Podcast Summary: Judith Jesch, "The Saga of the Earls of Orkney" (New Books Network, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this episode of the New Books Network, host Dr. Miranda Melcher interviews Professor Judith Jesch about her new book The Saga of the Earls of Orkney (Birlinn, 2025). The discussion delves into the history, literary nature, and translation challenges of the Orkneyinga Saga—a medieval Icelandic saga chronicling centuries of political intrigue, landscape, and daily life in the Orkney Islands during and after the Viking Age. The conversation also explores the saga's authenticity, relevance, and the significance of a new translation for both scholars and general readers.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Background & Significance of the Saga

• Origins & Scope

  • The Orkneyinga Saga is an Icelandic saga, unique in its setting (predominantly northern Britain) and chronological range (c. 900–1200 CE).
  • It chronicles the rulers of Orkney and their extensive connections and activities across Scotland, Britain, Ireland, and beyond.
  • “As you said earlier, it is a story of the people who ruled that part of northern Scotland in that period.” (04:37, Prof. Jesch)

• Nature of Icelandic Sagas

  • Traditionally composed in 12th-14th century Iceland, sagas mix realistic prose narratives with embedded poetry—this saga contains 82 poetic stanzas.
  • Historical sagas usually focus on Icelandic or Norwegian settings, but Orkneyinga Saga stands out for its emphasis on northern Scottish life.

Compilation & Historicity

• Manuscripts & Transmission

  • No single complete manuscript—scholars reconstruct the saga from multiple partial sources dated c. 1300 to the early modern era.
  • The saga was “compiled” from many types of sources, including poetic stanzas and oral informants with local knowledge.
  • “It's obvious that there are different sources for whoever put this material together, because the different parts of the saga have very different character.” (07:17, Prof. Jesch)

• Corroboration & Accuracy

  • The saga’s events and settings are verified through place names (nearly 100 mentioned, with many being the first documentary attestation), mentions in other medieval texts, and extensive archaeological evidence.
  • "If you put all that together, you could say that possibly some of the detail is wrong, but this is an entirely plausible account of what happened in that part of the world in those 300 years." (09:43, Prof. Jesch)

• History vs. Fiction

  • While fictional and legendary elements exist, the saga is a crucial source due to a scarcity of other contemporary documentation.
  • The compiler’s intent was to record “history as they understood history to be,” though details might not be fully reliable.

Political Themes & Takeaways

• Power and Governance

  • Joint rulership by two or more earls is a recurring feature; power-sharing often collapses due to rivalry, betrayal, and ambition.
  • “It is a kind of meditation on politics... on the whole, they're all terribly flawed and that's what comes out. It's almost as if the saga is saying that this kind of way of ruling just doesn't really work.” (15:46, Prof. Jesch)
  • Ordinary people are positioned as the disillusioned subjects of unstable leadership, with modern parallels to contemporary politics.

• Character & Structure

  • The recurring cycle of alliance, betrayal, and consolidation among the earls is a central structural motif.
  • “People are either treacherous or weak or maybe both.” (20:46, Prof. Jesch)

The New Translation: Motivation, Process, and Approach

• Why a New Translation Now?

  • The most recent major English translation dates to 1978, and earlier versions often “gloss over some of the really interesting aspects of the saga” and may omit or mistranslate poetic material.
  • “Not one of those previous translations is identical to the others in terms of the content.” (21:32, Prof. Jesch)
  • Previous translators often obscured the saga’s stylized repetition, rapid tense switching, and syntactic quirks. Jesch’s translation seeks to replicate these features, favoring accuracy over artificial “novelistic” prose.

• Intended Audience

  • Suited for historians, archaeologists, literary scholars, and general readers—including tourists seeking to explore Orkney’s landscapes.
  • The translation is also crafted for oral reading: “Several people have commented that it's even better when I read it out loud... stories designed really for reading out loud.” (30:16, Prof. Jesch)

• Technical & Stylistic Decisions

  • Emphasis on literalness, including direct translation of idioms (with explanatory notes), preservation of Old Norse names and orthography, and use of modern place names where possible.
  • Names: Place names take present-day forms when possible; personal names preserve Old Norse spelling, using special characters like thorn (þ).

The Translator’s Experience

• Process

  • Worked on much of the embedded poetry first, drawing on her earlier scholarly edits.
  • The translation approach was largely linear, with iterative revisiting of sections for nuance.
  • Relied heavily on understanding context, etymological research, and careful choice of English equivalents.
  • Roget’s Thesaurus was an essential tool, especially for selecting precise synonyms.

• Challenges

  • Translating idioms with no modern equivalent: e.g., “you don't want to be thought to be a cat in a pile of stones"—possibly a lost Norse proverb akin to calling someone a coward or a hider. (39:14)
  • Annotated potentially opaque or untranslatable phrases and flagged ambiguous vocabulary uses.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Literary Value

  • “There are a lot of episodes that are actually quite fun. And then it's very easy to kind of dismiss it as just a story, a fiction. Obviously, I think there are fictional elements in it, but... the categories of history and fiction are not entirely binary, but it kind of vacillates somewhere between the two.” (13:13, Prof. Jesch)

• On Political Cynicism

  • “A plague on both their houses is the kind of attitude that I find in the saga... it does kind of remind me of politics in the world today, that the ordinary people are somehow a little bit let down by the people who claim to be ruling them.” (15:46, Prof. Jesch)

• On Oral Tradition

  • “I found... it's even better when I read it out loud... these are stories designed really for reading out loud.” (30:16, Prof. Jesch)

• On Place & Landscape

  • “You could even use it as a tourist guide if you're interested in that particular part of Orkney and Shetland's past.” (27:44, Prof. Jesch)

• On Translation Challenges

  • “Idioms are the worst kind of thing to translate... you don't want to be thought to be a cat in a pile of stones.” (39:14, Prof. Jesch)

Favorite Scenes from the Saga (41:54)

• The Tragic:
  • The martyrdom of St. Magnus and the moving, dignified reaction of his mother Thora, who serves drink to her son’s killer and bravely requests to bury Magnus in a Christian grave. The hostile earl relents after a few pints—an episode highlighting moral courage and human emotion. (42:38, Prof. Jesch)
• The Humorous:
  • Chapter 85: Rognvaldr, Magnus’s nephew, shipwrecked in Shetland, makes light of his misfortunes in poetry, interacts with locals, and humorously demonstrates that “few recognize an Earl in his fishing clothes.” (44:38, Prof. Jesch)

Practical Notes for Readers

• Best Reading Experience: Try reading passages aloud to appreciate the saga’s rhythm and structure.
• Character Names: Expect repetition and unfamiliar Norse spellings (but, as Dr. Melcher notes, you “definitely do get used to it after a point.” (38:53))
• Supplementary Material: Extensive notes clarify difficult idioms, explain translation choices, and guide readers through complex manuscript traditions.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Author Background: 01:56–04:20
• Nature of the Saga: 04:20–07:01
• Compilation & Sources: 07:01–09:10
• Historical Accuracy Discussion: 09:10–15:16
• Political Reflections: 15:46–18:48
• Approach to Translation: 21:14–27:26
• Intended Audience & Oral Reading: 27:26–31:45
• Translation Process & Name Choices: 32:09–37:28
• Challenges & Favorite Scenes: 39:14–49:56

Conclusion

Professor Judith Jesch’s The Saga of the Earls of Orkney offers a fresh, accessible, and rigorously annotated translation of a crucial medieval text—balancing scholarly precision with engaging readability. Her wit, deep expertise, and sensitivity to the power of storytelling shine throughout the episode, making this book and podcast a must for historians, literary enthusiasts, and any curious reader drawn to the wild politics and landscapes of the Viking world.