Greens Books

Kirkpatrick Sale has written a vision of the future that should be drilled into politicians' subconscious and taught in grade school. Sustainable, sane, ecologically minded bioregions. I was particularly struck by his definition of "querencia"--"a deep, quiet sense of inner well-being that comes from knowing a particular place of the earth, its diurnal and seasonal patterns, its fruits and scents, its history and its part in your history . . . where, whenever you return to it, your soul releases an inner sigh of recognition and relaxation." Sale is a wonderful writer, balanced in perspective, and able to distill complex problems into a form that the average mind can comprehend, despite all the arguments pro and con. Read it.

If you've come to suspect that most of the world's problems--pollution, warfare, crime, transnational piracy, mental illness--are inherent in a civilization in decline, you might like this vision of small, face-to-face communities living in respectful accord with the natural world.

The author makes the same point as ecopsychologists and the great whale researcher Roger Payne: built by millions of years of evolution to live in close contact with the wilderness, we who have penned ourselves behind fences and buildings carry with us a ten-thousand-year-old wound....a self-inflicted wound of aching alienation (hence our tendency to alienate--to marginalize--other people).

Read this book, then tour the decidedly un-zoolike San Diego Wild Animal Park while seeing how you feel there. For some this might offer a glimpse of a sanity so centering that you can feel it throughout your body.

This is a textbook for a class. The book was in excellent shape and was delivered quickly.

This book is an in-depth study of the ultimate religious ritual. For the student of history or anthropology--or for someone addicted to the bizarre--I can think of no better text.

I am a graduate student in theology and have been doing research for a few years now in early medieval church history, concentrating on corruption and controversy. While recently studying the filioque controversy, I had come across many many bits and pieces about this, but had never found an outline in one place until I came across this book. Kelly writes in a clear and easily understood manner. This text should be on the shelf of any pastor, historian, or theologian.

When we lost JND Kelly a couple of years ago (he was in his 90's), the theological world, both Catholic and Protestant, lost a giant. "Ancient Christian Creeds" demonstrates a part of Kelly's genius. It is an invaluable resource for the graduate level or seminary student in theology (and was, in fact, one of the texts used in my Historical Theology class when I was a seminarian). Kelly describes the evolution of creedal thoughts and ideas, as well as the development of the various formulae themselves, beginning with the Old Roman Baptismal statement through the Creed of Nicea/Constantinople.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I met Lorna at a recent conference (April 2004) in Tucson and saw some of her works. We talked briefly and it occured to me that this woman is truly in tune with "Godness." I was inspired to go out to her website and begin reading her books. I started with this one.

She takes us beyond the metaphor of religious myth and to the realities of where science and spirituality truly need to meet.

Her work is not to be taken lightly. Her work is of grave, serious, and immediate import. I believe that every person who influences decisions affecting our mother Gaia need to seriously review what Lorna has to say and make decisions accordingly.

I haven't yet found what she has to say about the serious moral problem of competitive greed and the destruction, and I look forward to what she has to say about this too.

Without a doubt, Lorna Green is one of the prophets of the 21st century. I believe that her vision of God, humanaity, and all earthly phenomenon living in unison and connected by consciousness is an invigorating and ground-breaking concept, worthy of much praise. In this day and age, over-complex and and arbitrary explanations, systems and philosophies steal the show for out-lining reality.

"Earth Age" has to be one of the best books around for sharing truth, knowledge, wisdom and love, all of which are essential to understand because they lie at the very foundation of life. Nature and consciousness are linked eternally, and as a scholar of the sciences as well as a brave woman, if there is a way to prove our eternal connection to consciousness, I have complete faith in Lorna Green's ability to do so.

On a personal note, Lorna is one of my best friends because of her loving kindness and most intriguing beliefs. I would advise anyone I meet to read "Earth Age," especially young people like myself (I am age 21), and also those who have had difficulty trying to make sense of overly complex, scientific explanations. Lorna's book will clarify so many things for those who search for truth with unsatisfying results.

Her book, "Earth Age," can be a step toward illumination. If enough people read this book it could quite literally save us from a terrible earthly tragedy that would be our own fault. We have the power to design new strategies for living, and the first step, I believe, is to read "Earth Age" by Lorna Green.

(Reviewer's age: 21)

I got this book from the library for my 2 year old and he loves it! The illustrations are wonderfully colorful and eyecatching, instantly holding his attention. He wants me to read it over and over. I know this book is meant for kids a little older but the message is great for even the littlest children! Exellent!

A child makes friends with the earth and its creatures. When the earth gets sad because of trash and pollution, the child cleans up the garbage and makes the earth happy. The beautiful color illustrations captivated my daughter before she was one. Now it is still a favorite of hers, and she knows the words by heart and makes observations about the story.

Sydne, I've got to tell you that I'm having a "vacation" with your book. I was up until 3 a.m. because I couldn't put it down, am over 1/2 the way through it, and can't wait to get back in. What a movie this would make. This should definitely be on the top 10... can't wait to see what else happens. By the way you're writing I'm sure I've got some surprises in store and I'll be up AGAIN all night. Very nicely done, entertaining, and VERY refreshing. It's one of those books that you hate to turn the last page on.

Graphically reallistic word pictures of art and culture in a delightful story. I felt like I had made friends with the characters in the book and hated to see it come to an end. Has this author written any more books? I'd love to read them.

In this new book John Bellamy Foster has assembled a great deal of evidence (in a dozen chapters written and published over the last decade) that the earth's ecology is incompatible with capitalism. But is there an alternative?

Foster says: "A shift toward a broad movement for ecological conversion and the creation of a sustainable society also means that that the partnership between the state and the capitalist class, which has always formed the most important linchpin of the capitalist system, must be loosened by degrees, as part of an overall social and environmental revolution. This partnership must be replaced, in the process of a radical transformation of the society, by a new partnership between democratized state power and popular power" (p. 132).

Reading just that far, one might conclude that such a loosening by degrees could be achieved within the two-party system in the United States or in other regimes where voters choose between conservatives and liberals. Certainly many environmental progressives (if that's not a contradiction) have opted to work within the existing political duopoly.

But the Ralph Nader campaigns of 1996 and 2000, and the concomitant rise of the Green Party, presage a different direction. It is one, however, which will require both a deeper and more ecological understanding of the incompatibility of ecosystems with a profit system, and a more radical politics than the market-regulation offered by the Green Party platform and Citizen Nader's narrower planks.

Foster goes on to say: "Such a shift requires revolutionary change that must be more than simply a rejection of capitalist methods of accumulation and their effects on people and the environment. Socialism -- as a positive, not just a negative, alternative to capitalism -- remains essential to the conversion process, because its broad commitment to worldwide egalitarian change reflects an understanding of 'how the needs of the various communities can be fit together in a way that leaves nobody out, and that also satisfies global environmental requirements'."

In his major opus, Marx's Ecology (2000), Foster showed Marx's development of an ecological perspective that drew from the latest natural science discoveries. These included the discovery of the micro metabolic cycles by the cell theorists, Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden, which Marx linked with the discovery of the grand metabolic cycles of earth and sky by the agrochemist Justus von Liebig. To this one would have to add the influence on Marx of Karl Fraas, an important figure in forest ecology neglected by Foster and most scholars in this country.

Marx's resulting awareness of the ecological care necessary to plan a sustainable socialism was ignored, however, by the Soviet Union under Stalin, as Foster showed, despite profound contributions by scientists like Vladimir I. Vernadsky, whose 1924 book, The Biosphere (1998), has become an internationally-recognized classic of ecology. Critical radicals today, and particularly those in the ecosocialism paradigm, reject the lack of democracy and bureaucratic centralism of such regimes, which
played a key role in the adoption of policies that degraded the environment.

Nevertheless, Foster argues, "Within a socialist framework, the sources of the largest-scale and most severe environmental destruction could be dealt with head-on, in a way that has already shown itself to be beyond the capacity -- not to say against the interests -- of capital."

Foster acknowledges a range of collaborators and rivals in the crafting of his new book. Most important is Paul Burkett, whose
Marx and Nature: A Red and Green Perspective (1999) finally clarified the distinction between the human use of nature and the exploitation of the exchange value of commodities. Foster also cites James O'Connor, author of Natural Causes (1998)as showing that "While there are many variations in economic growth theory, all presuppose that capitalism cannot stand still...that it must 'accumulate or die,' in Marx's words" (p. 80).

Although Foster's new book appeared at the same time as Joel Kovel's The Enemy of Nature (2002), which has the same basic theme, the books are quite different. Foster's collection of articles is intended to deal with specifics, it is "an attempt to intervene directly in contemporary political-economic debates on capitalism and the environment..." (p. 7). Kovel's book is actually an intervention into eco-politics and provides a sustained exploration of Ecosocialism as compared and contrasted with Deep Ecology, Bioregionalism, Anarchist Social Ecology, and particularly with Populism and variants of small-business capitalism.

If Foster's new book is focused on what needs to be undone in an ecological and economic conversion, Kovel's is much more a manual of what needs to be done to build the alternative to capitalism. The books actually complement each other, and both are essential tools for the ecological activist and the open-minded citizen.

John Bellamy Foster's "Ecology Against Capitalism" is a collection of essays that addresses some of the various aspects of capitalism's crisis of accumulation and the environment. Importantly, the author compares and contrasts the failures of the ecological economics model with the more promising ecosocialist paradigm, arguing that the latter is humanity's best chance to create a stable, healthy and humane world.

I haven't read any other books by Foster, but it is hard to imagine a better effort. This powerful little book is written with passion, clarity and purpose. Foster seems to pack more meaning in 170 pages than others who use twice the space. Consequently one can imagine the book serving as an excellent supplemental textbook for students who may be interested in rapidly developing their critical thinking skills.

Many of the articles discuss how the growth of capitalism is leading to environmental collapse. Foster shows that assigning market values to nature and introducting relatively less harmful technologies will not end the destruction. Rather, these so-called Green Economics solutions will merely lead to a "more efficient exploitation of the environment" (pg. 58) by the capital markets.

Foster strongly believes that a moral element is at play. The "higher immorality" of the bourgeoise class is implicit in its accumulation of material goods and profits at the expense of the poor and the environment; but it is also sometimes explicitly stated, such as in Lawrence Summers' infamous World Bank memo where a policy of exporting pollution to poor countries was rationalized because the economies are less developed there.

In my opinion, one of the best passages on the issue of morality concerned Foster's devastating critique of Malthus, who was one of the original apologists for the privileged class. Foster brilliantly turns the cult of Malthusianism on its head by arguing that the environmental crisis is a result of overconsumption by the rich, not the poor. Foster points out that neo-Malthusianism remains influential within neoliberal thought and argues forcefully that it must end if we are to ever stop deluding ourselves and get to work on real solutions to the crisis.

Foster's personal experiences with the timber industry conflicts in the Pacific Northwest are related in the book's lengthiest essay. The author discusses the limits of achieveing environmental sustainability without class struggle and the support of labor. Interestingly, Foster demonstrates the practical value of ecosocialist theory by articulating a workable solution that went beyond the rhetoric of "jobs versus logs". Perhaps not surpisingly, the author tells us that the promising proposal was quashed by a Bush Sr. administration official in favor of a pro-industry solution.

Ultimately, Foster shows that an ecosocialist society that values democracy, community and nature can indeed create "a positive, not just a negative, alternative to capitalism" (pg. 132). I urge you to read this outstanding book.

Very nice for practical information. I hope to build a edible forest soon. I will see the results in some years.

The more I use this book the more I realize how much is in here. There's not a time that I turn to the book for a specific piece of information and don't end up reading into other aspects that relate to the question at hand. The authors have chased down most any question to their logical, and integrated, extents. It's quite astounding that this much necessary and applicable information exists now under one cover. An essential reference for ecological land use. Many thanks to people dedicated enough to take the time and effort to share this much insight and information with the world at large. I am sure it will prove to be a crucial resource for survival many decades into the future.

This book is incredible and could very well change your life!

Unlike other works on permaculture and ecological agriculture, which discuss simple principles derived from ecology, Jakce dives into the real workings of forest ecology and humanity's role (and potential role) in this ecology.

While technically impressive, the real merit of this book is the quality of writing. It reads like a novel while conveying complex ecological ideas and their practical application.

It truly offers hope for a beautiful and delicious post-petroleum food production system.

Check it out now!
And then get gardening like the forest!!

This book adds depth to the existing research in agro-ecology. It provides new information and examples specific to temperate, especially warmer-temperate climates. It also highlights applications of this information in the first section: "Vision." The authors have put together a massive work that will certainly serve my reference for years to come. This work is primarily an information-packed textbook that includes much in the way of strategies and principles which apply to all biological development of landscapes. In this regard the book can serve as a text in any regenerative landscape studies.

For me, the most valuable aspects of this book are:
-the articulation of integrated design principles (so many good one's under one cover)
-the masterful graphics (who did them all?)
-the development and refining of new language for thinking about agro-ecosystems. E.g. they've taken out the word "invasive" and use the word "opportunist" instead; advancing our approach in this perennial challenge and contextualizing it in a more proper problem-solving/use-based approach, as opposed to the useless conservationist/alarmist approach that can't find the leverage.
-the case studies, although I wish there were more.
-The "top 100" plant list for temperate climates = awesome resource.
-the depth of research (which is fairly mind-blowing) including aspects such as cross sectional mapping of root systems, nutrient flows in agro-ecosystems, and much much more.

It is obvious why this book has taken many years to produce.
I am left with several confusions/questions. One is the name: "Forest" gardening. The authors show the differences between forest and woodland systems (as in % canopy cover) and are clearly explaining strategies for WOODLAND gardening with some light coming in through a partially open canopy. "Edible Woodland Gardening" would make more sense and the term Forest is a bit misleading. (This is not a book about mushroom cultivation, or understory crops alone). Maybe it's simply that woodland is a fairly unused term in the States.
Another frustration is in the case studies/examples. The case studies are few and examples of strategy applications are brief. They are also only from fairly warm-temperate sites: southern England, North Carolina, etc. I did not see any from New England, for instance, where both authors reside. Of course there are not an abundance of sites to use as examples, but there are many more than are shown. I wonder why the Bullock Bros. woodland garden in a temperate region of the US was not highlighted or referenced, for instance. I am hoping that Volume II has more of these case studies.

Overall an incredible work of research with an applied focus and a super useful source of ecological design principles that are crucial for any student in any field connected with biological landscape development.

Ben Falk
Whole Systems Design, LLC
Moretown, Vermont, USA

The story of Egil son of Grim the Bald (Skalla-Grim) is one of the prose works from medieval Iceland known as sagas, and of the major sagas it probably most closely approximates the image popularly associated with the word. The story is multi-generational. It features Viking adventures, and its primary hero is a devotee of Odin, god of kings, warriors, and poets. The hero's grandfather is rumored to be a werewolf, and the hero, himself both warrior and skald (poet), has thrilling encounters with berserkers and outlaws, and engages in a feud with a (perfectly historical) king, Eric Bloodaxe, whose wife (later the Queen-Mother) is a sorceress.

Anyone expecting the hero to be a handsome Norseman from a storybook is going to be in for a shock, though. There are several such, including Egil's beloved brother, but, like some of his relatives, Egil himself is actually outstandingly ugly. And his behavior varies from the admirable to the repellent -- even in Viking-Age eyes. (An explanation for some of this has been proposed recently, pointing out stray details in the verse and prose that suggest a now-recognizable medical disorder, possibly genetic.)

The work-a-day life of medieval Iceland, with law-suits arising from it, central to the majority of the Sagas of the Icelanders, shows up only at intervals, as the action ranges from the Arctic Circle to England, and the central North Atlantic to the eastern Baltic.

"Egil's Saga" is thought by some to be the earliest of the "Sagas of the Icelanders," and is in some ways a good, although atypical, introduction to them. Egil's circle of friends, enemies (especially Queen-Mother Gunnhild), and family members (most notably his equally formidable, if much more attractive, daughter, Thorgerd) show up in other sagas, especially "Njal's Saga' and "Laxdaela Saga."

Egil was counted as an ancestor by Snorri Sturluson, the author of the "Prose Edda," an explanation of myths, heroic legends and traditional verse forms, and of the "Heimskringla," a massive history of Norway through biographies of its kings. Snorri is one of the few Icelandic authors of the period whose name and attributed works both survive. The temptation to assign this saga to him is understandable, and has been championed by distinguished scholars. It doesn't seem to have been shared by the medieval scribes who transmitted the text.

The theory was accepted by the first English translator of "Egil's Saga," W.C. Green, whose version of 1893 was (inevitably) based on an obsolete edition of the text. He rendered it into a rather stuffy, and prudish, modern English, despite the more elegant examples of Dasent's "Story of Burnt Njal" and the whole library of translations by William Morris and Eirikur Magnusson. The Reverend Green also could not resist moralizing over "good" and "bad" elements in Egil's character, in a way that would at best have amused the old pagan. (And misses the mark even more, if one accepts that the short-tempered Egil was in pain from Paget's Disease long before other, debilitating, symptoms became marked in later years.)

It has the advantage of being out of copyright, though and, in addition to the Kessinger reprinting, various versions are available on-line, including at least one which claims to have been revised to bring it closer to the Icelandic original, not least by restoring some passages omitted to avoid giving offense to Victorian sensibilities. (In Reverend Green's world, men don't need to "go outside" after drinking all night for any *specified* reason...)

Green's translation has some annoying minor features, too. He followed the dubious practice of tacking on vowels to names, to make sure his readers could tell the boys from the girls. So Gunnhildr -- everyone else's Queen Gunnhild -- shows up as Gunnhilda, and the lady Hildirid (Old Icelandic Hildiridhr) becomes Hildirida. Perhaps Reverend Green should have remembered that Gunnhild was reported to be a sorceress, and known to be spiteful (a prominent factor in this saga, and several others, including the great "Njal's Saga") before meddling with her name!

As for the poems, which are one of the glories of the work; let us just say that Green's English versions are lacking in any obvious merits, technical or literary, but could have been much worse; at least, they aren't too bad to read.

Anyone reading Green's translation, even an "improved" version, should remember that it is NOT a perfect introduction to the sagas in general, or to this one in particular. And the saga has been fortunate in its twentieth-century translators; there have been five later renderings in English

Green's version was followed, over a generation later, in 1930, by a careful, elaborately annotated, translation by E.R. Eddison, whose fantasy novel "The Worm Ouroboros" and historical novel of Viking-Age Sweden, "Styrbiorn the Strong," both had been published in the 1920s. He greatly admired Dasent and Morris and Magnusson, whose influence is evident on every page; but he rather outdid them.

Eddison's version, originally issued by Cambridge University Press, is not for everyone, but has many merits. Alas, that original printing is hard to find, and expensive, and the reprinting by Greenwood in 1968, and is not always available either. A new, reasonably priced, reprinting is much to be desired. Given the prices usually asked for it, my advice to the curious would be to try a library. (I count myself fortunate to have acquired a copy in the 1970s.)

Now, as far as the quality of the translation goes, views are mixed. It helped that Eddison was able to use an advance text of what was then the latest scholarly edition, published in 1933, which was still the standard for the next three translations.

However, Eddison's attempt to approximate the sounds and syntax of Old Norse with an English style using as many related words as possible, instead of more familiar equivalents derived from French or Latin, takes getting used to; and some people never do. Eddison is, of course, rather scornful of Green, both for his Victorian English and his prudishness. But he is rather more programmatic than the other Victorians he took as models.

Now the sagas themselves are notable for an unadorned prose, so the very concept of Eddison's translation was criticized by scholars who reviewed it at the time -- although they added that they found that the result was better than Eddison's theory.

They did not complain that Eddison's versions of Egil's major poems (which are extremely impressive) are carefully annotated because they badly need the explanations. The language of the skalds (the high-class poets of the medieval Scandinavian world) was esoteric and convoluted in its own time, Egil was renowned for impressively "hard" poems, and Eddison's choice of language and style is unquestionably appropriate for the verse, if not the prose.

It took thirty years for the next version to appear, a much more colloquial translation by Gwyn Jones, for the American-Scandinavian Foundation, was published in 1960, and reprinted in 1970. Jones' version is less "full-bodied" than Eddison's, but still an impressive rendering of the saga's lean prose. (Although I can't agree with Christine Fell's view that his was "the first readable English version.") Jones' treatment of Egil's poems is lucid, but hardly even attempts to emulate Eddison's feat of producing verse in something like the original meters. It too, unfortunately, is out of print, but, unlike Eddison's translation, Jones' is often available, at comparatively reasonable prices. It too could do with a reprinting!

This leaves three more recent versions. The translation, as "Egils' Saga," by Christine Fell, with the poems translated by John Lucas (a sensible division of labor), was published in the old Everyman's Library in 1975. It was included in Everyman Paperbacks in 1985, with some revisions, and reprinted in 1993 with additional bibliography, but seems to be out of print. It may be picked up in the current Everyman Paperback Classics series. I certainly hope so, since it is very readable, although I at first found the prose a little flat after long familiarity with Eddison. The notes and indexes are the closest approximation to Eddison's in a translation, and the scholarship is obviously much more up-to-date than 1930.

(For those who are truly serious students, the Viking Society for Northern Research has announced a new (2003) edition of the Icelandic text, as "Egils Saga," edited by Bjarni Einarsson, with annotations in English, available through Cornell University Press [not seen]. This should supersede the commentary in any existing English translation.)

The Fell / Lucas translation was followed immediately by a Penguin Classics version by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards (1976), which is quite enjoyable. The Glossary of Proper Names is a fairly good index of the characters, and the maps are usable. Footnotes provide translations of some place-names, and a few other details, but the legal issues at stake in various parts of the saga, and the major historical problems whenever Egil brushes up with documented events, cry out for annotation.

The five-volume translation series of "The Complete Saga of the Icelanders," published in 1997, includes Bernard Scudder's version of "Egil's Saga." His translation takes the lead place in a recent (2000) Penguin Classics volume, "The Sagas of the Icelanders," a massive trade paperback based on "The Complete Sagas." It is there one of ten sagas, and seven shorter tales.

It was also announced as a separate volume in the Penguin Classics for Spring 2005 (as "Egil's Saga," of course), which I have not yet examined. Scudder's version is similar in style to the Jones, Fell, and Palsson and Edwards translation, and his rendering of the poems aims at the meaning more than the style, following Jones and Palsson and Edwards, rather than Eddison or (the less extreme) Lucas in trying to give an impression of the artistry of the verse.

In practical terms, for most people this comes down to Green, in one an on-line or other digital version, and a translation from Penguin; probably Scudder's, if it is the only one Penguin keeps in their catalogue.

Reprintings of Eddison, Jones, and Fell would all be welcome; although a version of Green is not without interest, too.

I would NOT advise relying on any version of Green's translation exclusively, but it might be consulted if convenient -- and its electronic forms may be searchable, which can be handy if you have fast connection. Various publishers have offered e-book pdf versions of it, which are even handier.

For those interested in a modern fiction writer's view of Egil and his associates, the late Poul Anderson's "Mother of Kings" is an interesting quasi-historical novel in which Egil is a major character. (I call it quasi-historical because, as Anderson warns, the story adopts attractive medieval legends about Gunnhild on some key points, instead of following the historical evidence; and a fantasy interpretation, although not required, is not ruled out.).

Egil's Saga, most likely written by Snorri Sturlusson, an Icelandic chieftain, scholar, writer, and storyteller, is a tale regarding his ancestor - a man called Egil Skallagrimsson. This (famously ugly) man was himself well-versed in the arts of poetry, but also had the benefit of being a fierce warrior with a rough sense of honor and something of a soft (shy?) spot for women and children. That isn't to say that some of his deeds were heinous by modern standards, as is to be expected from many noteworthy men from the ages described the saga, but in spite of that one can't help but root for Egil in his personal ventures of achieving respect, wealth, and his (in some ways striking) concept of justice.

(INTRODUCTION TO STORY - SPOILERS)

Like many of the Icelandic Sagas, the tale does not begin in Iceland but rather in Norway - King Harald Tangle-Hair is finishing up the job of uniting the counties of his country under one king and one of the king's who opposes him wants a notable man of his realm, Kveldulf, to support him in an alliance against Harald's enroachment. Kveldulf suspects that King Harald is fated to rule Norway (a prominent theme in Saga literature) and that his own king doesn't have enough luck to fill the palm of his hand (and these are basically the words right out of his mouth). As such, Kveldulf stays home and his king goes to battle and (predictably) loses. In Viking fashion, King Harald is generous to his friends (those who supported him) and brutal with his enemies (those who fought against him who are still alive or their close family) - but Kveldulf, being a man of note in the county he has conquered, is something of an oddity in that he neither supported nor fought against him (why this should be so when King Harald is, in other sagas, more inclined to view those who remained neutral as his enemies is not known to me - probably because they were written by other storytellers or maybe because some of Kveldulf's close kin did support him and it would be poor repayment to drive one of their family out of the country for no offense except not making an offense). King Harald speaks to some of Kveldulf's kin who supported him and asks that the man come see him. Kveldulf has an intuition that, in the long run, his family will receive little good from King Harald should they serve too strongly and so refuses - but promises to maintain good relations with his new king from afar. King Harald takes this in ill stride, thinking he is dealing with some very arrogant people, so Kveldulf's kin who are in his service become insistant. Finally, Kveldulf says he will send, if they are willing, one of his sons. The younger of these, Skallagrim, says he doesn't have much interest in serving the king and suspects he will do badly in a royal court anyway. The older son, Thorolf, is not at home, but Kveldulf assures his kin he'll ask him once he returns from raiding. His kinsmen return to the king and soften things up to make it sound more attractive: Kveldulf will send one of his sons but the more suitable one is not home yet. King Harald accepts that with grace and so forgets about the matter for awhile. Once Thorolf has come home, he is more than willing to join King Harald - after all, the king's men live in greater luxury and honor than anyone else in Norway - and finds that serving the new king is a good position. He thinks little of his father's warning that King Harald will bring their family bad fortune and so goes to see the king. King Harald thinks he has a promising look and so grants him a position among his retinue. They fight in battle together (during which Thorolf makes some friends and reacquaints himself with his kinsmen already serving Harald) and Thorolf is found to be exceptionally brave and strong. When one of his closest companions perish, Thorolf is charged (by his deceased friend) to care for his wife (implying marriage) and to take over the rule of his lands, property, and duties. After receiving the king's blessing, Thorolf does so and thus becomes very rich and famous. Among the duties assigned to him is the collection of taxes (from Lapps) and in this he excels (for they both respect and fear him). For a long time Thorolf enjoys this sort of good fortune, but sadly slander (lies) are thrown about by men who mean him evil (because he received their kinsmen's property ahead of them) and King Harald hears it - most of these ugly rumors revolve around Thorolf wanting to kill Harald and seize the throne of Norway out from under him. This understandly leads to some conflict and misunderstandings, eventually accumulating in the king relieving Thorolf of most of his lands and duties and bequething them to the men who had told the lies about him. Thorolf takes this in stride (for he still has plenty of wealth, servants, and warriors) and goes to build in a new house in the north where he lives just as grandly as before. In the end, however, Harald's anger grows so great that he marshals an army against Thorolf and the two clash at his new household. Thorolf has many men loyal to him and so puts up a valiant fight, but is ultimately cut down by the king himself. The king notes that, in spite of the the perceived wrongs he implemented against him, Thorolf is a good warrior and that he should receive due honor (allowing the men who served him to be spared and a proper burial). Sadly, this does little to allay the grief of Kveldulf or Skallagrim. Both of them have ill feelings toward the king and contemplate revenge, but ultimately decide it would be best to just leave Norway and head for Iceland (where many worthy men who dislike or fought against King Harald have gone for safety). After some trouble with the king's men who assault them, Kveldulf and Skallagrim make good of their escape. Ultimately, however, Kveldulf dies and is laid to rest at sea. His coffin miraculously floats all the way to Iceland - in keeping with his father's last words, Skallagrim builds his household near where his father's coffin came to shore. It is here he has two children - an elder, named Thorolf after his deceased brother, and a younger, named Egil (the main protagonist and namesake of the story - hence, Egil's Saga). The rest of the story (which I will no longer relate) pretty much follows Egil's life story (from childhood till death) throughout a hundred or so pages of aweseome classical drama written in masterful prose written by a skilled (and probably famous, if it was indeed written as most historians suspect, by Snorri) storyteller.

(END SPOILERS)

I've read a couple of the sagas (as the title says, eleven) and this one's the first of them. As such, it should be expected I feel a strong loyalty toward it. Putting that aside, however, this saga has objectively been considered one of the top three, and sometimes top two, of the genre (of about - I think - forty or so, give or take some tales which aren't really sagas but are written in a similiar style by the same class of writers) ... in short, whether your a veteran looking to expand his horrizon or a newbie to the Icelandic Sagas, this is no mean place to start. It is a thrill from beginning until end.

On a side note - I never acutally bought this version. I have the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Sagas of the Icelanders which has 8 of the Icelandic Sagas, the first of which is (predictably) Egil's Saga. Thus it is the same edition published by the same company, but you might want to consider buying the Deluxe Edition (it's on this website - just search for 'Sagas of the Icelanders') so that you can have this and 7 more (plus some tales) for just a little more than this is worth.