---
product_id: 10109898
title: "Viking Age Iceland Paperback – September 1, 2001"
brand: "jesse l. byock"
price: "$65"
currency: NZD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/10109898-viking-age-iceland-paperback-september-1-2001
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# Viking Age Iceland Paperback – September 1, 2001

**Brand:** jesse l. byock
**Price:** $65
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Viking Age Iceland Paperback – September 1, 2001 by jesse l. byock
- **How much does it cost?** $65 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Controlled Violence
  

*by M***O on Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2010*

Byock's study of Iceland during the Viking Age and the generations immediately following it, is not an exciting page turner, but is filled with information not easily available elsewahere.  Nordic Iceland developed under extremely unusual circumstances.  Unlike the subsequent discoveries of Greenland and North America, Iceland was uninhabitated.  Usable land was scarce and was quickly filled with settlers.  During the first centuries, civilization developed entirely without the presence of 'civis' [cities] and there weren't even any towns.  The liveable parts of the island were subdivided entirely into farms.Nevertheless there was was a society and that society was highly litigious--an alternative to lethal 'solutions'.  This was also necessary because Scandinavians of the time were inclined to violence at the drop of a hat.  Rules to direct these aggressive impulses into survivable channels were simply mandatory.  It was also necessary because available land filled up quickly so there came to be an eternal jocking for land and postion in  limited territories.Although legalistic to a fault, Icelandic law had little--and much--in common with present law.  Might pretty much made Right and there was a continual scamble for allies--interested allies, to be certain--to 'back' your position at the local Thing or Althing.  You won if you could back your opponent and his supporters down, although this sometimes involved bloodshed and killing.  Still, this 'decision' didn't always stick.  If you reckoned that you had more to gain by a killing than peaceful acquiesence...well...you killed and hoped you judged the consequences properly.  If not, you stood to be 'Outlawed' which meant ANYONE could kill you on sight.  Police and military weren't necessary.  Most individuals were evidently happy to participate in a free kill.Although not included in this book, there is an instructive tale in one of the Vinland Sagas--Sagas primarily about Icelanders.  Our Scandinavians are sailing down the coast or a river in North America and chance on some 'skraelings' sleeping under an overturned canoe supported by timbers.  Our Europeans quietly land on the bank and kill the native-americans because they were obviously 'Outlaws'  A free kill.  A kill to be taken advantage of.As rough as Icelandic Law was by our standards, it worked.  If you think about it, present legal systems are very much designed to shortcut the more direct satisfaction of a killing duel.  Amazingly, when religious push-came-to-shove in 1000 A.D.--and despite the fact that most Icelanders were Pagan--they abided by a decision that ALL would convert to Christianity, in the interest of order.  To be certain, many people must have 'converted' entirely tongue-in-cheek but they converted nonetheless and Iceland became a more-or-less Christian nation.  I say 'more-or-less' because Pagan prists became Catholic Priests and our primary knowledge of ancient Scandinavian religion was written down--quite proudly--by Icelandic Catholic priests about 200 years following this mass conversion.I also enjoyed discussions about the legal status of women and children.  They were IMMUNE from killing violence and protected from family violence. Although women couldn't personally prosecute legal cases [probably to protect them], their status was similar to their fathers, brothers and husbands.  There was something like sexual equality which was not unlike that followed over much of the northern world, although obviously not in the rest of the world.  Our present laws fixing female equality must therefore derive from northern law and tradition.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Important survey of Icelandic society
  

*by C***S on Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2010*

This study seems to have been written as a follow-up to 
  
Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power







  
  
     and covers much of the same territory.  However, this is a somewhat different work as well.  While "Medieval Iceland" focuses much more heavily on the legal sources, this book attempts to use the sagas to reconstruct social structures in the earlier centuries of republican Iceland.  This book, along with the author's other works, should be in the library of anyone who seriously wants to learn more about the Viking-Age Norse cultures.This book covers a wide range of topics, from the effects of human settlement on Iceland ecologically to the legal mechanisms that allowed blood feuds to play a stabilizing role on society.  Along the way, he covers questions of how Icelandic society was stratified, the role of the chieftains/godhar, and the economics of the island.  In an appendix he discusses the construction of turf buildings.In terms of questions of the uses of the Sagas as sources for history, Byock discusses the problems of doing so and the changing debate among historians, covering a large number of viewpoints here.  This section in particular is very helpful for those who may be trying to make up their minds as to whether the family sagas can be useful in the study of history.The book is very detailed in what it covers and provides a compelling picture of early Iceland.  Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A fascinating, comprehensive history of early Iceland
  

*by J***T on Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2021*

Jesse Byock relates the history, anthropology, and archeological significance of this early Norse settlement. The social order and significance of feud are related in part through sagas. This is as informative as it is well written.

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*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-03-15*