Bryndís Viglundsdóttir told me that when she was a little girl, she thought the characters from the Icelandic sagas were going to walk through the door. This is because adults around her frequently discussed the trials and tribulations of these characters at the kitchen table as if they were alive. Writer Einar Kárason says "If we talk about a soul of a nation, what [Icelanders] identify with, it is all rooted in the sagas."
At Icelandic Roots, we are working to help bring the sagas closer to our members by integrating an interactive saga map. The map was developed at the University of Iceland and we have added additional functionality. As members of Icelandic Roots, you will soon be able to click on images and find all the physical locations of events that take place in the different chapters of each Icelandic Saga. The map will also be tied to a search function that allows you to find nearby Icelandic Roots places, such as the farms, and churches of your ancestors. Besides the locations, there will be other functionalities to connect you to each Saga and the people, as well.
We hope that the sagas will better come to life for our members as they use the Icelandic Roots Database. We also hope that you will develop an awareness of the stories, happenings in the sagas, and the physical surroundings in which they took place. You also can more easily find these locations if you read the stories while you visit Iceland using the IR interactive map functions.
Please join me on Sunday, October 10th for the IR Webinar where I give a presentation about these new functions of the IR Database.
Sunday, October 10th on the Icelandic Roots Zoom platform.
10 am Pacific
11 am Mountain
12 Central
1 pm Eastern
5 pm in Iceland
Subscribe to our newsletters for the link which will be sent out before the event and Join as a Member to enjoy full access to the Icelandic Roots Database, our Samtal Hours, special member-only Facebook group, and other member-only events.