The history of medieval Europe is incomplete if it does not take Iceland into account. Jesse Byock's reassessment of medieval Iceland uses all the available sources—the medieval Icelanders' historical writings, extensive saga literature, and intricate laws—to explore the way Iceland's social order functioned.
Jesse L. Byock teaches Old Norse and medieval Scandinavian subjects at the University of California, Los Angeles and is the author of Feud in the Icelandic Saga (1982).
"Byock's book is a tour-de-force of historical argument. He brilliantly reconstructs the inner workings of an intriguing society, not elsewhere to be found in the Western world."—David Herlihy, History Book Club
276 pp.5.5 x 8.25
9780520069541$29.95|£25.00Paper
Feb 1990