ADAM NICHOLS – ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR – UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
I’m an associate professor with the University of Maryland. I spent twenty years teaching for their European Division—in England, Scotland, Norway, Iceland, and Germany, and downrange on U.S. military installations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. I’ve also lived and worked in Australia, China, and Canada. I presently live and teach in the U.S.
Back in 2016, I collaborated with an Icelandic colleague of mine, Karl Smári Hreinsson, on an English translation of a little known but altogether fascinating series of seventeenth century Icelandic texts. That English translation was published by the Catholic University of America Press under the title The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson: the Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627.
My interest in (and research about) Barbary corsairs goes far beyond just their Icelandic exploits, though, and this Corsairs & Captives blog focuses on all sorts of aspects related to Barbary corsairs—and on the men, women, and children who were their captives.
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Over the past few years, Karl Smári Hreinsson and I completed four new books devoted to the Barbary corsair raids on Iceland in 1627.
The first book, titled Northern Captives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Grindavík in1627 (published in 2020), 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.
The second book, titled Stolen Lives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Heimaey in1627 (published in 2021), tells the story of the raid by corsairs from Algiers on Heimaey, one of the the Westman Islands located off Iceland’s south coast. It details the events of the attack on the island and then follows the Icelandic captives to Algiers, where they too were sold into slavery.
The third book, titled Enslaved: The Story of the Barbary Corsair raid on East Iceland in 1627 (published in 2022), tells the story of the raid by the same corsairs from Algiers on the East Fjords, located in southeastern Iceland. It details the events of the attack and then follows the Icelandic captives to Algiers, where they were sold into slavery along with the Heimaey islanders.
The fourth book, titled Turbulent Times: Skálholt and the Barbary Corsair Raids on Iceland in 1627 (published in 2023), explores for the first time the role played by Skálholt, the seat of the Bishops of South Iceland, and Skálholtsskóli (Skálholt’s school) in the creation of the Icelandic accounts of the corsair raids of 1627. It presents a description of Skálholt and the times in which it existed as well as the accounts themselves, translated from the original seventeenth century Icelandic.
You can find details about, and links to, all these books in the Published Books section of this blog.
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Karl and I have also had two new translations of our work come out recently.
The first was in Greek:
Τα ταξίδια του αιδεσιμότατου Όλαφουρ Έγκιλσον (The Travels of Ólafur Egilsson), translated by Thalnis N. Karagiannopoulos, published in 2023 by Lavyrinthos Books, Athens, Greece. This book is a translation of the revised edition of The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson and contains all the Icelandic texts of that edition.
The second was in Italian:
Schiavi dal Nord: L’incursione dei pirati barbareschi in terra d’Islanda – Grindavík 1627 (Slaves of the North: The Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland – Grindavík 1627), translated by Attilio Sodi Russotto, published in 2023 by Passaggio al Bosco Edizioni, Florence, Italy. This book is a translation of the complete text of Northern Captives: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Grindavík in 1627.
There is also a Dutch translation published some years ago:
De reizen van Ólafur Egilsson: een 17e-eeuwse Ijslander ontvoerd door moslimpiraten (The Travels of Ólafur Egilsson: a 17th-century Icelander Captured by Muslim Pirates), translated by Joris van Os, published in 2019 by Uitgeverij de Brouwerij / Brainbooks, Maassluis, Netherlands. This book is a Dutch translation of the Revised Edition of The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson, containing all the Icelandic texts of that edition.
You can find details about, and links to, these translations in the Published Books section of this blog.
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Also (rather interestingly) there is a YouTube video uploaded by an organization known as Voices of the Past. They post videos in which they read aloud texts that describe important events of the past.
The video (which is eighteen minutes long) is titled
Enslaved Icelander Describes Horror of Barbary Pirate Raid (1627) – Diary of Ólafur Egilsson
It consists of excerpts from the revised edition of The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson that are read aloud, accompanied by a series of images. At last check, this video had 3.4 million views. It was first posted in 2022.
Here’s a link: