Post-doctoral Research Fellow in medieval Icelandic literature, Emily Lethbridge, is planning an ambitious and exciting project for 2011: a year-long ’21st-century pilgrimage to the saga-steads of Iceland’. Emily will travel around the country reading each one of the 13th-century Íslendingasögur (the Icelandic family sagas) in the physical landscapes in which they and their 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-century actvities are set. Living for the most part out of a Land Rover ambulance she will talk to people about their personal interests in, and responses to, the sagas and she hopes to persuade people to tell oral versions of sagas they know, or episodes from sagas that are local to their part of the country. Emily will draw on published 19th-century travel accounts by figures such as William Morris, W. G. Collingwood, and Sabine Baring-Gould, comparing what they found on visiting the saga-sites with what is to be found now. Click here to read Emily’s blog and follow her progress through the year.
We wish Dr Lethbridge the best of luck as she begins an epic year-long research trip around Iceland investigating the deep-rooted significance of its centuries-old sagas.
Update 3 December 2010: The university has published an article marking the beginning of Emily’s journey!
Read more on: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2010120301
