Book Description
The popular image of the Viking Age is of warlords and marauding bands pillaging their way along the shores of Northern Europe. In this fascinating history, Jesse Byock shows that Norse society in Iceland was actually an independent one-almost a republican Free State, without warlords or kings. Combining history with anthropology and archaeology, this remarkable study serves as a valuable companion to the Icelandic sagas, exploring all aspects of Viking Age life: feasting, farming, the power of chieftains and the church, marriage, and the role of women. With masterful interpretations of the blood feuds and the sagas, Byock reveals how the law courts favored compromise over violence, and how the society grappled with proto-democratic tendencies. A work with broad social and historical implications for our modern institutions, Byock's history will alter long-held perceptions of the Viking Age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Political Correctness In The Age Of Vikings
With the publication of this great work & similar tomes by other scholars, the Norse people of the early Middle Ages are finally getting their due. Instead of the marauding, pillaging hordes that traditional history has depicted them as for centuries, we are shown a more sympathetic view of their society & culture. The term "Viking" itself is a misnomer for the majority of these Norse people. A Viking was the name originally given to those men, predominately Norse, who preyed on defenseless ships, villages, and monasteries. It's interesting to note that it was contemporary foreigners, particularly Anglo-Saxon sources, who first labeled these men "Vikings". By the time that the great Icelandic Sagas were written several hundred years after the fact, the Norse authors were freely using the term. In retrospect, these men were seen as mighty warriors & great adventurers. To be called a Viking had evolved into a badge of honor to a culture that had gradually been assimilated into Christian European. Unfortunately in the process, these remarkable people & the society they had created became little more than villians & despoilers to the "civilized" world in which they existed.

Professor Byock seeks to renounce these false ideas & does a remarkable job of it. By using the Icelandic Sagas as his reference point, he ties in both the Norse contemporary stories with modern historical & anthropological research. These sagas, originally thought to be nothing more than a collection of Icelandic folktales, have now taken on a more scholarly role in understanding these people. While some of the characters, family connections, and incidents recorded might be questioned, the total picture of daily life, culture, values, and society are being proved accurate by modern analysis. Professor Byock provides this analysis within these pages.

Yes, we are treated to tales of mighty warriors fighting against great odds, but we are also witness to the legal maneuverings of the Thing courts. We see political connections being forged & broken as these men sought influence & power from the fellow Icelanders. By placing the human participants depicted in the sagas into his discussion of Viking Age Iceland, Professor Byock has given the reader a face & life that he or she can easily identify with. I applaud his efforts & success. If there is indeed such a thing as "Populist History", this book is an excellent example.

One needs only to thumb through the pages to appreciate the diverse amount of material covered. From "Resources & Subsistence" to "Aspects of Blood Feud", Professor Byock offers a well-researched & well-rounded view of Iceland and its people as a whole. The numerous maps included are of great help in understanding how geography affected & influenced life. The appendix depicting turf house construction was especially interesting & makes one appreciate how these people learned to live in harmony with the land & its sometimes harsh climate.

Professor Byock's writing style is very layman friendly but still detailed & authoritative enough to be referenced in serious research. In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as purely escapist fare. Learning history is seldom this much fun or fascinating. I can not recommend it highly enough to either the casual reader of Norse/Viking material, lovers of the Icelandic Sagas who want to delve further into the factual basis of these stories, or the serious student. You will not be disappointed.

Convincing
Historians typically use journals, diaries, and estate and government records on which to base their theories. What do you do when these don't exist? You use what is available: oral traditions, the sagas, and archeology. Often what their enemies write them has endured and skewed our understanding of them. Those who write about the ancient Celts and medieval Gaels should take note of this academic's method.

An essential companion to the Icelandic sagas
This is an excellent book about Viking society in Iceland, and Jesse Byock is a great authority on the topic.

Byock describes an Icelandic society that valued "order more than justice," and we see numerous examples of what he means by this as he examines how Icelanders kept feuds from getting completely out of hand.

Still, the book already is worth getting simply for the explanations of where all the action takes place in the Sagas, complete with useful maps, the descriptions of what Icelandic houses looked like, complete with archaeological house plans, and the depiction of Icleandic society as almost completely rural, with virtually nothing in the way of a town.As well as an important explanation of the Althing and its structure.

Plenty of us read one or more Icelandic sagas.But these sagas were written for people who knew quite well where Iceland was and where the various parts of it were located.They knew what an Icelandic house looked like, and they knew something of the terrain and the weather in the land.They knew how Icelanders obtained food and what resources the country had.And they knew all about the Althing (basically, their parliament).To understand these sagas, we need to know some of this as well.And Byock is wonderful at giving us this very valuable information.

There is a good description of how justice worked in Iceland.Blood vengeance was an option, but not a necessity.Compromise was preferred.Those who got too far out of line, say, with multiple murders, were outlawed.That left enforcement of penalties up to others.The system worked fairly well.

Two things about Icelandic society made the strongest impression on me.First, for many reasons, Icelandic society had enormous respect for truth.Their writings have plenty of facts.But more important (maybe because they were not numerous and lived on an island), there were very few secret felonies! Most people confessed to murders at once, to try to avoid blood vengeance.As Byock says, "rarely was there true secrecy" about who the guilty parties were.

In any case, I think Byock has confirmed that in Icelandic society, perjury was a worse crime than murder.That is very different from modern nations, where people on trial generally are expected to tell plenty of lies under oath and get away with it, and where government officials are expected to lie as well.I got the feeling that Viking society happened to value truth very much indeed.

Second, in spite of the value on truth, Icelanders valued pragmatism even more.I think Byock makes the point about Icelandic pragmatism in his description of the Icelandic conversion to Christianity.I see this event a little differently than Byock, but I have no problems at all with what he says about it.

I think that what Byock says is consistent with my feeling that the Icelanders knew that Christianity was at best a perverse fraud and an untruth but accepted it anyway for pragmatic reasons.However, I think the Vikings went too far here, and that a society with so much respect for truth that accepts a known lie as a rule to live by has simply destroyed itself.If one accepts such a lie to preserve one's society, what is left to preserve?

I recommend all of Byock's books.I truly enjoyed reading this book, which may be his best.

New way of looking at history
The strength of this book is that it uses the sagas as a tool to learn more about viking age Iceland rather than ignoring it as folk lore as other historians have in the past. This approach also makes the book a lot more readable and enjoyable for those who do not like a dry history book with facts and dates and people names. In addition, I also enjoyed the details about how they built their houses and the lay-out of their houses.

However, the author seems to fall short in the area of icelandic marraige and relationships between the men and women, other than in terms of feud or law. The book seems to focus a great deal on law and not so much on the personal family life of these individual icelanders.

To make up for it, the book does site passages from the sagas about different people in a political context.

But if you buy this book, you really don't have to bother buying medieval iceland. These two books pretty much cover the same ground.

Excellent Companion to the Icelandic Sagas
This is an excellent book about the society that produced the great Icelandic Sagas.This is not a narrative history but an effort to describe the essential features of Icelandic life.While the period covered spans centuries, there is strong continuity in Icelandic culture during this time and the basic features of Icelandic culture were largely unchanged from the settling of the island to the establishment of Norweigian royal domination.Written by a leading scholar of Icelandic literature and history, this volume describes the material basis for Icelandic life, provides a good deal of information about the ecologic impact of the settlers, and provides an outline of the major historical events in the period from the settling of Iceland to the beginning of Norweigian lordship.The center of the book, however, is a detailed and lucid discussion of the unique political and legal structure of Iceland.Iceland was settled by Norse fleeing the emerging powers of monarchs in mainland Scandinavia.The near subsistence nature of Iceland's economy required dispersion of people across all the viable portions of the island and the absence of useful cash crops and other sources of exports prevented concentrations of power. Iceland had no central government, no towns, and a legal system based on relative equality.Iceland was not a feudal state, there were no overlords, and even after the conversion to Christianity, the Church had little power.Governence and justice were essentially private matters, worked out by individuals either informally or through a sophisticated legal system that ostensibly was based on equality.The key figures in this system were chiefs who commanded authority by virtue of family and political ties, legal skill, wealth, and charisma.These positions were not hereditary and were based partly on ability to command allegience of smaller farmers.Failure of chiefs to lead well could lead to desertion by followers.Excessive success by Chiefs in amassing power could lead to local violent reactions and the antagonism of other chiefs, preventing the emergence of regional leaders who could have become overlords.This system for centuries maintained a relatively egalitarian society very distinct from feudal mainland Europe.Byock does an excellent job of describing this society and tracing its ecological and historic roots.Byock provides also a very interesting and cogent analysis of feuds, which appear as central elements in many Sagas.While most commentators and readers are often impressed at the violence in the feuds, Byock points out the many ways in which feuding was channeled into non-violent ways of resolving disputes.In Byock's analysis, the manipulation of feuds is a cardinal example of the ways in which the highly individualistic and competitive Icelanders prevented serious damage to the social fabric.For Byock, the overarching theme of Icelandic culture during this period is the channeling of individual passions and resentments into non-destructive results, a remarkable goal in a society without formal government in our sense and entirely private means of seeking justice for grievances and disputes.It may also be this unique feature that gives the Sagas their great appeal.Byock uses effectively many quotations from different Sagas to illustrate his points.In so doing, he shows how the Sagas exemplify the cultural focus of Icelandic society.
It is surprising that a group of stories devoted largely to personal and legal conflicts among a group of Medieval farmers continue to command a large audience. The skilful composition of the best Sagas explains some of their appeal but other forms of Medieval literature do not attract this many readers.The underlying theme of conflict between individual impulses and social cohesion is tremendously appealing to modern readers.
This book contains a number of excellent additional features including good maps illustrating the locations of the major Sagas and other important aspects of Icelandic life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

North Atlantic Empire !
Nothing much happened! Yes. In this comprehensive review of the history of Iceland, spanning some 1200 years, one is struck by the few numbers of people and the languid pace of events. More broadly, the book can be seen as a history of Scandinavia, with a focus on Iceland.

There is the so-called North Atlantic Empire. Which I suggest that many readers, including myself, had never heard of, before this book. It was the Empire of Norway, and which included Iceland and Greenland. A minor but fascinating chapter in European history.

We see the rise of Icelandic as a separate language, distinct from Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. And above all, there are the fish. To good approximation, Iceland would not exist without the vast fishing grounds so close by.

Then there is the Icelandic parliament, the Althing, which is considered to be perhaps the oldest representative parliament in the world. Predating the House of Common, where the latter likes to call itself the Mother of Parliaments. Sadly, while the book may be correct about the Althing, it has had little influence on world affairs.

A great introduction to Iceland
A very readable history of Iceland, though it might have a few too many details and numbers for some people (not me).He does not over-romanticize Iceland and actually challenges a lot of myths that Icelanders have about their own history.I read the book just before I went to Iceland, and it made my experience a lot more enjoyable.

Brownish, Dry, Shrivelled Statistician
Icelandic history is divided into three epochs: (1) the Saga Period, from the beginnings of settlement to the surrender of sovereignty in 1262; (2) the Colonial Period, under the thumb of first Norway and then Denmark, during which Iceland almost disappears from the world stage; and (3) the Period of Independence, from approximately 1809 to the present. In his HISTORY, Gunnar Karlsson adds a fourth epoch: the 20th century.

Thanks to the great Icelandic sagas of the 13th Century, we know a great deal about the first period. (Some of the excitement comes across in Magnus Magnusson's little gem of a book entitled ICELAND SAGA.) Then, once Iceland lost her sovereignty in hopes of putting an end to strife between conflicting factions, she seemingly disappeared from history. Except, unfortunately, as a victim of catacylsmic volcanic eruptions, smallpox, plague, and an uncaring Danish administration.

The 19th Century saw a simultaneous enlightenment in Denmark's stewardship of Iceland and a growingly successful independence movement among Icelanders. Between the two World Wars, Iceland became an independent state of some promise and no longer the Albania of the North Atlantic.

There are several approaches to chronicling such an unusual history. Karlsson takes a heavily economically and statistically oriented approach, such that one cringes at the profusion of percent signs and dates and neat little tables. Suddenly, the author will abruptly switch gears and drop into a personal mode: "Most important of these wield yielders was the Iceland moss ... a lichen that grows on inland heaths. It looks extremely unappetizing -- brownish and dry, like a shrivelled piece of skin.... I personally salivate when I think about it cooked in milk."

Another time, he interjects: "I myself did not live in a turf house for longer than a month and was unfortunately too young to remember much about it. But in my youth ... I sometimes visied such houses, which were dry, warm, clean, and reasonably bright."

One wishes to encounter this reminiscing Gunnar Karlsson more frequently than the brownish, dry, shrivelled statistician that he so often resembles. A more anecdotal approach would have livened this book up considerably, relegating most of the economic facts to out-of-the-way footnotes. I would like to have met the Icelander at various stages of his country's history, but Karlsson restrains himself from introducing him. More's the pity, because Karlsson obviously knows his subject well.

A Great Introduction
Gunnar Karlsson's book is a great introduction to Icelandic history. It is wonderful for the curious reader. However, as a scholarly work, it is lacking in precise details. In comparison to Knut Gjerset's History of Iceland, it is an easier read but with less information. While Karlsson touches upon a vareity of topics, he does not delve into them at great depth. However, this book would be great to find a topic that the reader would like to research or learn more about just because the nature of the book gives such a broad overview. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A thorough, wide-ranging, scholarly work
This is a thorough, wide-ranging, scholarly work - a useful and insightful review that stretches over a millenium in time. Although the book charts the course in history of this geographically and culturally linked collection of peoples, it still emphasises the individuality of each.I hadn't realised just how complex a relationship of inter-dependence and rivalry existed between these nations for so long. Among the more fascinating discussions in the book, I would list: church-state relations especially in the period following the reformation, the impact of the industrial revolution and the development of the welfare state, the period leading up to the second world war and the relationship between the various countries and the major powers during the war (i.e. Finland with Russia, Denmark with Germany, etc.) and the historical contribution of each nation to the arts and sciences. One small criticism: I would have liked to have seen some maps in the book - my knowledge of Scandinavia is not so extensive that I could picture the geographical relationship of the many places mentioned.I especially found the early part of the book very heavy going, and difficult to follow the many movements of people that were detailed.

Excellent coverage of the war years
The author does an excellent job of covering Scandinavia during the war years. His use of information from Eisenhowers private papers brings a whole new dimension to understanding what was going on in each country.Iwas not aware that near the end of the war Ike had a serious plan toliberate the Norwegian Allies from the NAZIS, by first liberating Denmark,then proceeding overland across Sweden. (I wonder if he would have giventhe job to Patton?)

A concise and complete history of all of Scandinavia
In reading this book it becomes very apparent at how much the state-church relation influenced much of Scandinavia, and also it's people.It was also incredibly interesting to read about how the countries of Denmark, Swedenand Norway kept separating, and uniting.For anyone who is interested inScandinavian history, that delves way beneath the surface, look no further,TK Derry writes a book that can't be ignored. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

review of Ring of Seasons
A little long, and it jumps around in time, and it can go off on tangents, but gives a nice feel for the history of Iceland and it was helpful to read before a trip to Iceland.

A wonderful read
I greatly enjoyed this book.It was fun to read and very interesting from a historical point of view.I'm going to Iceland soon and I feel that I understand the background and culture of the country better than before I read this book.
I highly recommend it !

Not the best.
If you are looking for a well-organized history of Iceland, you probably don't want this one.I get the feeling that the author wants it both ways: to be folksy AND legitimate.It doesn't fly. . . I have read several books on Iceland and this is my least favorite....

A pleasant mixture of culture and history
This book was much more pleasant to read in many ways than most historybooks. It blends history with various cultural aspects such as sausagemaking and other traditional pasttimes and holidays. As a result, it doesquite a bit to soften the sometimes drier moments of history. It is one ofthe few history books I have read that make me feel I would know somethinguseful about a place if I were to travel there. Also, because thehistorical aspect is why I bought the book,I was not to be disappointed,the Cod Wars, the Settlement, Christianization, it is all there along withan especially interesting section onthe first settlement of Greenland. Irecommend this book.

Excellant Research Material
This book is an excellant assortment of history, culture, and personal experience. Each chapter can stand by itself but all the chapters tie in together. The details in this book are amazing. It is great for anyone whois interested in learning more about Iceland and it's rich cultural andhistorical background. Also, for research, it is set up in such a way thatyou can find exactly what information you are looking for quickly. This ismy favorite book about Iceland so far. It was the most well organized andcomprehensive. ... Read more

Book Description
Scholars of Old Icelandic generally agree that Icelandic literature was influenced by the Gaelic world where oral literature was highly developed and written prose sagas were produced in the vernacular. Ireland and Iceland are the only countries in North Western Europe where sagas of this kind were written down. The problem arises, however, when the importance of that influence on Icelandic culture has to be assessed. In this book, the author looks at the possible channels by which Gaelic influence could have reached Iceland and looks at the nature of the numerous parallels in different genres of Old Icelandic literature with Gaelic literature, in particular Old Irish. The intention is twofold: first, to provide a comprehensive bibliography of the subject, and second, to assess what these parallels can tell us about the importance of Gaelic influence for Icelandic literary tradition. 2nd revised edition, with a new preface and a new general introduction. ... Read more

Book Description
The Icelandic Free State which flourished from 930 to the middle of the thirteenth century gave rise to a sophisticated political system and had a rich literary culture. However, by 1400 the structure of this society had begun to crumble.The following period, from 1400 to 1800, has been largely overlooked by scholars.In this book Kirsten Hastrup offers an analysis of Icelandic society during a period of remarkable social disintegration and technological decline.She approaches the subject from a variety of angles, juxtaposing the economic, social, and political orders with concepts of humanity, fate, and nature, and providing the reader with a comprehensive picture of Icelandic society in the period.Her analysis shows how the dissolution of the ancient order must be attributed to internal factors of culture and mentality, as well as to the external ones of natural catastrophe and commercial exploitation.She ends the book with a valuable discussion of the nature of causation in history. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Church History, published by American Society of Church History on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1030 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change 1000-1300.(Book Review)
Author: Kirsten Wolf
Publication: Church History (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: American Society of Church History
Volume: 72Issue: 1Page: 197(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
And Some Fell into Good Soil is a history of Christianity in Iceland from the first settlement of the country around A.D. 870 to the present time.Three major turning points are emphasized: the official conversion of Iceland to Christianity in A.D. 1000; the Reformation around 1550; and the transition to the modern age around 1900.The only previous history of Icelandic Christianity written in English was published in 1946.The present book is aimed at the general reader, and has special relevance in view of the upcoming thousandth anniversary of the adoption of Christianity by Iceland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good first source for anyone interested in the whole of Icelandic history
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ICELAND, published by Mal Og Menning of Reykjavik in 2000, was written by the history professor Gunnar Karlsson and subsequently translated into English by Anna Yates. It aims to present the whole of this nation's history in 64 pages, excepting photo credits and the index.

The book consists of 31 two-page sections dealing with some particular era or facet of Icelandic history, such as "Settlement" (870-930), "Dark Ages" (1600-1785), and "Liberated Women" (1970-2000). I found the balance refreshing, for example description of World War II and the Cold War most interesting, as the US presence in Keflavik is said to have benefitted the economy enormously, though it is claimed the Americans stayed on after WWII against their promise to withdraw. In each section there are a few colour photos, and the production of this trade paperback on good-quality paper is satisfying.

While all such brief history books leave out details that many would find important, Gunnar Karlsson's A BRIEF HISTORY OF ICELAND is well worth a read if you want to discover this country for the first time. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Scandinavian Studies, published by Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study on June 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1612 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The History of Iceland.(Review)
Author: Jenny Jochens
Publication: Scandinavian Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2001
Publisher: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Volume: 73Issue: 2Page: 226

Article Type: Book Review

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Product Description
This is a concise history of Iceland from discovery and settlement to fall of the Commonwealth with the death of Gissur Thorvaldsson in 1269. It includes a chronology and references. ... Read more

Product Description
Contains Hermannsson's biography and history of Jon Gudmundsson (1574- 1658) and his work; the original text (in Icelandic) of Gudmundsson's Ein Stutt Undirrietting um Islands Adskilianlegar Natturur with extensive notes in English, an Appendix with extracts from Gudmundsson's treatise on Icelandic plants, and illustrated with 9 full page illustrated plates on glossy stock reproducing Gudmundsson's original drawings (map and depictions of wildlife - especially whales, including a narwhal whale). Gudmundsson was an Icelandic commoner who wrote in his native tongue. Though without formal education, he was very well read and particularly knowledgeable about old Icelandic literature, including the old sagas, the mythical heroic sagas, Hauksbok, and Bishop Halldorsson's Aevintyri and even Bjorn Jorsalafari's book of travels (Reisubok) which is now lost. He became famous as a poet of magic powers and was eventually prosecuted for writing a pamphlet on miraculous cures and magical preventatives (witchcraft trials were common at the time). The Natural History, published here for the first time, was arguably his most important work. It was written probably during the years 1640-44. ... Read more