"A beautifully crafted narrative about a turn of the nineteenth-century poet whose life on, and of, the land challenged him to hold to his roots in Iceland while yet wrestling with the vicissitudes of transplantation to the emerging cultures of North America. This book is as much about the transformative particulars of place as it is about the man whose extraordinary poetic record of them reveals a soul torn by alternating turmoil and peace." - John H. Wadland, Professor Emeritus, Department of Canadian Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.

About the author: Vioar Hreinsson, an independent literary scholar, grew up on a farm in the North of Iceland. A lecturer on various aspects of Icelandic literary and cultural history at universities in Iceland, Denmark, and Canada, he also acted as general editor of the acclaimed five-volume series The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, published in 1997. His two-volume biography of Icelandic-Canadian literary giant Stephan G. Stephansson was published in Icelandic in 2002 and 2003. Volume I was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2002 and the completed work received the 2003 Award for Excellence in Scholarly Writing. An outspoken environmental and political activist and former Director of the Reykjavik Academy, Vioar Hreinsson has since written two biographies and worked on developing new and critical approaches to Icelandic literary and cultural history.

About Stephan G. Stephansson: Comparative valuation may be premature and unprofitable, but it is quite possible that he will someday be acknowledged as the earliest poet of the first rank, writing in any language, to emerge in the national life of Canada." Watson Kirconnell President, Acadia University "Canada's Leading Poet Stephan G. Stephansson" University of Toronto Quarterly Vol. V, No. 2, January 1936

Reviews: "Yet the man who emerges from this portrait is complicated and real. Hreinsson's Stephansson is proud, questioning and sagacious an Icelandic heir to Emerson, Whitman or Thoreau. ... A deferential, unsentimental portrait that ably captures Stephansson's life and legacy." Kirkus Reviews www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/vidar-hreinsson/wakeful-nights/

Icelandic literary culture was one of the richest and most important in the medieval world. Texts that were written in Iceland during this period include Njal's Saga, Egil's Saga, The Vinland Sagas, as well as the Comic Sagas and Tales collected in this volume. Comic Sagas and Tales brings together the finest comic stories from medieval Iceland. With feuding families and moments of grotesque violence, the sagas see such classic mythological figures as murdered fathers, disguised beggars, corrupt chieftains and avenging sons do battle with axes, words and cunning. The tales, meanwhile, follow heroes and comical fools through dreams, voyages and religious conversions in Iceland and beyond. Shaped by Iceland's oral culture and their conversion to Christianity, these stories are works of ironic humour and stylistic innovation. In the introduction to these new translations, Vidar Hreinsson examines how the stories satirised old-style sagas while exploiting their classic themes of quests and revenge. This edition also includes a map, glossary, index of characters, suggested further reading and notes.

Vioar Hreinsson's masterful biography of Icelandic-Canadian poet Stephan G. Stephansson (1853-1927) traces his remarkable life from Iceland to the United States to Canada. Among the greatest poets in Icelandic history, he produced five volumes of poems in his lifetime. A progressive farmer, philosopher, and avid pacifist, he was an outspoken controversial leader in the Icelandic immigrant community in North Dakota and, later, Alberta, where he produced the bulk of his life's work.