Book Review: Icelandic Folk Tales

In my on-going quest to learn more about Iceland before I travel there in the fall, I picked out Hjorleifur Helgi Stafansson's collection of Icelandic Folk Tales as a follow-on to the biography of Thurídur Einarsdóttir. It made a nice complement, as some of the tales and their settings resonated nicely with the history I learned from the first book.

 

Title: Icelandic Folk Tales

Author: Hjorleifur Helgi Stefansson

Publication Info: History Press, 2020. 192 pages.

Source: Library (Libby) 

Publisher's Blurb:
Iceland is a land where stories are as important as history.

When Vikings settled the island they brought their tales with them.

Every rock, hot spring and waterfall seems to have its own tale: cruel man-eating trolls rub shoulders with beautiful elves whose homes are hidden from mortal view, whilst vengeful ghosts envy the living, seeking to drag lost loves into their graves. Many of the stories in this collection are classic Icelandic tales, while others are completely new to English translation.

Hjörleifur is typically Icelandic and grew up hearing stories from his grandparents.

He is dedicated to breathing fresh life into the stories he loves.

He lives in his native Borgarnes, and also spends a lot of time in Scotland, where he is becoming renowned in the Scottish storytelling circuit.

My Review:
This book read a lot like one's grandpa telling you the stories of the old times, which I think is just the feel that the author was going for. There are comments about how "this happened in my grandfather's time" or even that events were witnessed by an ancestor, as a good folk tale/legend should. The result is a quick-reading, charming book that carried for me a strong feeling of (what I take to be) the Icelandic culture, and not a little of the landscape, as well. 

As I noted above, the stories felt like they definitely matched the historical world that I'd read about in Woman, Captain, Rebel, which helped me feel like I was getting a good sense of the place, or at least, of the Iceland of the past! In any case, the stories are good fairy tales, in the traditional style--which doesn't always pull any punches and gets a bit grim at times, though the author seemed to come up with quite a lot of happy endings. Those actually made me wonder if he'd done to the stories what has been done to Grimm's fairy tales--make them more palatable to modern readers by reducing the gore factor. 

Either way, I'll count this as a good quick read to get into the Icelandic mood!

My Recommendation:
I have no idea if there are better collections of Icelandic fairy tales, and I do feel like I should hunt up a copy of Njall's Saga and give that another read, but this one was easy and fun and evocative.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked Icelandic Fairy Tales out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  



 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025   
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