The most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature and our most extensive source of Norse mythologyWritten in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, The Prose Edda tells ancient stories of the Norse creation epic and recounts the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. In prose interspersed with powerful verse, the Edda shows the gods' tragic realization that the future holds one final cat...

The epic Viking Age stories that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien and Wagner's Ring cycleWritten in thirteenth-century Iceland but based on ancient Norse poetry cycles, The Saga of the Volsungs combines mythology, legend and sheer human drama. It tells of the cursed treasure of the Rhine, a sword reforged and a magic ring of power, and at its heart are the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer, who acquires magical knowledge from one of Odin's Valkyries. One of the great books...

Medieval Iceland was unique amongst Western Europe, with no foreign policy, no defence forces, no king, no lords, no peasants and few battles. It should have been a utopia yet its literature is dominated by brutality and killing. The reasons for this, argues Jesse Byock, lie in the underlying structures and cultural codes of the islands' social order. 'Viking Age Iceland' is an engaging, multi-disciplinary work bringing together findings in anthropology and ethnography interwoven with hist...

In a land of ice, great warriors search for glory...When a dragon threatens the people of the north, only one man can destroy the fearsome beast. Elsewhere, a mighty leader gathers a court of champions, including a noble warrior under a terrible curse. The Earth's creation is described; tales of the gods and evil Frost Giants are related; and the dark days of Ragnarok foretold.Journey into a realm of legend, where heroes from an ancient age do battle with savage monsters, a...

Composed in medieval Iceland, Hrolf's Saga is one of the greatest of all mythic-legendary sagas, relating half-fantastical events that were said to have occurred in fifth-century Denmark. It tells of the exploits of King Hrolf and of his famous champions, including Bodvar Bjarki, the 'bear-warrior': a powerful figure whose might and bear-like nature are inspired by the same legendary heritage as Beowulf. Depicting a world of wizards, sorceresses and 'berserker' fighters - originally member...

Part of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, Beowulf is one of the classic books that influenced JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings'So the company of men led a careless life,All was well with them: until One beganTo encompass evil, an enemy from hell.Grendel they called this cruel spirit...'J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating and teaching the great epic ...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and “one of the modern masters of fantasy writing,” (Huffington Post) a dazzling, witty telling of the Norse myths."A lively, funny, and very human rendition of Thor the thunder god, his father Odin, and the dark-hearted trickster Loki (plus countless other gods and monsters)." — Petra Mayer, NPRNeil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms ...

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 a...

**Since it was first published, American Gods became an instant classic.**Now discover the mystery and majesty of AmericanGods in this beautiful reissue of the Author'sPreferred Text edition. Featuring a new preface by Neil Gaiman in honor of the novel's 20th anniversary, this commemorative volume is a true celebrationof a modern masterpiece.Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his t...

'A book with special and dangerous properties' Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of Wolf Hall'Enthralling' M.R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl With All the Gifts'An imaginative tour de force' The Times1558: Twelve children, gifted far beyond their years, are banished by their Tudor queen to the town of Rotherweird. Some say they are the golden gener...

Witness the fate of beloved heroes and notorious foes in the heart-stopping conclusion to V. E. Schwab’s New York Times bestselling Shades of Magic trilogy.*Kirkus' Best Fiction of 2017*As darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, the once precarious balance of power among the four Londons has reached its breaking point.In the wake of tragedy, Kell—once assumed to be the last surviving Antari—begins to waver under the pressure of ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the renowned author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian comes a “propulsive” (NPR) tale of science, suspense, and humor—a heist story set on the moon.“An action-packed techno-thriller of the first order.”—USA TodayJasmine Bashara never signed up to be a hero. She just wanted to get rich.Not crazy, eccentric-billionaire rich, like many of the visitors to her hometo...