author : Jesse Byock

Yet, as Jesse Byock reveals in this deeply fascinating and important history, the society founded by Norsemen in Iceland was far from this picture. It was, in fact, an independent, almost republican Free State, without warlords or kings. Honour was crucial in a world which sounds almost Utopian today. In Jesse Byock’s words, it was like ‘a great village’: a self-governing community of settlers, who adapted to Iceland’s harsh climate and landscape, creating their own society.

Combining history and anthropology, this remarkable study explores in rich detail all aspects of Viking Age life: feasting, farming and battling with the elements, the power of Chieftains and the church, marriage, the role of women and kinship. It shows us how law courts, which favoured compromise over violence, often prevented disputes over land, livestock or insults from becoming ‘blood feud’. In Iceland we can see a prototype democracy in action, which thrived for 300 years until it came under the control of the King of Norway in the 1260s.

This was a unique time in history, which has long perplexed historians and archaeologists, and which provides us today with fundamental insights into sometimes forgotten aspects of western society. By interweaving his own original and innovative research with masterly interpretations of the Old Icelandic Sagas, Jesse Byock brilliantly brings it to life.