Jón Karl Helgason's recently published book on modern adaptations of the Icelandic Eddas; The Afterlife of the Eddas and Sagas, is among the Guardian's top 10 books about the Vikings. Other authors on the list are Jane Smiley, Neil Gaiman, Frans G. Bengtsson and Peter Madsen.
As reflected in the book title the book it is a study of how the Old Norse sagas and myths have been reinvented and adapted in comic books, plays, music and films. He examines the comic work of Jack Kirby and cartoon work of Peter Madsen; reads the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Gordon Bottomley; engages thought travelogues by Frederick Metcalfe and Poul Vad; listens to the music of Richard Wagner, Edward Elgar, and the metal band Manowar; and watches films by directors such as Roy William Neill and Richard Fleischer, outlining the presence of the Eddas and sagas in these nineteenth- and twentieth-century works; as stated on the publisher's website.
Jón Karl Helgason is a Professor at the University of Iceland's Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies. The British company Reaktion Books publishes the Echoes of Valhalla, it is, however, distributed by The University of Chicago Press in the United States.
Please click here for information on the book on the University of Chicago Press' website.
