Frères jurés

by Gunnar Gunnarsson, Régis Boyer

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Classics

370 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Gunnar Gunnarsson is one of Iceland's most esteemed writers. From a poor peasant background, Gunnar moved to Denmark in 1907 to get an education. He wrote mainly in Danish throughout his career, in order to reach a wider audience.
In 1955, he was considered for the Nobel Prize, the year in which it was awarded to his fellow countryman, Halldór Laxness.

For the Icelandic author born in 1947, see Gunnar Gunnarsson.

Reviews

[Sasha S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. The title is slightly misleading as we don't arrive in Iceland until about a quarter of the book is left. It mostly covers the story of blood brothers (Ingolf & Leif) who according to Sagas were the first settlers of Iceland. So it follows them from childhood and into the first few years of them settling in Iceland.

I understand that this is a rework of sagas, and so the author had not much in terms of material to follow, when talking of real proven story. So, he had to work a lot to convert some scattered pieces of information into a coherent relatable story with characters who feel alive for a modern reader. His focus very much ended up on the inner thoughts and emotions of the people involved, which is something we have no knowledge of and so there is certainly a lot that can be imagined and explored. But... I feel like in doing so he is projecting too much modern inner self into people who lived over a thousand years ago. There is a bit (too little maybe for how it might have happened in reality) of raping and pillaging in the novel, and enough of other kinds of violence, including human sacrifice and murder. But, you see, our heroes, they either do it without much enjoyment or because they aren't thinking clearly and are just in a state of senseless rage for one reason or another. The author can not imagine a person who is absolutely fine with all this, and is in fact thinking clearly and has no second thoughts about it. I understand the dilemma here, I do. You don't really want to show these heroic explorers, the people who managed to be the first to settle this new land as some kind of psychopathic monsters. But at the same time, what if they really were like that?.. So he has to tone down certain episodes, but it's quite impossible to just remove them as there would be no story otherwise.

In my opinion, this was the wrong choice. Instead, the author might have focused more on the survival aspect, which again, in my personal opinion, would not only be more exciting to read, but also would avoid projecting too much of his own imagination onto the characters' thoughts and personalities. We can judge them ourselves by their actions, not their imagined inner worlds. Just as well, the sense of adventure and overcoming hardship was not fully developed. They come to Iceland, unload, build a longhouse and are ready for winter. Sounds really easy and I have a sneaky feeling it wasn't really that easy at all... We get no real feeling for how much effort they put into establishing the settlement, which must have been a monumental effort. While the author focuses on exploring the thoughts and feelings of the few main characters, we don't even get the idea of how many people actually came on the journey with them. Was it an army of 50 vikings and couple of dozen serfs? Or maybe 20 altogether? I don't know, it was never really revealed, as we only know of the people with whom our characters directly interact. Anyway, that is something I really was looking forward to and didn't get - a story of hardship and survival in the new land, with setbacks and near misses. Turns out, it's not that hard, apparently...

Don't get me wrong, it's still a good read, and very much worth it if you're interested to learn about old Norse society and the story of the brothers who were the first to settle in Iceland (according to sagas). This is a much smoother read than the source material, and certainly has its moments.

[thirtytwobirds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another entry in the same genre as The Long Ships and The Men of Ness (what is this genre called, anyway? Maybe just "Sagas"?).

Excellent read, almost cozy in its slice-of-lifeness (though there's still a bit of violence when folks go viking, so it's not going to be on r/cozyfantasy any time soon).

[Brandy F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Viking Tales before this so reading about Ingolf and Leif's adventures and brotherly bouts in great detail was fascinating!!!

I very much liked how the courting of both their wives was written. So romantic, detailed and warm.

WILL READ AGAIN!

[Keld Yding · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Islandic saga retold. Nicely done.

[Birte Lunau Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although old , it is still a very good description of 2 Norwegian vikings- cousins Ingolf and Leif ,WHO become sworn brothers and endure many Viking exploits together before finally settling in Iceland