Jubber is always eager to make links between the epics and the present day, though these can seem laboured. Is there really much connection between Beowulf and Brexit Britain? On a trip to a museum in the Potteries to see an Anglo-Saxon hoard, he tries hard to find one but fails to convince. At other times he is more persuasive. “Njal’s Saga is still alive,” an Icelandic writer tells him in a Reykjavik cafe. This well-written if flawed book proves that the same can be said of most of these stories.
