see a prototype democracy in action, which thrived for 300 years until it came under the control of the King of Norway in the 1260s.
This was a unique time in history, which has long perplexed historians and archaeologists, and which provides us today with fundamental insights into sometimes forgotten aspects of western society. By interweaving his own original and innovative research with masterly interpretations of the Old Icelandic Sagas, Jesse Byock brilliantly brings it to life.
Publisher: Penguin History, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140291155
A sweeping epic of the Viking Age, Grettir’s Saga follows the life of the outlaw Grettir the Strong as he battles against sorcery, bad luck, and the vengefulness of his enemies. Feared by many, Grettir is a warrior and also a poet and a lover who is afraid of the dark. Unable to resolve the dispute that has outlawed him, he lives outside the bounds of family life and he roams the countryside, ridding Iceland and Norway of berserker warriors, trolls, and the walking dead. The saga presents a poignant story of medieval Icelandic society, combining details of everyday legal disputes with folklore and legend. Written in the fourteenth century, but based on earlier oral and written sources, Grettir’s Saga, with its scathing humour, explicit verses, and fantastic monsters, is among the most famous and widely read of Iceland’s sagas.
This new translation features extensive maps and illustrative material.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford World’s Classics
ISBN: 9780192801524
Based on Viking Age poems, the Volsung (Völsunga) Saga combines mythology, legend and sheer human drama. At its heart are the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer who acquires runic knowledge from one of Odin’s Valkyries.Yet it is also set in a very human world, incorporating oral memories of the fourth and fifth centuries, when Attila the Hun and other warriors fought on the northern frontiers of the Roman empire. An illuminating Introduction links the historical Huns, Burgundians and Goths with the events of this Icelandic saga, whose author claimed that Sigurd’s name was ‘known in all tongues north of the Greek Ocean, and so it must remain while the world endures’.
With its ill-fated Rhinegold. the sword reforged and the magic ring of power, the saga resembles the Nibelungenlied. It has been a primary source for fantasy writers such as William Morris, and for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and for Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140447385
The Prose Edda is the most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature and our most extensive source for Norse mythology. Written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, it tells ancient stories of the Norse creation epic and recounts the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. It also preserves the oral memory of heroes, warrior kings and queens. In clear prose interspersed with powerful verse, the Edda provides unparalleled insight into the gods’ tragic realization that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok, when the world will be destroyed.
These tales from the pagan era have proved to be among the most influential of all myths and legends, inspiring modern works as diverse as Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
This new translation by Jesse Byock captures the strength and subtlety of the original, while his introduction sets the tales fully in the context of Norse mythology. This edition also includes detailed notes and appendices.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140447552
In the Old Norse/Viking world, King Hrolf was a symbol of courage. Sharing rich oral traditions with the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Hrolf’s Saga recounts the tragedy of strife within Denmark’s royal hall. It tells of powerful women and the exploits of Hrolf’s famous champions – including Bodvar Bjarki, the ‘bear-warrior’, who strikingly resembles Beowulf. Combining heroic legend, myth and magic, Hrolf’s Saga has wizards, sorceresses and ‘berserker’ fighters, originally members of a cult of Odin. Most startling is the central love triangle: Hrolf’s father, a man of insatiable appetites, unknowingly abducts his daughter, who later marries the despised sorcerer King Adils of Sweden.
A powerful human drama with deep historical roots, extraordinary events and fierce battle scenes, Hrolf’s Saga ranks among the masterworks of the Middle Ages, influencing writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140435931
Quoi que périphérique pour beaucoup d’Européens, l’Islande ancienne a beaucoup à nous dire sur la vie paysanne au Moyen Âge et sur les cultures de village. Les sources médiévales y sont en effet nombreuses et variées : ce sont les sagas, les histoires, les livres de loi, les vies d’évêques et de saints, écrites en vieux noirois, la langue des fermiers libres (bændr, singulier bóndi). D’une manière originale, les sources littéraires fournissent des descriptions détaillées sur la vie séculière,..