Popular in the 19th century for its sweeping, adventurous, romantic plot and tender love story, the Saga of Fridthjof the Bold was largely neglected in the 20th century. Now, a new and fresh translation of both versions of this Old Norse saga restores it to glory. Also included is the swashbuckling Saga of Thorstein Vikingsson, the father of the hero Fridthjof; the Tale of King Vikar, telling of Fridthjof's descendants; and plenty of notes and commentary giving the saga's historical and cultural background. These tales of adventure, war, magic, and love can still thrill the heart today, as they did centuries ago.

Fridthjof's saga, also spelt Friedhof's saga, starts with King Bele of Sogn who had two sons, Helgi and Halfdan, and a daughter named Ingeborg. Across the fjord, lived the king's friend Thorstein Vikingsson whose son Fridthjof (Frio jofr), called "the bold," was the bravest among men. Fridthjof had been raised with Ingeborg by their foster-father Hilding. Both Bele and Thorsteinn died in war whereupon Helgi and Halfdan ruled the kingdom. They were jealous of Fridthjof's excellent qualities and denied Fridthjof Ingeborg's hand. They took her to Balder's sacred enclosure where no one dared touch her. Still, Fridthjof visited Ingeborg and their love for each other continued to grow. This angered Helgi and Halfdan and Fridthjof was banished to Orkney. They also demanded tribute. While he was away they burnt down his homestead and married Ingeborg to the aged king Ring of Ringerike. When Frithjof returned with the tribute, he burnt down Balder's temple and left to live as a viking. After three years he wintered with king Ring. Fridthjof's identity became apparent and the dying king appointed Fridthjof earl and made him the care-taker of Ring's and Ingeborg's child. After Ring's death, Fridthjof and Ingeborg married and he became the king of Ringerike. He declared war on Ingeborg's brothers, killed one and made the second his vassal. Tegne'r's poem, "Fridthjof's Saga," has been printed in Sweden in many editions and in almost every possible style. It has been illustrated and it has been set to music most famously by Heinrich Hofmann but also by Bruch and Johan Wagenaar. Moreover it has been rendered into English by eighteen different translators, and has been translated into nearly all the modern European languages. 33% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charity."

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century: Literary Portraits" by Georg Brandes. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Norse men and women who sailed to Iceland brought stories with them-stories of their lives and their ancestors, passed down for centuries, going back in time to great Vikings, legendary heroes, and even the ancient gods and goddesses. A new wave of stories entered with Christianity-stories of exotic lands and beasts, of saints and holy men facing demons and monsters. A third wave of stories came to Iceland via Norway, whose king had commissioned translations of tales of chivalry-of the courtly love of gallant knights and beautiful ladies. And all of these blended together in Iceland, creating swashbuckling sagas unlike any other medieval literature. This book presents eleven sagas and six shorter texts tracing the growth of these sagas of adventure, from Norse legends of King Half and Asmund Champion's Bane, to the life of the Apostle Bartholomew, to tales of Parceval and King Arthur, to the sagas of heroes like Vilmund the Outsider and Yngvar the Far-Traveler and Samson the Fair.

"At sunrise on the first of April 1928, an ordinary young man of eighteen years left his home town, a village in the Thuringian hills of Germany, and went to Hamburg." Thus begins a departure from the ageless myth of initiation: an adventuring April fool discovers life, loss, and love, by way of the sea. The lad stumbles into the employ of Worldmate Shipping, an unusual company of sea captains who put their oars in troubled waters. Along the way the lad becomes a scullion, a murder suspect, a waiter in ships, a stowaway and a seaman. The story unfolds in the years from 1928 to 1935, in the Germany of the Nazi seizure of power and in the America (and Europe) of the Great Depression. It is a tale of ships and seaports, of smuggling, shipwreck, and daring rescues of the persecuted; and to borrow from "Tristram Shandy," a tale at the same time digressive and progressive, with excursions into German history and geography as well as into questions of life as literature, and the ways of words.