The first of a four-video series outlining the scope of the medieval Scandinavian world and some of its major cultural, policitcal and literary characteristics. This video: mainly geography.
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The second of a four-video series outlining the scope of the medieval Scandinavian world and some of its major cultural, policitcal and literary characteristics. This video: mainly Vikings.
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The third of a four-video series outlining the scope of the medieval Scandinavian world and some of its major cultural, policitcal and literary characteristics. This video: mainly religious and political change from the Viking Age to the end of the Middle Ages.
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The fourth of a four-video series outlining the scope of the medieval Scandinavian world and some of its major cultural, policitcal and literary characteristics. This video: stetching the kinds of literature produced in medieval Iceland.
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Visit us at www.sagenhaftes-island.is "I believe that we need poetry, if we want to come through the storm," said author Thor Vilhjálmsson. His novel Morgunþula í stráum (Morning Verse in the Grass), which received the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1998, is currently being translated into German. Thor himself is as happily busy as ever, writing long into the nights, but unwilling to divulge what he is working on. Perhaps it is a novel, which will simply be ready when it is ready, as he says himself. "I'm definitely not attempting a rewrite of The Saga of the Sturlungs in Morning Verse in the Grass. I'm not trying to imitate anything that has previously been written on Sturla Þórðarson, the protagonist, or the Age of the Sturlungs. This is my work, and writing is my life. One always needs to come to grips with what one perceives." Thor Vilhjálmsson died on March 2, 2011, shortly after the interview, aged 85. Production/Editing: Þorsteinn J. Photography: Bjarni Felix Bjarnason Archive material: Sveinn M. Sveinsson from Plús Film Older Interview: Einar Kárason Subtitles: Steingrímur Teague
Tags :Fabulous Iceland, literature, Frankfurt book fair, Icelandic Literature, Thor Vilhjálmsson, guest of honor 2011, Book Fair

www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au Sjon talks to Rose Powell from the Sydney Writers' Centre in Milsons Point at the Sydney Writers' Festival 2012. He talks about his writing process, the influence of surrealism on his work and writing universal stories that are emotionally true.
Tags :Sjon, Sydney Writers' Festival, Sydney Writers' Centre, writing tips, Iceland, writing tips authors, writing surrealism

No other country has a larger proportion of writers and readers than Iceland. The island nation is guest of honor at this year's book fair. Our reporters visited the land of geysers and trolls and found more there than just sagas and traditions.
Tags :Deutsche Welle, Germany, Deutschland, DW-TV, Information, Culture, Art 21, Arts, Fine Art, Iceland, Guest of Honor, Frankfurt Book Fair

Novelist Sjón talks about about modern folk tales and shifting Icelandic identity, and asks: 'Who wants to be a music-loving elf for ever'
Tags :Iceland, Literature, Writing, Reading, Sjon, book, books, The Guardian

Visit us at www.sagenhaftes-island.is "This edition is intended for readers," says Kristof Magnusson of a new German translation of The Sagas of Icelanders, due out this fall with the publishing house S. Fischer Verlag. The edition will contain new translations of all The Sagas of Icelanders in four volumes, as well as an accompanying volume of annotations. Magnusson is one of 15 translators working on this momentous project, which is one of the central events of Iceland's appearance as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Magnusson's job was to translate The Saga of Grettir the Strong-- the last Icelanders' saga to be written, and in many ways the most peculiar. "I always found Grettir an especially interesting character," he says. "He doesn't fit into his era. If Grettir had been born in another time, he could have become a real hero, but according to the values of his contemporaries he was just too wild and unruly." The sagas are also simultaneously being translated into Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and due to be published in those languages in 2012. Jóhann Sigurðsson of the publishing house Saga oversees the project. He was also behind the 1997 complete English translation of the Icelanders' sagas, which laid the groundwork for the upcoming German translation. "We feel that the sagas are world literature," says the scholar Örnólfur Thorsson, who was involved in publishing the 1985 complete edition of the sagas in Icelandic. He then went on to collaborate with ...
Tags :Sagas, Icelandic Literature, Fabulous Iceland, Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, Frankfurt Book Fair

Visit us at www.sagenhaftes-island.is "On this occasion, I think of my book-loving country, Iceland, which has kept its watchful eye on me ever since I took my first steps as an author," said Halldór Laxness when he returned to Iceland with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. In 2011, all of Laxness' titles will be in print in Germany for the first time. We had a chat with Valgerður Benediktsdóttir, foreign rights manager at the publishing house Forlagið, about what the year had in store for Laxness aficionados, and also joined a group of junior college students who were visiting Gljúfrasteinn, former residence of the Nobel Laureate. Photography/editing: Þorsteinn J. Music: Samaris, winning band of Músíktilraunir 2011. Archive footage: courtesy of The Icelandic Film Museum, narration by Kristján Eldjárn. English subtitles: Steingrímur Karl Teague.
Tags :Halldór Laxness, Fabulous Iceland, Guest of Honor 2011, Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, Icelandic Literature

Icelandic writer Gudbergur Bergsson, (born 1932 in Grindavik, Iceland), talks about when he learned to appreciate the flamenco in Barcelona during his student years under Franco's regime. Music: Aurelio Selles/Andrés Heredia. Produced by Veni-Vidi ehf.
Tags :Guðbergur, Bergsson, Gudbergur, Flamenco, Barcelona, Icelandic, literature, closet, Franco, Islandia, spain

Episode 7: A Literature Festival in North Rhine-Westphalia Falkenhagen Monastery in the heart of Westphalia is an unusual backdrop for an unusual literature festival. German actress Corinna Harfouch reads old stories about witches; the Icelandic writer Sijón retells the mystical sagas of the far north. Our ARTS.21 Reporter Matthias Frickel visits a poetic staging of new and old literature.
Tags :Deutsche, Welle, DW-TV, arts.21, summer, outing

Visit us at sagenhaftes-island.is "The photographs are frozen moments -- usually a quarter of a second to two seconds, imprinted on the film. That's the amount of time I've conserved. What constituted a comparable time period in Collingwood's creative process? How long did it take for him to draw and/or paint each picture?" asks photographer and chronicler Einar Falur Ingólfsson in his newest book, Saga-Steads, published by Crymogea. The work contains Ingólfsson's photographic dialogue with the watercolors and drawings of English artist and antiquarian WG Collingwood, who traveled around western Iceland in 1897. A century later, Ingólfsson retraced Collingwood's footsteps with a camera. The National Museum of Iceland possesses some 203 works by Collingwood, and on the occasion of the book's publication, Ingólfsson put up an exhibition in the museum, featuring his photographs and Collingwood's works. Photographs from the book: Einar Falur Ingólfsson Cinematography / Photography: Karl R. Lilliendahl Cinematography / Editing: Þorsteinn J. Music: Einar Valur Scheving, Cycles www.myspace.com/einarscheving
Tags :Fabulous Iceland, Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, Icelandic photography, Icelandic literature

Visit us at sagenhaftes-island.is "I'm just a shepherd who has lost his flock" says writer Jón Kalman Stefánsson. Although he has released two major novels in recent years -- Himnaríki og Helvíti / Heaven and Hell and Harmur englanna / Sorrow of Angels -- he remains adamantly silent on his current work-in-progress. Instead, this interview sees Stefánsson elaborate on the role of nature in his work, Iceland´s financial meltdown and the taboo on discussing unfinished work. Cinematography: Bjarni Felix Bjarnason Sound: Hjörtur Svavarsson Music: Oliver Messiaen, Oraison Translation: Anna Yates Translation of excerpt from Harmur Englanna / Sorrow of Angels: Philip Roughton
Tags :Icelandic literature, Fabulous Iceland, Frankfurt Book Fair, Guest of honour 2011, Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Visit us at sagenhaftes-island.is On the morning of April 19, 1246, two of the most powerful factions in Iceland, the Sturlungar and the Ásbirningar, locked horns in the bloodiest battle in the history of Iceland -- the Battle of Haugsnes. Some seven centuries later, Mr Hansen began the meticulous reconstruction that would take him over a year to complete. Using a power-shovel, he lined up more than a thousand boulders -- one for each combatant -- and planted iron crosses on the 111 boulders representing those who died. The result is an arresting snapshot of the formations of the two clans, taken moments before the fight began. The story of the Battle of Haugsnes has been on Mr Hansen's mind ever since he was a child, as has the rest of The Saga of the Sturlungar. The book still rests on his night table, along with the Bible. "It's hard to say which one's better," he says. Photography: Bjarni Felix Bjarnason Editing/Composition: Þorsteinn J. Music: amiina.
Tags :Icelandic literature, Sagas, Fabulous Iceland, Book Fair, Frankfurt

Dr Janina Ramirez explores Icelandic literature in the BBC Four documentary 'The Viking Sagas'. BBC © 2011 To find out more about Dr Janina Ramirez, visit: www.janinaramirez.co.uk
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Visit us at sagenhaftes-island.is "If people sense that you respect them and their culture, the possibilities are endless," says photographer Páll Stefánsson of his newest book, Áfram Afríka / Africa -- The Future of Football, a vast project he has been working on for the past three years. In the book, Stefánsson portrays the Africa he sees. "Football is everywhere," he says. "I wanted to make a tiny difference to our ideas about the continent." Photography: Karl R. Lilliendahl Interview / Composition: Þorsteinn J. Further information: www.crymogea.is
Tags :Icelandic literature, Fabulous Iceland, Frankfurt Book Fair, Guest of honour 2011, Icelandic photography

On October 7, 2008, as part of the ongoing Reading the World Conversation Series, Bragi Olafsson--Icelandic author and former bassist of the Sugarcubes--reads from his novel THE PETS (published by Open Letter). Then, joined by translator Lytton Smith, they discuss and take questions about writing, translating, literature in Iceland, and more. The Barnes & Noble Review said of THE PETS: "The best short novel Ive read this year must be Bragi Ólafssons The Pets, which makes more room for strangeness in its 157 pages than most novels can find in two or three times that length. . . .Small, dark, and hard to put down, The Pets may be a classic in the literature of small enclosed spaces." (This event is hosted by Open Letter and the Humanities Project at the University of Rochester.) Find out more about the RTWCS and Open Letter here: www.openletterbooks.org
Tags :Open Letter, Open Letter Books, Reading the World, Conversation Series, Bragi Olafsson, Sugarcubes, Lytton Smith, University of Rochester, Humanities Project, literature, translation, Three Percent

During a weather report on the National Broadcasting TV channel in Iceland the anchor becomes frustrated when reporting the weather.
Tags :Iceland (Country), Weather (Literature Subject), News, LOL, anchor, funny, fail, rage