| Title | : | The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 015101440X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780151014408 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 306 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2007 |
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman Reviews
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This proved to be a difficult read, though I think that was partly my fault. I kept starting over, trying to come to an understanding of all the Icelandic sagas that were given. Impossible. Therefore, it wasn't until I read to 35%, that I got into a flow with my reading.
I liked the archeological aspects the best, found that the most interesting. How the Vikings lived, how the women dressed, where they traveled and why, and what they are. Enjoyed the section on the uncovering if a grave, that contained the body of Queen Asa. Seems these upper echelon Vikings, were buried with many things, much as the Egyptian Pharaohs.
So a mixed read both challenging and informative. -
I was drawn to this book after reading
The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone, a wonderful fictional account of the life of Gudrid. I wanted to know more about this remarkable woman. The Far Traveller explores the archaeological and literary evidence of the lives of late 10th, early 11th century Icelanders. It follows Eirik the Red and then Gudrid to Greenland and from there to Vinland to discover what evidence there is of Viking settlements, where they were and what other peoples they may have met whilst there. Gudrid's story is woven throughout but is largely based on supposition because there are so few hard facts. If you want to know more about Vikings, Icelanders, Greenlanders and Gudrid herself, this is an easy and enjoyable read, very well researched and clearly written with love for the subject. It left me slightly dissatisfied but only because what we know about Gudrid is only a bare outline of the woman yet she seems so tantalisingly close. -
This was an interesting book, but it was also all over the place. I felt like the author had done all this research on Vikings and archeology and Icelandic sagas and didn't really know how to put it all together into a readable book that tells one cohesive story.
For instance, the book is supposed to be about Gudrid, this amazing Far Traveler who journeyed to the New World and visited Rome and such, but you only get snippets about her until over halfway through the book. The author spends a lot of time veering off into various directions, whether it's wondering how many sheep Eirik the Red might have had, or listing the items a Viking queen had with her when she was buried. While her tangents are interesting, and I certainly learned a lot about Vikings in general, I couldn't help being frustrated that I wasn't learning about Gudrid. I finished the book still wondering what was so amazing about her, other than the fact that she traveled with men.
To conclude: not the best book I've read of this type, but it did peak my interest in Icelandic sagas and Viking history, so I'll give it that. -
This book is bizarre in that the premise is good, the writing is good, but it took me nearly six months to finish which should have been a few days, maybe a week of solid reading. The Far Traveler become my albatross and I couldn't shake myself from its grip. What went wrong?
Simply put, this was not so much the tale of Gudrid rather Gudrid was the weak link for Brown to explore life and time of 10th century Iceland from a woman's perspective. By this I mean you'll be dozens and dozens of pages in with discussion on long house building or Viking weaving technology before you realise Gudrid has not been mentioned, even in passing, once. I learned a lot about Viking age, and this book definitely whetted my appetite to learn more, but I know even less about Gudrid than I did when I started the book - which seemed to defeat the purpose.
Brown admits in the beginning there is scarce information about Gudrid, just a few mentions in the sagas, but if you're going to explore the period of someone's life, shouldn't you at least tie them into the scene? And this is where I think the book failed. Brown had a lot of opportunity to make Gudrid a part of the conversation, and she isn't even a full stop at the end of a sentence.
I originally rated this 5/5 after the first 50 pages, but dropped it down to 3/5 because of the huge issue I had with Gudrid not being front and center.
Additionally, Brown does provide pages and pages of notes, acknowledgements, and sources to further your reading of the period. -
This enjoyable book follows Brown's pursuit of the archaeological and literary evidence for the life of Gudrid the Far-Traveller, a remarkable Viking woman who lived in Greenland and Iceland around the year 1000. She was not only one of the first (albeit temporary) settlers in Vinland, on the coast of Newfoundland, but she embarked on an equally adventurous pilgrimage to Rome in later life. Using her life as a lens, Brown examines the Icelandic sagas for evidence of how men and women established colonies in Iceland, Greenland and further west, and what it might actually have been like to live in these harsh, demanding environments. Throughout she draws on the sagas themselves to offer colourful glimpses of Icelandic society, and couples this with the results of modern excavation techniques and research. It's a very enthusiastic and engaging history but (not being a specialist) I did wonder whether some of the sagas were being taken for historical fact when they needed to be addressed with slightly more caution. This slight lack of historical rigour is why I haven't given it a more fulsome rating. However, it's a great introduction to a fascinating woman and I'm very keen to read some more of Brown's books about this period. She's a very passionate guide and evidently knows the sagas inside out (the translations are almost always her own, which is deeply impressive).
For a longer review, please see my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/20... -
Brown's book is not really a story of a Viking woman as much as it's a weaving together of the story of Viking culture from 800 ACE to 1100 ACE, which she achieves by the strenuous act of pulling together archeological evidence on the one hand and textual evidence from the sagas on the other hand. You can see her tug hard to make these two types of scholarship work together. In fact, this book's methodology interests me as much as the subject matter itself.
While focusing mainly on three generations before during and after 1000 ACE, Brown pulls together a massive amount of detail by using Gudrid the Far Traveler as a focal point. Otherwise, I think the reader would be overwhelmed by the innumerable facts that support this narrative. She pulls in evidence from a myriad of dimensions of Viking culture: textiles, pollen analysis, metalurgy, turf cutting, animal husbandry, ship building, ocean currents, geology, and so forth. I am amazed at the army of scholars and historical recreationists dedicated to the field of Viking studies.
Brown does a good job of bringing what could be a tidal wave of evidence into clear-cut fjords, made for us to travel through. Reading this book makes me want to take up weaving or shipbuilding if not ransacking and conquering. What an amazing people were these Vikings. -
Apparently Brown wrote a seminal work. She participated as the historian conducting research at the archeological site and about the archaeological site that would become L'anse aux Meadows. L'anse aux Meadows a Canadian national historic site and UNESCO historical site is the only authenticated Viking settlement in North America.
Like other seminal works, the writing in The Far Traveler can present some problems. Here, the title misleads. After reading 5 of the 10 chapters of this book, I asked: Where is Gudrid in all this. The organization is not clearly laid out nor connections clearly made between sagas, everyday life of Viking communities, Viking communities in different locations (Norwary, Greenland, Newfoundland), and the mostly non-professional archeological attempts to find Gudrid in North America. Apparently descendants of Vikings and others interested in Vikings found something they had been looking for. Thier interest helped prompt and provide for the heritage site.
See here beauty and information about L'ange aux Meadows. -
At times fascinating, and at times bone-dry, this book managed to frustrate me by being overly scattered, yet also piqued my interest for more Nordic sagas and the like. The titular Viking Woman, Gudrid the Far Traveler, is mentioned in only two sagas (in one of which she apparently sails to Vineland--North America). Unfortunately, there is very little other evidence that she existed, so the author speculates about her life, then links this bare framework to detailed examinations of what life must have been like for a woman in 1000 AD with sections about how to weave, build a turf house, or a viking ship. And although there's no solid proof that Gudrid lived in any particular place apart for the sagas written a century after her death, the author gets excited during her summer helping an archaeology expedition in Iceland--Gudrid bathed here, and wove here, and lost her spindle there! (The bemused local museum caretaker all but rolls her eyes and asserts doubt about Gudrid ever spending time there.) Though I found the threads linking Gudrid tenuous, I did enjoy learning about the brief Greenland settlement by the Vikings, the even briefer stay in Newfoundland (Vineland?), and especially the author's take-down of Jared Diamond's argument in Collapse about why the Vikings left Greenland, using plausible archaeological evidence to counter his notion that Vikings starved because they didn't like eating fish and seals. It's still a worthwhile read for anyone who can get past the fact that this isn't as much about Gudrid the Far Traveler as it is about life in Iceland and Greenland around the turn of the first millennium.
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It's rare for me, but I am DNF'ing this historical book.
I got a little over half way through it when I thought, what the hell is going on? This book was all over the place. The author discussed, at length, Leif Erikson, Erik the Red, how Viking ships were made, what she thought of the Icelandic stories, what her students thought and wrote about, folk tales and sagas, etc., and hardly about the woman I actually wanted to read about, Gudrid, the Far Traveler.
While most of it was interesting, I found myself not wanting to pick this book back up. I can't even pin point why that is, because I find Scandinavian history so interesting. When you get down to it, though, this book really doesn't contain what it promises. You hardly learn about Gudrid at all, and you certainly don't ascertain why she was so special. Perhaps it's because she sailed with men to a new world? Or had autonomy and land? Most Viking women did, though, so it still doesn't tell me why Gudrid was the focus this author picked (and never delivered on).
This book would have better been suited as a Viking history book in general. I honestly don't know how this was titled and marketed as an historical research book on a certain Viking woman, who, really, is hard to pin point anyway, because she's only in two sagas, where the one similarity in them is that she marries a man named Thorstein.
Perhaps you'll find this more interesting than I did, but beware. This really isn't about a Far Traveler, Voyages of a Viking woman, at all. -
I would've rated this one five stars if the author had included some maps and photos. I was pulling up Google Maps every few pages trying to locate all the different places being described, while also searching for photos of knarrs and longhouses and spindle whorls.
Still, this book was a really fun read. It's not much of a biography since there aren't enough verifiable details of Gudrid's life available to fully tell her story. Instead, the author delivers a lot of interesting info, seasoned with wry humor, about the Vikings of the Icelandic sagas, including their shipbuilding methods, explorations, settlements, tools, food and clothing, as well as their economic, social and spiritual lives. -
A book about an ancient woman traveling all over the globe in a time when women tended to stay home and care for home and hearth?! Sign me up!
Unfortunately, this book couldn't really deliver. The blurb makes it sound like the book will focus on Gudrid the Far-Traveler, and yet there isn't a whole lot about her. It's much more a book about what life was like for Vikings, and how they settled Iceland and Greenland and traveled to North America, and theories on why they abandoned their Vinland settlement. The book also seems to require at least a working knowledge of the Icelandic sagas, and I've only really heard of Leif Eiriksson. It was fascinating to read snippets from the sagas, and how researchers have been able to connect the archaeology in Iceland to the sagas. But I felt that a good chunk of the book was so dry that I found myself re-reading paragraphs and even pages because I was distracted by my own thoughts that had nothing to do with this book. -
Much like Mayor's book I read a couple of days ago, this is a masterful reconstruction of a much maligned as fiction and neglected account by a Viking woman who, it turns out, gave us a very realistic narrative of settling in the North Atlantic, surviving long-distance voyages and even completing a pilgrimage to Rome in later life. Archaeology, computer mapping, oceanography and climate studies buoy up her story as being accurate and rich with details and clues about why Vikings flourished in some areas and failed in other, disastrous colonies. Listen to the Far-Traveler, she knows what she's talking about.
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I suspect authors like these are the bane of archaeologists.
Archaeologist: "oh hey, we found a turf house from x period. Neat!"
Author: "this particular character from the sagas lived here. This was her weaving room!"
Archaeologist: "ok, sure. Just get out if my test pit, alright?"
But it was a nice little look at how a woman like Gudrid might have lived. Also, Viking went ape shit over wood panelling, who knew? I think they'd have liked the 1970s when it came to interior decorating (why yes, this was one of the main things that stuck in my head after reading this book). -
Gudrid was a Viking woman, the sister in law of Leif Erickson, who left Iceland for Vinland with her husband, had a child there, and then returned to Iceland. Later in her life, she took a pilgrimage to Rome. Her story is told in two different sagas, but there was little proof of this extraordinary woman until an archeological dig in 2000 provided evidence that many of the elements of this tale were true.
This read suffered a bit for me from my expectations on what I was picking up (I thought a biography of Gudrid and her travels) and what the book actually is - an exploration of archeology and how it tells us about the lives that came before us using the specific examples of archeology related to Viking sites and the intersection of this with the Icelandic sagas. If I had known more about the sagas, I would have gotten more about of this book. It was very interesting, but I got lost a few times with all the similarly named people. I’m definitely going to read some of the sagas and then revisit this history book.
When we were in Iceland, I was able to visit a memorial to Gudrid on a site she was believed to have live on. There was something almost magical about standing there looking out, imagining this women over 1000 years ago, setting out on such an amazing adventure. -
A brilliant read on Icelandic Viking history! It’s a fascinating tale of Gudrid the far traveler, an Icelandic woman during the Viking Age. The author does an incredible job lacing together ancient writings, archaeology, mythical sagas and depictions of lifestyles in a structured way. I find it hard to believe other reviewers found it difficult to follow. She visited archeological digs in Iceland and spoke to a myriad of scholars on various topics, bar none; comprehensive research here. This is essential reading for anyone interested in gaining insight into the lives of Viking Women during this period.
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This was a really interesting book but like other readers here I thought it was a bit too much all over the place. I speed read the end because there was just so much information and I was thinking "...and?". Maybe the title should have been something else since I kept forgetting she was talking about Gudrid. "Gudrid, who's that? Oh THAT Gudrid...ok...?"
The most interesting part for me was the part about why the Europeans left Greenland which is a bit of a mystery and there are several theories about that. Also the part about Vinland. I think those are the two parts that I will remember, the rest was kind of drowned in all the other information sadly. -
And from Bhutan, I went to Iceland! I knew about the first Vikings on the American continent, but not about Gudrid. This was a fascinating study, touching about archeology, and all kinds of sciences allowing us to figure out who lived where when. It showed a very fierce and powerful woman, her trips and what her daily life could have been.
If you prefer a historical subject on the topic, focused on Gudrid, I have just heard about The Sea Road, by Margaret Elphinstone.
original post:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/01/15/r... -
2021 bk 240. What an amazing story. Brown takes the tale of Gudrid of Icelandic sagas, using those tales and archaeological/historical research to flesh out the life of this adventurous Viking. Gudrid voyaged to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (Newfoundland), created homes and farms, married 3 times, raised children and after raising her family, after age 60, took voyage on a pilgrimage to Rome. She lived around the year 1000 and was well respected and admired enough that parts of her tale were included in the Sagas. Amazing book, made all the better because I had first read the Ivory Chessmen. The only drawback - no pictures of the archaeological digs or artifacts.
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This book is nonfiction! Do not be fooled by the lack of subtitle, and it’s novel-like appearance. Once I got over that initial shock, I found the history interesting. Unfortunately, it was a bit-muddled and confusingly laid out. Having a knowledge of the Icelandic sagas might be helpful. But I learned a lot and want to read more about the subject in the future! Worth reading with the above caveats. 3.5 stars
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This has swiftly become my favorite book of the year and oh, how I envy Ms. Brown who spends her summers in Iceland with archaeologists, learning more about the Vikings.
What a joy it was to find a biography of Gudrid, to learn of her two marriages, her travels, to trace her ancestors by their stories in the sagas. This was such an independent, enterprising woman that she took a boat, foodstuffs and her servants to travel alone to Greenland. There she eventually built a longhouse; the author explains what a "longhouse" was, and how sod is used to build the house. She tells about the Viking loom Gudrid would have used, how it was built and how it worked. As a weaver myself, I was pleased to learn how important was the fabric Viking homemakers wove, how it had more value in trade than even silver or gold.
The book also explained that women were the first converts to Christianity. Why? While warriors were promised valhalla, women were only promised a damp, dark region of Hel which wasn't very promising. The heaven Christianity offered, full of light and beauty, however, was a place to which Viking women could look forward.
Reading this fabulous biography was like taking a course in gender studies! I loved it! -
Based more on old wives' tales rather than fact, this is still a nice read. And, as the book itself points out (or rather the author), there really is little more than lore to present the history of those great (though extremely violent) explorers. The author very smoothly gives two versions of the tale of this Viking woman, leaving it totally up to you to decide which version you prefer. I was hooked by the title as I love reading about unusual, adventurous women in history.
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I really enjoyed this book. It's worth reading, and shows something about the Viking traditions as regards women. They had power, and authority where deserved, equal partners in that society. Rant over.
The story is a compelling re-telling of the voyages to continental north america from the viewpoint of woman who participated in the voyages, indeed owned a ship involved.Drawn from cross-referencing several sagas, and records from Norway and Iceland. -
This is a fantastic and colorful, rich overview of the viking age, through the lens of Gudrid's life and the struggle to sift the fact from the fiction of the sagas. Wonderfully readable, without any pretension, and definitely worth picking up as a window into both the history and the Vinland Sagas.
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Reading this book, as do many others similar to this, makes me wish I studied in archaeology. How cool to go all over the world searching and excavating for history. The intricate building of the ships by the Vikings was incredible, so exact and precise in their measurements and made all by hand. The book mentioned an annual Viking Festival and Haymaking Day that are still held today. How much fun would that be to go and experience them? The details about the jewelry and clothing worn was very interesting to read. Such pains and I am sure pleasure to make their clothing out of sheep wool and glass blowing for jewelry. I mean this was 1000 years ago yet the describing of it could have been yesterday. This book certainly makes me want to research more of my own heritage and history of Scotland. I liked the references about Christ and how he was perceived then and mostly still perceived today in Christianity. I also enjoyed reading about the Gods (Odin, Thor, Loki, and the place of Ragnarok) and the stories we know from watching the Marvel Movies. One thing that was really missing was pictures. I think added a photo log to this book would have really enhanced it more. I was wanting to see photos of artifacts, dwellings, and sketches. I guess I will have to travel to Iceland and Greenland to see it all for myself.
This line on page 239 just made me LOL of monks that Gudrid may have met in her travels. ..."carrying little mirrors on top of their shoes so that with each step they can admire themselves." -
An absolutely fascinating detective-type story, digging into the Icelandic sagas and the Icelandic soil, for answers and hints that might lead us to reconstructing both the life of Gudrid and the lives of the Vikings that dared to live out on the edge of their world. It is written as following her investigations, along with the archaeologists, into the above-mentioned Icelandic site, and interweaves what they find and hypothesise, with what we know, from the sagas, of Gudrid The Far Traveller. We are based in Iceland and journey with Nancy and Gudrid over the icy seas to the New World.
I will admint to being held spell-bound all the way through, both by the archaelogical findings, and by the vivid bringing to life of Gudrid. Even more so, because though I didn't realise it at the time of purchasing, it does actually concern the woman featured in another of my all-time favourite - and one of the most beautifully written - books about the Vikings and the sagas of the New World,
The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone. If you pretend to have any kind of interest, passing or other wise, you cannot be taken seriously if you haven't read both of these books.
Just as I was left stunned at the majesty of The Sea Road, I am left equally thoughtful, by the closing lines of this one. I was going to quote them, but I'll leave you to discover and enjoy them for yourselves.
And, my (perhaps) one and two Viking books both written by women. Well, there you go.
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Was expecting a historical travelogue and in a way that's what I got. But also includes a fascinating look at the discovery and settlement of Iceland, archaeological discoveries made regarding the turf building construction (or at least what remains of it), interpretation of the Icelandic sagas. Weaving the different types of wool that were the major trade commodity from Iceland (along with walrus ivory until the discovery and importation of elephant ivory). The lands of Greenland, Markland and Vinland (at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland artifacts were found that could only be found further south). And all surrounding this remarkable woman who was not afraid to travel with her husbands (she had two).
From Iceland to Greenland to North America (maybe Vinland, maybe Markland), back to Iceland, to Norway to go on pilgrimage to Rome before returning to Iceland where she was considered a nun with a small chapel built by her eldest son. Comparisons were also made between Latin Christianity and Celtic Christianity and how each blended with the pagan beliefs that the Vikings carried from Scandinavia across the world.
Serious, a fascinating book and Brown even includes her own amateur archeological experience on some digs that enable volunteers to participate. Excellent look at the Viking people without the stereotypes that have clung to their history.
2022-273 -
I thought this would be more of a straight-up biography of Gudrid Thorbjornardottir but it is much more. Gudrid was the first European woman to give birth in North America, when she was part of the L'Anse aux Meadows Viking settlement in the early 1000s. I stumbled onto her birthplace on Snaefellsness Peninsula in Iceland when we were routed off the highway while an accident was cleared.
During her long life she traveled from Iceland to Greenland to Vinland back to Iceland, and as far as Rome. But what we know and surmise of her life is gathered from the Sagas, yes, but mostly from archaeology. And this is where the book surprised me, as author Nancy Marie Brown describes in detail her own work assisting at sites in Iceland, and conducts intriguing interviews with others who know the sites and artifacts of the other places Gudrid was thought to have lived. It's a fascinating read about the lives of Vikings, the settlement of Greenland, and the adoption of Christianity in Iceland. -
Actual rating: 2.5 stars. This kind of felt all over the place. The description makes you think that Gudrid is going to be the focal point of the book, but she really isn't. By Brown's own admission, we don't really know much about Gudrid so she ends up only getting passing mentions here and there. Because of this, Brown instead explores what the Viking age was like using Gudrid as a touchstone. This would have been interesting, but the organization in the book is atrocious. It felt like Brown was trying hard to make it accessible to the average reader, but instead, the interjections of Brown's time excavating Gudrid's house, the explaination the same bits of history over and over again, and the inclusion of so many other historical characters made it a mess.
