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b'We begin the new year with a saga that has been compared to the works of Shakespeare himself. Not necessarily in a favorable light, but definitely compared. As we hinted in our 10th Anniversary episode, we\'re jumping into the sagas of Eyjafj\\xf6r\\xf0ur in Northern Iceland (including Svarfd\\xe6la saga, Valla-Lj\\xf3ts saga, V\\xedga-Gl\\xfams saga, and Lj\\xf3svetninga saga).\\n\\nUp first is Svarfd\\xe6la saga, a surprisingly compelling (but sometimes frustrating) narrative that J\\xf3nas Kristj\\xe1nsson described as "one of the greatest oddities among the sagas of Icelanders" in his book Eddas and Sagas (244). And if that doesn\'t sell you on it, then how about this fine quote from Fredrik Heinemann from his paper "Svarfd\\xe6la saga: The Norwegians and the Swedes," the saga efficiently characterizes minor and major figures with the deft brush strokes of saga writing at its best" (237). We think you\'ll agree after listening to this episode covering the first six chapters of the saga.\\nIn this episode, we meet two brothers called Thorolf and Thorstein. One is a typical saga golden boy, the other is a kolb\\xedtr. But if you know your saga tropes, you know that big things are in store for that lazy coal-eater.\\nAlong the way, we talk about other brothers we\'ve met in the sagas, the sudden appearance of a castle in the narrative, and one of the more unbelievable candidates for Best Bloodshed we\'ve seen in a while. We also get back to the listener runesack to address a question from our Discord page about Viking weddings.\\nThere\'s all that and more in our first episode of 2024. It\'s good to be back!\\nIf you\'re interested in doing your own word usage research, check out The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose.\\nJoin in on the conversation here:\\nSagathingpodcast on Facebook\\nSagathingpodcast on Instagram\\nSagathingpodcast on Bluesky\\nSagathingpod on X (Twitter)\\nSaga Thing\\u2019s unofficial official Discord\\nMusic Credits\\nIntro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeodLicensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/\\nOutro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeodLicensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'