Advertisement
Books Features

New Medieval Books: Medieval Iceland

Medieval Iceland: Politics, Patronage and Power

By Sverrir Jakobsson

Routledge
ISBN: 978-1-032-34894-0

Explore Iceland’s distinct medieval journey, from its ninth-century settlement to the upheavals of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Amid secular and ecclesiastical power struggles, this remote island experienced its own share of strife and transformation.

Excerpt:

The study of Icelandic medieval history has become a topic of interest to scholars of diverse nations and ethnicities in the most recent decades. Books on this topic are now read and studied by scholars from Latin America to East Asia and all the places in-between, This is very different from the situation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when Icelandic history would have been regarded as a very specialised topic. Consequently, most of the works on Icelandic medieval history are only of use to those who fluent in both medieval and modern Icelandic. The aim of this book is to make this history more accessible to the general reader and students just embarking on the study of Icelandic medieval history.

Advertisement

Who is this book for?

While there is much research on the sagas and society of Iceland, it was needing a book to lay out the development of the island during the Middle Ages. It will certainly be on the bookshelves of anyone interested in the history of Iceland, and would be useful to those covering the wider political and church history of medieval Scandinavia.

The Author

Sverrir Jakobsson is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Iceland. A prolific and lauded author, he explains to Medievalists.net that he wrote this work since “there is no other book on this topic in English, ie. a general overview of the history of medieval Iceland.”

Advertisement

You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website 

You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Advertisement