In the summer of 1627, two groups of Barbary corsairs raided Iceland. My Icelandic colleague, Karl Smári Hreinsson, and I have now published five books on these raids—known in Iceland as the Tyrkjáranið (the “Turkish raid”).
The first of those 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’s a link to that book here in this blog (at the bottom of every posts).
After The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson, Karl and I wrote three more books on the Tyrkjáranið that were narrative histories. That is, they recounted the events and the aftermath of the raids—both in Iceland and North Africa—in novelistic fashion, focusing on the characters involved as much as possible.
Here are the titles of these three books, plus links to them:
Northern Captives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Grindavík in 1627, tells the story of the raid by corsairs from Salé on southwest Iceland. It details the events of the attack itself 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, 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 and then follows the Icelandic captives to Algiers, where they too were sold into slavery.
Enslaved: The Story of the Barbary Corsair raid on East Iceland in 1627, tells the story of the raid by corsairs from Algiers on the East Fjords, in southeast Iceland, where they captured over a hundred people—men, women, and children—and then follows the captives to Algiers, where they were also sold into slavery.
I’ve posted excerpts from these three books here in this blog:
- Northern Captives: October – December, 2021
- Stolen Lives: January – April, 2022
- Enslaved: July – September 2022
This past summer, Karl and I published a fifth book on the Tyrkjáranið. This one is titled Turbulent Times: Skálholt and the Barbary Corsair Raids on Iceland in 1627.
Turbulent Times is a little different from the other books. Here is the back-cover blurb:
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In the early seventeenth century, Skálholt—the seat of the Bishop of South, West, and East Iceland—was one of the largest communities on the island. It housed not only a cathedral but also a school (Skálholtsskóli). Graduates of Skálholtsskóli played important roles in Icelandic history, becoming Schoolmasters, Government Officials, and Bishops.
In the summer of 1627, some of them became captives of the infamous Barbary corsairs.
That summer, Barbary corsairs from Salé and Algiers raided Iceland, capturing close to 500 people—men, women, and children—and hauling them all back to North Africa to be auctioned off into slavery. These raids were known in Iceland as the Tyrkjaránið.
The Tyrkjaránið was unique in the history of the Barbary corsairs, for no other corsair expeditions ever travelled so far. It was unique for another reason as well. No other land raid by Barbary corsairs anywhere in the world is chronicled in so much detail.
A handful of those captured in the corsair raids happened to be graduates of Skálholtsskóli. Thanks to the education they had received, these men could write clearly and movingly about their experiences—and did so, recording not only the brutal events of the raids themselves but also the conditions of the enslaved Icelanders in North Africa.
This book explores for the first time the role played by Skálholt and Skálholtsskóli in the creation of these unique written accounts, presenting a description of Skálholt and the times in which it existed as well as the accounts themselves, translated from the original seventeenth century Icelandic.
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Below is the front-cover image of Enslaved, plus a link to the book itself.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to include extracts from Turbulent Times here in this blog.
The first one contains a letter from a Dane who lived on the island of Heimaey, and who was captured during the Algiers corsair raid there. This letter isn’t about the raid itself. Rather, it is testimony for a legal case stemming from the aftermath of the raid.
To read this extract from Turbulent Times, go to the next post in this blog: Turbulent Times: Jasper Kristjánsson’s letter – Part 1.
The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
The story of the Barbary corsair raid on Iceland in 1627
Amazon listing