Why a Booktrail?
10th C: An Icelandic Lord of the Rings in our eyes! It was actually thought to have inspired Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings.
The Saga of Eric Brighteyes
What you need to know before your trail
Set in Iceland in the 10th century, this is the epic viking novel which takes you back into one of the harshest, roughest and most rural landscapes you will ever see. Haggard (we can’t help picturing the poor man as Hagrid) in late 1888 following a trip to Iceland and well what a trip he must have had that’s all we can say!
Eric Thorgrimurs’ son is nicknamed ‘Brighteyes’ for having such piercing eyes is trying to win the hand of the woman he loves – Gudruda. but her half sister is jealous and wants him for herself. Eric might seem as if two women fighting over him is a good thing but his real challenge is to win over their father and his son. Everything seems to want Bright eyes to marry for their own interests
Double dealing and conspiracies abound and Eric has a fight on his hands to marry his one true love.
Travel Guide
Now if landscape ever played such an important part in a novel , this is a good example of that since the Iceland of the 10th century is awash with viking, waterfalls, crevices and precipices of the rough and rocky landscape, icy winters, chilling winds and perhaps the most fierce and raw environment known to man.
When you realise that a man called Lancelot Speed drew the illustrations or the book, then it all fits. Lancelot is the name of historical intrigue and mystery is it not?
There are some poetic descriptions of landscapes and battles and it reads very similar to the stories of the Icelandic sagas and their method of storytelling
The father of Gudruda was Asmund Asmundson , the Priest of Middalhof. He was the wisest and the wealthiest of all men who lived in the south of Iceland in those days…..
He had won his wealth by viking’s work, robbing the English coasts, and black tales were told of his doings in his youth on the sea, for he was a ‘red-hand viking’
The 10th century Iceland
Places don’t exist as its 10th century Iceland
1. middalolf
2. mossfell
3. ranriver
4. coldback and stonefell
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information The Saga of Eric Brighteyes
Destination: Iceland Departure Time: 10th Century
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