In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known
as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval
literature, the Sagas rank with the world's
great literary treasures - as epic as Homer, as
deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly
human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the
last millennium, these stories depict with an
astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds
of the Norse men and women who first settled in
Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured
farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North
America. Sailing as far from the archetypal
heroic adventure as the long ships did from
home, the Sagas are written with psychological
intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and
explore perennial human issues like love, hate,
fate and freedom.