Sheriff Skuli – Father of Reykjavik (2018)

He succeeded in becoming a sort of hero in the minds of the tormented common people. But he was also a dragon and a devil; that was part of being the king’s revenue collector.

Skuli Magnusson, the so-called father of Reykjavik, was the first Icelander appointed as sheriff, a senior representative of the Danish crown. With the power his position afforded him, he founded a textile factory, thereby bringing the industrial revolution to Iceland. But there were many sides to Skuli: he was a shop boy, a cheerful student in Copenhagen, a budding and ambitious public official, a ladies’ man and a reveler; he was the most powerful Icelander for half a century, serving as district magistrate in Skagafjordur, fighting against the power of the trade monopolies, and enjoying a close relationship with men of influence in Copenhagen; and he was a world-weary old man who settled on the island of Videy in his later years and lived out his days there under the protection of his adversaries. In her own unique way, Valdimarsdottir reveals all these different facets of Skuli, along the way describing Skuli’s world and many of his contemporaries.

• The Icelandic Booksellers’ Prize 2018 (3rd place) • Nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize 2018 for non-fiction