Only every few years, as I understand it, UConn offers an English Seminar in Viking Age literature, this time taught by the very reliably well-humored Prof. T. Kohanski.  Though few sources have survived the last thousand years of Icelandic, well, ice, most preserve similar bits of traditional history, and so there are really only about a half-dozen major works to read through, most from the 13th or 14th century.

I’ll pause there, and put to rest any worries there might be about the abundance of content.  He who is the son of Gunnar of Hlíðarendi is the grandson of Hamund and Rannveig, whose father Sigfus was son to Sighvat the Red, who, through Mord Gigja, Unn, and Valgard the Grey is related to Jorund the Godi, son of Hrafn the Foolish, son of Valgard, son of Aevar, son of Vemund the Eloquent, son of Thorolf Pus-Nose, son of Thrand the Old, and finally, to Hraerek the Ring-Scatterer, father to Harald War-Tooth and grandfather to Thrand the Old.  If you’ve managed to remember what that was a description of before you look up a few lines to check, I applaud you sincerely.  If you haven’t, don’t worry.  I used the chart in the back of the Penguin translation of Njal’s Saga.

So, in the course of studying such uniquely specialized histories, we find that there is historical corroboration for the events and locations mentioned in the sagas.  The Anglo-Saxon chronicle and other regional histories confirm battle dates and the locations of democratic meetings called “things.”  I’ve been in the habit lately of curiously investigating as many photographs of legendary locations as I can find, and they’ve turned out to be dazzlingly beautiful.

Connecticut tends to have such dense and wide-spread foliage coverage that you can’t see more than a few dozen yards in any direction.  But Iceland has no such trouble.  They haven’t really ever had that many spare trees.  (We know from the complaints of the fresh immigrants, who were reduced to importing lumber from Norway.)

Anyway, my recommendations are as such:

1.) Find the church at Hlíðarendi, Iceland, the property once owned by Gunnar Hamundarson, of Njal’s Saga.

Hlíðarendi

2.) Find the Law Rock in Þingvellir, Iceland.

Þingvellir

3.) And for a modern addition, see the Sverde i Fjell monument in Hafrsfjord, Norway.

Sverde i Fjell

4.) Let the sensation of overwhelming beauty inspire you to help another living unit.  Writing them a nice poem counts.