In the summer of 1627, two groups of Barbary corsairs raided Iceland. My Icelandic colleague, Karl Smári Hreinsson, and I have published five books on these raids—known in Iceland as the Tyrkjáranið (the “Turkish raid”).
The first of these books was The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627, published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2016. This book contains English translations of a number of seventeenth century Icelandic documents dealing with the events of the Tyrkjáranið, the longest and most compete of which is a narrative penned by Reverend Ólafur Egilsson. There are links to the Amazon listing for that book here in this blog (at the bottom of every post).
After The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson, Karl and I wrote four more books on the Tyrkjáranið. These were narrative histories. That is, they describe the raids and their aftermath—in Iceland and North Africa—in novelistic fashion, focusing on the characters involved as much as possible.
Until recently, these four narrative histories were only available in Iceland.
Now they are available on Amazon.
Here’s the list (with links to the Amazon listings):
Northern Captives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Grindavík in 1627.
Northern Captives – Amazon listing
This book tells the story of the raid on southwest Iceland by corsairs from Salé. It details the events of the attack (during which the corsairs captured perhaps fifty or sixty people—men, women, and children) and then follows the Icelandic captives to Salé, where they were sold into slavery.
Stolen Lives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Heimaey in 1627.
This book tells the story of the raid by corsairs from Algiers on Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands located off Iceland’s south coast. It details the events of the attack (the corsairs captured nearly three hundred people—men, women, and children) and then follows the Icelandic captives to Algiers, where they were sold into slavery.
Enslaved: The Story of the Barbary Corsair raid on East Iceland in 1627.
This book tells the story of the raid by corsairs from Algiers on the East Fjords, in southeast Iceland, where the corsairs captured over a hundred people—men, women, and children—and then follows the captives to Algiers, where they were also sold into slavery.
Turbulent Times: Skálholt and the Barbary Corsair Raids on Iceland in 1627.
Turbulent Times – Amazon listing
This book is a little different from the others. It explores the role played by Skálholt (the seat of the Bishop of South Iceland) in the creation of the written accounts of the corsair raids on Iceland. No other land raid by Barbary corsairs anywhere in the world is chronicled in so much detail as the Tyrkjaránið, and we have Skálholtsskóli (the cathedral school at Skálholt) to thank for that.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to include extracts from these four books here in this blog.
The first extract is from Northern Captives. It describes the raid on the Grindavík area by corsairs from Salé.
To read this extract from Northern Captives, go to the next post in this blog: Northern Captives: The Corsair Raid on Grindavík – Part 1.
Corsairs and Captives
Narratives from the Age of the Barbary Pirates
The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
The story of the Barbary corsair raid on Iceland in 1627