Monday 21 November 2011

Monday Ice: A 21st Century Pilgrimage

As I have mentioned before I know little about the Icelandic sagas but I have just come across a blog that I think will help enlighten me.  Dr Emily Lethbridge from Cambridge University is sharing her knowledge of the sagas with a very tangible and adventurous approach.  This project of Emily's fascinates me as it brings the past into the present and makes the difficult reading of these stories of old much more accessible.  Emily is researching the Icelandic sagas in a year long solo field trip where she plans to visit the physical locations of where the 30 odd sagas took place, she intends to feel the landscape around her while she reads the relevant saga in situ and hopefully encourage the local people to share their versions.  Emily is nearing the end of her year long project having started in Jan, as I have just discovered her blog I have a lot to catch up on.  At the end of her research project Emily will publish a book.

Emily's blog is fascinating and full of so much information it has given me the impetus to try and read some of the sagas for myself.  This may take a while but as I go through her blog I will try and read each saga that Emily writes about (those that I can find online and in English).  I doubt that I will do it consecutively but over time I hope to read a few at least.

This beautiful little film (14mins) Memories of Old Awake introduces Emily's project and explores the relationship between the landscape, the people and the Gísli saga...beautifully shot, enjoy!


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