Turbulent Times

In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs from Salé and Algiers raided Iceland, capturing close to 500 people (men, women, and children) and hauling them back to North Africa to be auctioned off into slavery.This joint raid was unique in the history of the Barbary corsairs, for no other corsair expedition ever travelled so far. It was unique for another reason as well, though. No other land raid launched during this period by Barbary corsairs is chronicled in so much detail.A handful of the Icelanders captured in the corsair raids were graduates of Skálholtsskóli, a cathedral school located in Skálholt, the seat of the Bishop of South Iceland and one of the largest communities on the island at the time. Thanks to the education they had received there, these men could write clearly and movingly about their experiences, 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.