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® ERIK THE RE» ® 


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The Saga of Erik the Red is one of the two important thirteenth-century accounts of the 
Norse explorations of Greenland and North America, along with The Saga of the 

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Greenlanders. Containing fantastic anecdotes about ghostly visitations, wise women- 

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seers, and one-legged native Unipeds, the saga is just as fascinating for what is clearly 

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authentic history. It vividly relates the conflict between Christianity and the old Norse 

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religion; the significant place of extraordinary women in Icelandic and Greenland 

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culture; the frequent incursions of the Norsemen into Ireland and Scotland, lands really 

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not at all far from the centers of Norse activity; and first contact with the native 



inhabitants of the Dawnlands of northeastern North America. Most absorbing are the 


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clear embodiments of real human personalities in this historical saga: Leif Erikson and 



his lover, the renownedly intelligent Thorgunna who boldly renounced social 

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convention; Gudrid the daughter of Thorbiorn, beautiful and of strong and influential 


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character; Thioldhild, the wife of Erik the Red, who refused to have sex with him so long 

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as he resisted Christianity; Thorbiorg, the eldritch “Little Sibyl,” who dispensed 


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prophecies to the settlers of Greenland; and Thorhall, the fey, untameable hunter, who 

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held fast to his god Thor the Red-Bearded even when it meant being severed from 


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human society. 



This translation by Arthur Middleton Reeves is taken from a weighty compilation of texts 

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related to the Norse explorations entitled The Norse Discoveries of America and 


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including the translations and editing of fellow Norse scholars North Ludlow Beamish 

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and Rasmus Bjorn Anderson. ( Expatriate) 



Read by Expatriate. Total running time: 1:26:07 

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This recording is in the public domain and may be reproduced, distributed, or modified 

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without permission. For more information or to volunteer, visit librivox.org. 

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Cover picture by I.E.C. Rasmussen . Copyright expired in U.S.,. Cover design by Annise. This 

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design is in the public domain. 

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