The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2001, Side 40

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 56 #3
ing the men and courses of events behind
the scenes, and frequently outspoken in
their opinions too.
The Complete Sagas of Icelanders have
been grouped on broad thematic principles
and divided among the five volumes of the
set.
The Biographies tell of exceptional indi-
viduals: poets, outlaws and champions, and
the stories spotlight these men as they pit
their strength against a society they stand
out from and defy.
At the heart of the Sagas of Feuds are
wealth, power, regional status and the
inevitable conflicts that result from life in a
singular society which sets its own laws and
metes out a hard justice. Each of the vol-
umes is thematically self-contained and
offers a particular angle of approach for
exploring the vast and fascinating Saga
world.
Women play a large, important part in
the Sagas. Far from being blushing damsels
waiting for their knights, as were medieval
narratives, women in the Sagas often are
pivotal characters. Mothers instill their sons
with ancient heroic values and incite them
to noble deeds, young women encourage
battles over them, others of steely character
rebel against male power and refuse to
accept the limitations imposed on them by
custom and law.
Two of the Sagas provide basic informa-
tion about Leif Eirlksson’s voyage of dis-
covery and the earliest settlement by
Vikings in Canada. Eirik the Red’s Saga and
The Saga of the Greenlanders are the key
stories that document the discovery of the
New World, and those people involved.
Both are now confirmed by the archeologi-
cal digs in Canada and carbon dating of
artifacts to 1000 AD. Truth will be out at
last!
At the turn of the millennium, Eirfk’s
son began a mission to Christianize the
Greenlanders. Hearing of land to the west,
he set sail and discovered North America,
nearly 500 years before Columbus was
born.
The Complete Sagas of Icelanders begins
with the two sagas known as The Vinland
Sagas. These tell of the voyages of discov-
ery, the attempts at colonization and the
first encounters between Europeans and
native Americans.
Against this historical background a
colourful cast of characters takes the stage.
These include the troublemaker, Eirik the
Red, banned from Iceland for killing men.
The sagas tell of the pioneering explorer
Leif the Lucky, one of Eirik the Red’s sons,
and his brutal daughter, Freydis. Another
remarkable women is featured, GuSrid
Thorbjarnardottir, the first transatlantic
women traveler. She sailed with her second
husband, Thorfinn Karlsefni to begin the
first Viking settlement in North America.
She also bore the first European child born
in the New World, circa 1000 AD, her son
Snorri, before abandoning the settlement
and returning to Greenland and eventually
Iceland.
Gudrid was the world’s most remark-
able woman of her era. She was equal to the
men who crossed the seas in their swift
Viking ships. Born in Iceland, married in
Greenland, she eventually traveled to
Norway, farmed in Iceland, made a pil-
grimage on foot to Rome before ending her
days as a nun and anchoress in Iceland.
Gudrid was a formidable, independent-
minded women who fashioned her fate
with her own hands and has taken her place
among the great female heroes of history.
For generations Scandinavians knew
that Leif Eirfksson had been born in
Iceland, grew up in Greenland and
embarked on his epic voyage of discovery
from their home in Brattahlid.
That rich history was preserved in the
Icelandic Sagas, which were first written
down in the 13th and 14th centuries. The
Viking Age is usually considered from the
gimli
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