Unique among the Icelandic sagas part-history part-fiction the Saga of the Jómsvikings tells
of a legendary band of vikings originally Danish who established an island fortress of the
Baltic coast and launched and ultimately lost their heroic attack on the pagan ruler of Norway
in the late tenth century. The saga's account of their stringent warrior code fatalistic
adherence to their own reckless vows and declarations of extreme courage as they face execution
articulates a remarkable account of what it meant to be a viking. This translation presents the
longest and earliest text of the saga never before published in English with a full literary
and historical introduction to this remarkable work.
