This is a surprisingly effective technique. He never writes down his answers, so you just get her question, a row of asterisks and then her reactions to whatever he has said. I enjoyed the way that the story was told to the monk, with Gudrid's digressions into how warm it was in Italy and her questioning of Agnar about his life and various theological issues. As the sagas are rather minimalist in their story-telling style, they lend themselves well to being re-told, as the novelist has room to flesh events out, without changing the basic story. The story is framed by her pilgrimage to Rome as an old woman, where she tells her story to an Icelandic monk called Agnar, who writes down a Latin translation for a cardinal.It is a re-telling of happenings from several of the Icelandic Sagas as the Vikings explore the lands of the Northern Atlantic.

She went to live in Greenland before going on a voyage to Vinland, where she became the mother of the first European child to be born in America. 'The Sea Road' is the story of the travels of Gudrid, an 11th century Viking woman born in pagan Iceland. The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone - a retelling of events from the Icelandic sagas, that was recommended by several people on a holiday in Iceland.I finished this book today, having read it in double-quick time as I found it very hard to put down. “The audacious female traveler Gudrid of Iceland is the original explorer’s explorer…Elphinstone has written a fine tribute to a woman whose tale is as warm and inviting as a hot spring on a clear winter day.’ The Times, UK Read more Gudrid’s narrative describes a multi-layered voyage into the unknown, all recounted with astonishing immediacy and rich atmospheric detail. But it is the accidental discovery of North America, a place the Vikings call Vinland, that leads Gundrid to ponder the world and her place in it. With her husband Karlssefni, Gundrid traverses the sea from Iceland to Greenland, Norway, and even Rome.

Strong and self-reliant, Gundrid Thorbjarnardóttir lives at the remote edge of the known world, in a starkly beautiful landscape where the sea is the only connection to the shores beyond. This vivid historical saga of Viking exploration follows the adventures of an intrepid 11th century woman who voyages to North America.ġ1th century Iceland is a world where the old Norse gods are still invoked, even as Christianity gains favor, where the spirits of the dead roam the vast northern icefields, tormenting the living, and Viking explorers plunder foreign shores.

The sea road by margaret elphinstone