Gudridur’s Journey (2001)

In 1627 one of the most dramatic and terrifying events in Icelandic history occurred, the so-called Turkish Raid, when sea raiders from a distant world took some 400 Icelanders prisoner, and transported them south across the sea to be sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. Among them was Gudridur Simonardottir, a young fisherman’s wife and mother from the Westman Islands. Author Steinunn Johannesdottir follows Gudridur on her lengthy journey to slavery in Algiers, tells of her nine-year stay there, and then of her journey northward, until she once more sees Iceland, together with the young theology student, Hallgrimur Petursson, who eventually becomes the country’s most celebrated hymnist.