She is of interest to the Church, because of her travels. She is relating her life story to a fellow Icelander, a monk, called Agnar. The story begins though, in Rome in 1051 and Gudrun is at the end of a pilgrimage. She is a Norse woman, who appears in the Icelandic Sagas, the wife of Karsefni, of the few Norse adventurers to have visited North America - five hundred years before Columbus. If you have no idea who that is, that's ok. ‘The Sea Road' is an imaginative and beautifully written attempt to recreate the life of an Icelandic woman called Gudrun Thorbjarnadottir. Norse peoples code of conduct and notion of peaceful commerce was about to change away from the raids we’re all familiar with. Gudrin’s story points towards a new attitude. By her choice she has accompanied them on the “sea road.”Īlthough the expeditions were ultimately failures (Viking presence in Vinland only lasted about 20 years) they were there about 500 years before Columbus “discovered” America. She is the most travelled woman in the world. Gudrin is the wife of two successive husbands who lead voyages. If you have read any sagas it is striking how most of the action is taken up with head splitting and men with swinging axes. Gudrin’s job is running the farm and raising children, no small thing as if the farm fails or is not well maintained many will starve in the harsh winters. She might also have included raiding, not a very Christian idea. Gudrin tells Agnar at one point that the men lives are full of war, hunting and trading. She’s quite the character, strong, earthy, and direct. Agnar is obviously fascinated by this old woman (maybe in her 50s). The monk is transcribing her story at the request of his superior. Gudrin’s early story comes at a time in Icelandic history when the belief in the old pagan gods is transitioning into Christianity. Gudrin is shown telling her life and travels to an Icelandic speaking monk in Rome. The Sea Road is a very creative way to tell the woman’s side of the story. Sagas were intended to entertain as well as to tell history and genealogy to their audiences and this novel does that as well even if it is not strictly told in saga style. As well as appearing in the sagas, Gudrin Thorbjarnadottir is the central character in Margaret Elphinstone’s novel. Both sagas were based on oral tradition and lore and then written down in the thirteenth century.

This is a novel of an important character in two Norse sagas, The Saga of the Greenlanders and Erik the Red’s Saga which take place in the eleventh century.

The sea road by margaret elphinstone