The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Qupperneq 43

Vol. 59 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
41
I AM T VOLLMAKN
The Ice Shirt
By William T. Vollmann
Penguin Books, 415 pages
Reviewed by Helen Sigurdson
The Ice Shirt is the first volume of
William Vollmann’s seven part series of his
version of how the Europeans settled
North America. This book is a rather imag-
inative historical novel of the landing of the
Norsemen in what is now Canada. With
faultless knowledge of the Icelandic and
Norse sagas, Inuit and Native American
mythology, as well as his own well docu-
mented travel research, Vollmann has cre-
ated a riveting account of our early history.
Ice-Shirt is basically the history of
Freydis, bastard daughter of Erik the Red
and her journey to Vinland, but he begins
with stories of the Vikings and the lives of
the Norse people (mostly the kings) in the
early tenth century.
The power of dreams and the ability to
change shape are strong themes in the
book. The early Norse kings "shape shift"
changing themselves into bears or other
creatures. King Ingjald eats the heart of a
wolf and becomes cruel and vicious like a
wolf, kills other kings and even takes his
own daughter to wife. He wears a Wolf-
Shirt. In Norse folklore, shirts relate to
temperament and attitude. "Although,
truth to tell, he could easily have eaten a
dove’s heart and become mild; or he could
have gone - a - Viking to Africa to get a
heart of a crocodile, so that at least he’d be
able to shed tears over his victims-----."
To change shirt is to become something
different.
Vollmann’s version of Viking raids and
his stories of their plunder are gory and
philosophical. They did slaughter, rape and
burn the inhabitants of the lands they plun-
dered, but many stayed to work the land
and create kingdoms. Vollmann asserts,
"no doubt the dissatisfaction has been
exaggerated in the historical accounts since
spoilsports cry out loudly while on the
other side good losers are silent, being
dead."
Vollmann retells the story of Erik the
Red, his banishment from Norway for
killing a man and his settlement and mar-
riage in Iceland. Adages such as, "craft is
better than strength" and "riches are the
curse of those who have none" are inter-
spersed in the very descriptive telling of
Erik the Red’s life in Iceland. In a dispute
over possession of his family’s sacred rune
board, Erik again kills a man and this time
is banished to Greenland.
The story of the encounter of the
Icelanders with the Greenlanders begins
with the Inuit myth of creation. It is the
legend of Elder Brother and Younger
Brother in which Younger Brother changes
shape and becomes female. (Woman-Shirt)
Spirit Woman gives birth to a pack of
wolves and dogs who are forbidden to mate
with siblings. The children of these animals
become the Inuit people. Here Vollmann
shows how mythology provides answers to
so many of the mysteries of the human
condition. For insight into the transvestite
world, Vollmann visits with a group of San