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Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed past the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to a baby before sailing home. Or so the Icelandic sagas say. Even after archaeologists found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland, few believed that the details of Gudrid's story were true. Then, in 2001, a team of scientists discovered what may have been this pioneering woman's last house, buried under a hay field in Iceland, just where the sagas suggested it could be. Joining scientists with cutting-edge technology and the latest archaeological techniques, and tracing Gudrid's steps on land and in the sagas, author Brown reconstructs a life that spanned--and expanded--the bounds of the then-known world.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member IsolaBlue
The story of Gudrid the Far Traveler is amazing in its ability to engage an otherwise indifferent reader. One may not feel particularly attracted to Viking lore, to accounts of archaeological digs, or to Icelandic or New World history, but upon hitting the first page of The Far Traveler, there is a
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seduction waiting. It doesn't take more than a few pages to get hooked. The author, Nancy Marie Brown, is a marvelous storyteller for this particular form of nonfiction. She's done her research - both in the pages of old tomes as well as in the field - and she is able to convey very ancient history with a fresh, contemporary feel. To top that off, Ms. Brown has an amazing sense of humor and her serious but accessible account of Gudrid and her travels is punctuated by tongue-in-cheek remarks that make the reader feel as though they are actually with Ms. Brown in person, hearing her relate the story with more than a few mischievious asides. What strikes one the most is why we have not heard more of Gudrid throughout history. After all, most of us know about Leif Ericksson and of Erick the Red. Why has Gudrid been kept hidden? We owe a debt to Ms. Brown for introducing us to such a fascinating character from history. This is the kind of book that one starts with no particular expectation but finishes with astonishment. At the end, the reader has had a crash course in Viking history, Icelandic history, a bit about the history of Greenland, has learned about the discovery of Vinland, how to look for and excavate Viking long houses, and has gained familiarity with the famous Sagas. If all that seems too much for one book, look at it this way: Brown gives the reader options. After reading The Far Traveler, some may want to do further exploration into Viking history, others may want to read the Sagas in their full, original state. Still others may want to book a trip to Iceland, now a suddenly more interesting destination because of this book. The Far Traveler is full of surprises, a delight to read, and a labor of love on the part of its author who was determined to introduce the world to Gudrid. Show Less
LibraryThing member justabookreader
In the 12th Century, a Viking woman named Gudrid packed up and left all she knew to sail to the edge of her known world. She was looking for the land found by Leif Eiriksson. After being blown off course by a storm, she eventually landed in the New World and made a home there only to sail back to
Gudrid is mentioned in some Icelandic sagas and over the years her existence has been debated, until archeologists unearthed a longhouse in Newfoundland that proved she did in fact exist and was literally the stuff legends are made of.
I don't read much non-fiction but I've always found Vikings fascinating and thought this would be interesting read. I was right, it was. Some of the archeological technology, GPS coordinate mapping, and other methods used to uncover the sites were not all the interesting but chapters on Viking diets, farming techniques, weaving, and daily living conditions were. Who would have thought the process of making wool and spinning would be entertaining? And, also a bit disgusting since urine is involved in the process but nonetheless fun to read about it. When I came to the chapters describing the lives of Viking I was hooked.
The sagas that Brown references in every chapter made me want to read more. I put The Greenlanders, a novel by Jane Smiley, on hold at the library and hope I find it just as entertaining. If you like Viking stories and sagas, you'll enjoy this read. While part of it might sound like a college lecture, the rest makes up for it.
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her homeland a few years later.Gudrid is mentioned in some Icelandic sagas and over the years her existence has been debated, until archeologists unearthed a longhouse in Newfoundland that proved she did in fact exist and was literally the stuff legends are made of.
I don't read much non-fiction but I've always found Vikings fascinating and thought this would be interesting read. I was right, it was. Some of the archeological technology, GPS coordinate mapping, and other methods used to uncover the sites were not all the interesting but chapters on Viking diets, farming techniques, weaving, and daily living conditions were. Who would have thought the process of making wool and spinning would be entertaining? And, also a bit disgusting since urine is involved in the process but nonetheless fun to read about it. When I came to the chapters describing the lives of Viking I was hooked.
The sagas that Brown references in every chapter made me want to read more. I put The Greenlanders, a novel by Jane Smiley, on hold at the library and hope I find it just as entertaining. If you like Viking stories and sagas, you'll enjoy this read. While part of it might sound like a college lecture, the rest makes up for it.
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LibraryThing member EowynA
The central character of this book is Gudrid the Far Traveler, an Icelandic woman around the turn of the first millennium. The bare facts of her life are taken from a few phrases in several of the Sagas. She was beautiful. She appears to have been the granddaughter of an Irish slave. She was
The book also includes archaeological facts and a "you are there" dig in a site that could have been Gudrid's home -- it was on the right farm, in the right place, and the right age. There is information about the material culture of the time she lived, how the farming and sheepherding practices of Iceland affected the landscape. There is even a rebuttal of some of the interpretations made by Jared Diamond, in his ecological/cultural book Collapse.
The author visited Iceland, Greenland, and L'Anse aux Meadows, and describes what she saw. She participated in the dig. She sorted wool and spun threads. She looks at the economy of the time - Iceland's biggest export was wool cloth -- their primary form of trade (as opposed to plunder).
A fascinating book both for what the author reveals about this dynamic but barely recorded woman, and how the author reaches those conclusions. Recommended.
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married in her teens to a man she accompanied to Greenland. He died, and she overwintered there with the family of Eirik the Red. She then married Eirik's son Thorstein, younger brother of Leif. He died. She then married Karlsefni, and their son, Snorri was born in Vinland - the first recorded European born in North America. His name was mentioned in the Vinland saga, but hers was not. We must assume she was there, though, for her son to born there. They returned to Greenland, and Norway, and settled down on a farm in Iceland, Glaumbaer. Karlsefni appears to have died, for she only had two sons, who lived with her at the farm. In her old age, she made a pilgrimage to Rome, and became a nun upon her return. This is what can be teased from the sagas. The book also includes archaeological facts and a "you are there" dig in a site that could have been Gudrid's home -- it was on the right farm, in the right place, and the right age. There is information about the material culture of the time she lived, how the farming and sheepherding practices of Iceland affected the landscape. There is even a rebuttal of some of the interpretations made by Jared Diamond, in his ecological/cultural book Collapse.
The author visited Iceland, Greenland, and L'Anse aux Meadows, and describes what she saw. She participated in the dig. She sorted wool and spun threads. She looks at the economy of the time - Iceland's biggest export was wool cloth -- their primary form of trade (as opposed to plunder).
A fascinating book both for what the author reveals about this dynamic but barely recorded woman, and how the author reaches those conclusions. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member goth_marionette
As a Norse scholar I really enjoyed reading a book focusing on the life of a woman. She had an eventful and exciting life and while it is not the life of a typical woman during this time it provides a glimpse into the life of an adventurous woman. It is a good book for both a scholar and a casual
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reader. It is far from a dry scholarly book that one might expect. Show Less
LibraryThing member heroineinabook
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
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.
Simply put, this was
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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.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
I've read a lot of Icelandic Saga, so I was completely into this book. It's the story of the archeology behind the life of Gudrun, viking woman and far traveler. A very, very interesting book.
LibraryThing member juliayoung
The Far Traveler is an incredibly-detailed account of Icelandic life in the tenth and eleventh centuries, while following the travels Gudrid, one of the women mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas. Nancy Marie Brown discusses everything from how yarn was spun to what made a woman rank as a man in the
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culture. A couple of the descriptions of land plots get a little difficult to get through, but other that that, this was a very enjoyable book. Show Less
LibraryThing member nmele
This book is great reading and very informative for anyone interested in the medieval world, Vikings, the settlements of Iceland and Greenland by the Vikings, early Viking voyages to North America and the Icelandic sagas. Through the life of a single woman (who does figure in two sagas), Brown
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explores all of these topics and throws in a bit of archeology lore and trade craft to boot. A great read. Show Less
LibraryThing member threadnsong
This book is why I only use 5 stars for an absolutely splendiforous book. This is one of them. Ms. Brown does not try to write a historical fiction novel or a speculative "who she must have been" book. Instead, she takes ways to research a life and puts them all together: Icelandic sagas, Viking
Along the way, we learn about Viking ship building techniques, how the forests yielded the particular tree with the particular V-shape to it to serve as the ship's ribs. Several trees, in fact. And a tree with a straight trunk, about 36' high, to serve as the mast. And how the nails were cut off once they were embedded, instead of bent down.
Then there is navigation through the Northern Atlantic, perhaps when the sun barely sets, without astrolabes, through the thick fog and possibly in pitching seas. Much of the archeological evidence about Vikings is from a prosperous farm, inhabited between 1000 and 1400, called "Farm Beneath the Sand" that was discovered in Greenland in 1991. It was later claimed by the Greenland tides 6 years later.
The map that accompanies this book is a brilliant viewpoint of an Icelandic voyage to Vinland, "Wine Land" which could be anywhere along the Eastern US coast. And Ms. Brown provides quotes and papers for all the researchers who claim what they think was *the* place where Vikings settled because, well, grapes. But the best evidence comes from northern Newfoundland in L'Anse aux Meadows where a sharpening stone and other Viking relics from the proper timeframe were found.
And the needlework! Thank the Goddesses of Threads that Ms. Brown put as much research into thread and cloth as she did into all the other discoveries and explanations! For the general public to know the painstaking way to take a shorn fleece, wash it, card it, then using a drop spindle to create thread. And the different whorls (disks) that are used to create the different thicknesses (or weights) of thread in drop spinning lends credence to the excavated homesteads where these whorls are found. They pinpoint the room, usually to the side of the Viking longhouse, where the women sat and spun, And wove. While I don't have a complete visual of a Viking loom, it is not a treadle loom. It's a walking loom. An estimate in the book is that a "hardworking weaver walked 23 miles every day."
What makes this book work on so many levels is the story-telling, the lyricism, of the words on the page. It is carefully crafted to give the history of a woman who lived a thousand years ago, who went on a dangerous voyage, and came home to create a prosperous farm, Glaumbauer, in northern Iceland that was excavated and researched in the early 2000's.
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history, archeology, and needlework. And creates a rich book that explains how Gudrid, a Viking wife, mother, and daughter, made a voyage across the Northern Atlantic ocean in about the year 1000, gave birth to a son, and made it back to Iceland 3 years later.Along the way, we learn about Viking ship building techniques, how the forests yielded the particular tree with the particular V-shape to it to serve as the ship's ribs. Several trees, in fact. And a tree with a straight trunk, about 36' high, to serve as the mast. And how the nails were cut off once they were embedded, instead of bent down.
Then there is navigation through the Northern Atlantic, perhaps when the sun barely sets, without astrolabes, through the thick fog and possibly in pitching seas. Much of the archeological evidence about Vikings is from a prosperous farm, inhabited between 1000 and 1400, called "Farm Beneath the Sand" that was discovered in Greenland in 1991. It was later claimed by the Greenland tides 6 years later.
The map that accompanies this book is a brilliant viewpoint of an Icelandic voyage to Vinland, "Wine Land" which could be anywhere along the Eastern US coast. And Ms. Brown provides quotes and papers for all the researchers who claim what they think was *the* place where Vikings settled because, well, grapes. But the best evidence comes from northern Newfoundland in L'Anse aux Meadows where a sharpening stone and other Viking relics from the proper timeframe were found.
And the needlework! Thank the Goddesses of Threads that Ms. Brown put as much research into thread and cloth as she did into all the other discoveries and explanations! For the general public to know the painstaking way to take a shorn fleece, wash it, card it, then using a drop spindle to create thread. And the different whorls (disks) that are used to create the different thicknesses (or weights) of thread in drop spinning lends credence to the excavated homesteads where these whorls are found. They pinpoint the room, usually to the side of the Viking longhouse, where the women sat and spun, And wove. While I don't have a complete visual of a Viking loom, it is not a treadle loom. It's a walking loom. An estimate in the book is that a "hardworking weaver walked 23 miles every day."
What makes this book work on so many levels is the story-telling, the lyricism, of the words on the page. It is carefully crafted to give the history of a woman who lived a thousand years ago, who went on a dangerous voyage, and came home to create a prosperous farm, Glaumbauer, in northern Iceland that was excavated and researched in the early 2000's.
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Subjects
Original publication date
2007