Welcome to Litsy!

Op shop after school pickings from a while back. Love cheap costume jewellery, crochet blankets and vintage linen! Started the tagged book on audio but always prefer a physical book.

An interestingly structured book. An Australian journalist and his friend a half Icelandic half Australian academic visit Iceland primarily to investigate Icelandic history and to record several sagas, Icelandic family tales in the style of Beowulf and Homer. But also a story about family, parental love, secrets and a sense of self and belonging.

I enjoyed this mix of stories. I was not familiar with the sagas and hadn‘t realised their importance. Iceland has a culture of story-telling & poetry (& highest % of published authors in the world). The sagas are dry compared with (for example) the dramatic heroics of Greek myths - but I loved the sense of history & characters of Iceland. It‘s also part-travelogue with interesting digressions & anecdotes. A bit too long, but a fun immersive read.

Definitely looking forward to reading this. Professor Tom Shippey was my tutor what now seems # a hundred years ago, and remains one of my academic heroes. #tomshippey #laughingshallidie #medievalliterature #vikings #books #bookstagram #norsehistory #edda #sagas #valhalla #immigrantsong #wecomefromthelandoftheiceandsnow #claphamfuckingberserkers