The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2000, Blaðsíða 36

Vol. 56 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
34
Book Reviews
Northern Fright Series
Draugr, The Haunting of Drang Island,
The Loki Wolf
by Arthur G. Slade
Orca Books, Fiction - ages 8-12
Softcover.
Reviewed by Joan Eyolfson Cadham
The year 2000 has become the Canadian
year for things Icelandic - the rediscovery of
Vinland by a Viking crew led by Gunnar
Marel Eggertsson (a descendent of Leifur the
Lucky), aboard the Islendingur, celebrations
in honour of the Icelandic decision to become
Christian 1000 years ago, and a veritable
flood of talented Icelandic entertainers.
However, it was three years ago that the
first modern draugr appeared in the woods
near Gimli.
This draugr, an Icelandic undead with
attitude, was followed to Canada by a second,
who appeared on Drang Island, off
Vancouver Island, in 1998. The third draugr
was waiting in Iceland for a trio of American
young people and their Canadian Icelandic
grandfather when they visited in 2000.
Or, so Saskatchewan writer, Arthur G.
Slade, would have us believe.
Slade is responsible for the three-book
series, Northern Frights, wherein a couple of
American-Icelandic teens keep company with
their Canadian-Icelandic relatives and an
ever-increasing collection of re-emerging
mythological creatures, most of them entirely
unpleasant.
The books, which Slade aimed at the
eight to 14 year old market, are well-crafted,
featuring strong, literate English that is decep-
tively simple enough to attract less-than-avid
readers. All the plots involve male and female
characters working closely with one another
in a fight for survival in a world that becomes
progressively more alien and more dangerous.
The three plots are built around some
authentic Canadian-Icelandic history - the set-
tlement of Gimli, the movement of Icelanders
to Vancouver Island, an opportunity to
explore ancient Icelandic roots.
Slade, interestingly, is not officially
Icelandic, although he admits that, given his