Jane Smiley - The Greenlanders

Acclaim for Jane Smileys
The
Greenlanders

Wonderful. A historical novel with the nearness of contemporary fiction.

The New Republic

A powerful, moving study of human frailty and the ephemeral nature of courage and love.

USA Today

Exceptional. Smileys fascination for the novel-yet-doomed settlers of The Greenlanders is entirely infectious.

The Boston Globe

Extraordinary. An elegant elegy for a mute people. Evidence of the flowering of an exceptional literary mind.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

A saga in the original sense of the word. It is everything this literary form suggests and more. Still, the novel is unmistakably modern. Nowhere is it more contemporary than in Smileys choice of protagonist. Margret is one tough woman.

Chicago Tribune

A fine, fine piece of writing robust and deeply satisfying. She has brought us one of the most remarkable, accomplished, finely written and moving novels of our decade.

St. Petersburg Times

Jane Smiley
The
Greenlanders

Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and more than ten other works of fiction, including Good Faith, Horse Heaven, and Moo, as well as a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California.

Also by Jane Smiley

FICTION

Good Faith
Horse Heaven
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton
Moo
A Thousand Acres
Ordinary Love & Good Will
The Age of Grief
Duplicate Keys
At Paradise Gate
Barn Blind

NONFICTION

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
A Year at the Races
Charles Dickens
Catskill Crafts

The Greenlanders was conceived while I was abroad in Iceland, in 1976 and 1977, on a Fulbright-Hays Full Grant for Study Abroad. I am indebted to the program for that support.

I also wish to thank Iowa State University for generously supporting this project at every stage.

J. S.

FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2005

Copyright 1988 by Jane Smiley
Maps copyright 1988 by David Lindroth

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1988.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Smiley, Jane.
The Greenlanders / Jane Smiley.1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Middle AgesFiction. 2. GreenlandFiction.
3. Historical fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.M39 G7 1988
813.54 19
88002758

eISBN: 978-0-307-78804-7

www.anchorbooks.com

v3.1

This book is fondly dedicated to Elizabeth Stern,
Duncan Campbell, Frank Ponzi, and to the memory of
Knud-Erik Holm-Pedersen.

par munu eftir
undrsamtigar
guttnar toftur
i grasi finnask
paers i rdaga
ttar hofdu

Afterwards they will find the chessmen,
marvelous and golden in the grass,
just where the ancient gods
had dropped them.

Vlusp
(The Sayings of the Prophetess)

GUNNARS STEAD FOLK AND THEIR KIN :

Asgeir Gunnarsson, a wealthy farmer

Helga Ingvadottir, his Icelandic-born wife

Margret Asgeirsdottir, their daughter, born 1345

Gunnar Asgeirsson, their son, born 1352

Birgitta Lavransdottir, his wife, born 1357

Their daughters: Gunnhild Gunnarsdottir, 1374

Helga Gunnarsdottir, 1316

Astrid Gunnarsdottir, 1381

Maria Gunnarsdottir, 1384

Johanna Gunnarsdottir, 1386

Their son: Kollgrim Gunnarsson, 1378

Thorkel Gellison, Asgeirs cousin

Jona Vigmundsdottir, his wife

Their sons: Skeggi, Ingolf, Ogmund, Ofeig

Olaf Finnbogason, Asgeirs foster son

KETILS STEAD FOLK :

Ketil Erlendsson, another wealthy farmer, Asgeirs neighbor and rival.

Sigrun Ketilsdottir, his daughter, mother of Ketil the Unlucky

Erlend Ketilsson, his quarrelsome son

Vigdis, Erlends wife or mistress

Thordis, Vigdis daughter

Their sons: Geir, Kollbein, Hallvard, Jon Andres (born 1374)

GARDAR FOLK (PRIESTS) :

Ivar Bardarson, Norwegian, caretaker of the Episcopal See of Gardar

Bishop Alf, bishop of Gardar, from Stavanger district, in Norway

Sira Jon, priest, nephew of Alf

Sira Petur, a priest hastily ordained in Norway after the Black Death

Sira Pall Hallvardsson, another priest in Alfs entourage, of mixed Icelandic and Flemish descent

Sira Audun, a Greenlander, designated a priest but not officially ordained

Sira Eindridi Andresson, another Greenlander, Sira Auduns cousin, designated but not ordained

Sira Andres, son of Sira Eindridi

Larus the Prophet, a Greenlander, originally a cowherd

SOLAR FELL FOLK:

Ragnvald Einarsson, first owner of Solar Fell

St. Olaf the Greenlander, his grandson

Bjorn Bollason, from Dyrnes, second owner of Solar Fell

Signy, his wife

Sigrid, their daughter

Their sons: Bolli, Sigurd, Hoskuld, Ami

ICELANDERS :

Bjorn Einarsson Jorsalfari

Solveig, his wife

Einar, his foster-son

Snorri, captain of an Icelandic ship

Thorstein Olafsson, a teller of tales

Thorgrim Solvason, a prominent Icelander

Steinunn Hrafnsdottir, Thorgrims wife

Thorunn Hrafnsdottir, Steinunns sister

NORWEGIANS :

Thorleif, ships captain, called the Magnificent by the Greenlanders

Skuli Gudmundsson, a boy on Thorleifs ship, later a hirdman of Kollbein Sigurdsson

Kollbein Sigurdsson, last representative of the Norwegian king to Greenland, 13731376