Reviews for People's Kingdom

The average rating for People's Kingdom based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-13 00:00:00 DK REED Your name? Magnus Magnusson. Profession? TV quiz presenter. You have two minutes on your specialist subject, the Icelandic sagas, starting� now. I have read some of Magnus Magnusson's translations of Icelandic sagas and found them likeable enough. This was an entertaining summary of some of the saga material and of its main protagonists and their biographers/creators, all set against the drama of the Icelandic landscape. I particularly enjoyed referring to the retro-styled map at the front of the book. The guide to pronunciation of Old Icelandic was also useful with all of those daunting-looking character and place names. Magnusson places heavy emphasis on the coming of Christianity to the island but much of the book comprises outlandish tales of evil-doing and revenge. The dark hearts of men are laid bare in the terrible events narrated. You certainly don�t come away from this account of blood-feuds, greed and ambition with your view of humanity enhanced. A few caveats: Magnusson is too much in thrall to wealth and nobility for my tastes. On no less than two occasions, we are told about old Vikings who had �the last laugh� by burying secrets then killing the slaves who�ve helped them so that they cannot tell the tale. I realise that the subject matter here is a violent society in another age, but Magnusson�s seeming indifference is extraordinary. Call me an old curmudgeon, but I�m struggling to find the joke in slavery and murder. To excuse the old quiz-master, we�ll have to say that he was channelling the spirit of his inner-Viking� The book itself was poorly edited. I understand that in such complex narratives containing so many difficult names, some recapitulation is required. But there were too many repetitions which an editor ought to have spotted and purged. And there was repetitious use of phrases that really should have been attended to also. Nevertheless, I�d recommend it overall as an introduction to the sagas and their provenance. Giving up on it before the end was out of the question - I started so I had to finish�

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-22 00:00:00 Yuichi Ogasawara Saga history and geography Magnus Magnusson retells the Icelandic sagas, and the stories behind them, relating it all to the stunning landscapes in which they occurred.