Customer Reviews

On the Cold Coasts

On the Cold Coasts by Vilborg Davidsdottir
Amazon Crossing 2000, English translation 2012

Do not be put off by the blurb on the back of this book. Believe me, it is much more than the Mills and Boonesque love story.

Vilborg Davidsdottir presents the reader with an unspoken challenge to find out more about Nordic countries - Iceland in particular.

She gives tantalising glimpses of late medieval history: economic and political, social and ecclesiastical. I found myself jumping up to check out details of the of the Hanseatic League, the Kalmar Union of Scandinavia and made a mental note to visit Iceland again and find a museum with folk and ecclesiastical costumes, medieval weapons and the material culture of Icelandic church and state. The author clearly has an interest and knowledge of all of these. - Read her profile on page 209 - and that of the translator on the following page.

Christian and pagan myth and legend are placed in juxtaposition to the delight of the interested reader; we hear of Sassuma, Mother of the Greenland who must be propitiated by the shaman by combing her seaweed-hair so that there will be a rich sea-harvest for hunters, while the Scottish (Orkney and Shetland) folktale of the Selkie Woman is given a splendid more immediate twist. I also now know something of The Skaeling people.

True, there are somewhat cloying, Mills and Boonesque moments in dialogue between heroine and hero, although this could be interpreted as Thorkells transparent attempts at seduction of Ragna. There are also certain infelicities in translation or idiom that jar slightly.

The crux of this novel however has two main themes: a close discussion (albeit in novel form) of the economic as well as ecclesiastical and secular social power of the pre-Reformation church in tandem with Pope Martin V, King Henry V of England and King Eric or Norway representative of the Kalmar Union of Scandanavia. I again consulted dictionaries and Google to update my scanty knowledge.

The second (and for me) most important discussion is on the role of women in the late-Medieval Icelandic society. The word `chilling' comes to mind. Suffice it to say that the pre-Reformation Church does not emerge well. Pagan and Christian rites and practices are often intertwined and misogyny and hypocrisy go hand in hand. Look out for the use of soliloquy as a literary/dramatic device in which Ragna comes into her own.

I happened to be reading Karen Armstrong's 'The Gospel According to Women' when 'On the Cold Coasts' arrived from Amazon. The experience of Ragan in Davidsdottir's fiction confirmed Armstrong's academic research.

One could skim this book as a simple love story - that would be a pity.

During the Icelandic financial crisis the BBC web site carried some interesting 'facts' about Iceland. One of them was that 10% of Icelanders were published authors. This was a gross exaggeration, but it is true that a lot of Icelanders do write and publish books. (Must be something to do with the long winter nights.) So of all these books, you could expect that some will be good, and some will be, well, average. This is an average book that, given its interesting historical and geographical setting, could have been so much better. I don't know whether to blame the author or the translator, but much of the writing was cliched, and the style uncertain. For example, most of the dialogue is written in a natural, flowing style, but it sometimes lapses into the archaic thee/thou when members of the clergy are being addressed, and the translator often selects very modern words and expressions that seem out of place in a story set in the fifteenth century. The book could also have benefited from the inclusion of one or two maps; this would have made the action much easier to follow.

This review is becoming more negative than I intended it to be. 'On the Cold Coasts' is an interesting story, set in a fascinating time and place, and I suspect that it has been well researched. If you like historical novels that are a bit out of the ordinary, then you will no doubt enjoy this one.

If, like me, you are interested in this particular time and place but feel a little let down by this book, may I make a couple of recommendations. Try the original Icelandic sagas, set in the tenth and eleventh centuries or thereabouts. My favourite is Njal's Saga. But beware; they are not novels in the modern style, and may seem a little alien on first reading. Then there is Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth century Norway, IMHO the best historical novel ever written, and the one which most faithfully recreates the atmosphere of mediaeval Scandinavia.

A slice of life set in Iceland over a period of about 15 years in the days of our King Henry V.

The author has, I'm sure, done her research. Iceland in the 1400s must have been a desolate place, what with the English demanding their produce (mainly fish and sulphur) at ever lower prices and the lack of general amenities.

In the midst of all this, the Catholic church puts its teachings firmly on to the front foot, so that when a young girl is made pregnant by a, literally, washed up English sailor, everything goes downhill for Ragna. She was betrothed to Thorkell who now shuns the very idea and goes off to become a high priest, returning to the island several years later.

It is from this point that the story takes hold. The randy young priest is not averse to a rekindling of his passion for Ragna, nor she for him. The story of a love affair blighted by the priest's quest for power and his need (he says) for other women to quell his lust take their toll, as might be expected.

It's not the rather basic storyline which captures the reader, rather more the way the author fights for the rights of women in a very heavily dominated world of male chauvinism and the descriptive powers which show us Iceland in that period.

Ragna's son is her focus since her affair with Thorkell must not be known. There is a strand of English blood running through the boy, of course and the English feature quite heavily as the book moves on. These traders become pirates almost or should it be these pirates become traders? Either way, armed skirmishes turn into a rather more serious battle with Thorkell leading the way forward to deal with the English interlopers.

It's a small story with a big heart. Life goes on no matter what and circumstances have to be dealt with as they occur. Ragna stands her corner, the priest tries his utmost to be bigger than he is and the boy is determined to be a man as soon as possible. All this gives the reader a very enjoyable few hours. It's not a long book but you leave it with images of Iceland firmly locked in place. Whatever else, the reader will have gained much knowledge about the island even if the names are something of a tongue-twister. Well worth a read.

This tale is an absolute delight for anyone who enjoys their fiction with a good slice of history. This time it is the less travelled path of 15th century Iceland and the story of Ragna, brought to disgrace as an unwed mother. Around her weaves the politics of a small island ruled as part of Scandinavia by the King in far away Denmark and caught between the authority there and a desire to trade with the English (who are not well liked by the islanders themselves.)

Despite the setting and themes that may sound off putting Davidsdottir has the art of intertwining history and the human story so well it makes a pleasurable read. It is a craft well tuned by authors such as Phillipa Gregory and Vilborg Davidsdottir brings a fresh perspective to the genre.

Ragna has the misfortune of being female in a patriarchal society, where she is frowned on for having a child yet nothing is thought untoward about the collection of illegitimate children a man may leave behind. The historical setting is fascinating, there is no clumsy crowbarring in of facts getting in the way of the story, instead they become part of the story, of the life they have to lead on such a harsh landscape. I look forward to the translation of the author's other books.

This is a love story but one situated in an exceptionally well-evoked setting of fifteenth-century Iceland. Ragna is abandoned by Thorkell to whom she is betrothed but, ten years later, they are brought into the same household where she is a `housekeeper' and he a priest.

Davidsdottir has done a superb job of portraying Iceland at what is, in other parts of Europe, the cross-over point between medieval and early modern culture. Iceland, too, is a state in transition: Christian but with a hangover of Norse and pagan beliefs; trading with Henry V's England yet still maintaining a near-feudal system of land-ownership. Women on one hand are expected to be subservient to men yet, on the other, are allowed to own and control their own property.

Davidsdottir is particularly interested in women and her heroine, Ragna, is a complex personality: she's not a feisty modern woman in period dress as is the case in so many historical novels, and is nicely dour at times. At the same time, she's an empathetic character who feels nicely of her times.

There are a few moments where the translation slips: there are some odd uses of prepositions, people are drawn to someone like `flies to the flame', and the use of Americanisms (fall instead of autumn, people quit rooms, rather than leave them) before the continent has been discovered do jar with our sense of the fifteenth century.

But these are small niggles for me and didn't spoil my enjoyment of this book. Any fans of Dorothy Dunnett's To Lie with Lions and/or King Hereafter may particularly enjoy this book: it's set well after her Macbeth novel, of course, and is about fifty years earlier than the Niccolo book (which is set in 1471 during the War of the Roses) but the Icelandic setting is complementary to both.

A surprisingly good read - recommended.

Predictable and could be more in depth... some of the book is quite vague and predictable. Lacking alot of detail and reason. Also I wasn't convinced about the issues they had with the english language etc as many english words have icelandic origins and at this time in history it would have been far more closley aligned.

At the heart of this novel is the tale of Ragna, a young Icelandic woman from a family with property in Greenland which she will inherit. Still a young teenager, yet betrothed to Thorkell, Ragna becomes unmarriageable when she becomes pregnant by an English sailor who is shipwrecked on their shores. Disgraced, she manages to make a life for herself and her son and is luckily taken on by the new English Bishop Craxton as housekeeper, a role that gives her as much respect as she she can ever now expect. However Thorkell returns, now an ordained priest, and is immediately attracted to Ragna again. Can a relationship work between a priest, who should be celibate but has already sired bastard children, and an excommunicated woman?

So, that's the love interest got out of the way. What was more interesting in this novel were the other themes behind the central romance.

At the turn of the century the Black Death had killed nearly half of the population, and left Iceland a very poor country, reliant on the stockfish (wind-dried cod) trade. Iceland was divided into two political factions - the nationalists, led by the Icelandic Archbishop are loyal to the old regime, as Iceland was owned by Norway and Denmark at this time. Those at Holar, who are governed by the new English Bishop appointed by the Pope, are happy to ply an illegal trade with England, ruled by Henry V at this time of 1420. The English rule the trading though setting the prices which makes for an uneasy relationship.

Thorkell, who has political aims of his own, manages to get promoted to being Bishop of a parish who wouldn't submit to Holar, deposing the sitting Bishop who remained loyal to the Norwegian King. These priests and their people are not afraid of taking up arms, and when some English sailors in Iceland by permission of the see at Holar start to do some raping and pillaging, the scene is set for conflict.

Ragna gets caught between the two sides - her responsible role at Holar working for the Bishop, and her passion for Thorkell, the randy priest. All along she is seen as a commodity, initially destined to end up being owned by a man one way or another, even though she will be an heiress. Men are not subjected to the same standards as women by the church, and Thorkell can easily get away with his behaviour.

I really enjoyed this historical novel, especially the cut and thrust of the episcopal politics in 15th century Iceland. Ragna has some spark to her, and the will-she-won't-she relationship with Thorkell contrasts with the big picture. Some of the romance and dialogue may be slightly cheesy, but you kept rooting for Ragna throughout. If you liked The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, you'll probably enjoy On the Cold Coasts, (which is much shorter too!).

Though set in the 1400s the constants human nature give Ragna's tale a timeless energy. Through her eyes the world is described in vibrant detail that fires a curiosity to experience Iceland at first hand. The pages glow with the author's passion for spirit of place and the personal histories those lives formed by its challenging landscape.

Ragna's passionate soul smoulders beneath the hard frost that permeates these chill shores. Her youthful lust is ignited by a fleeting flame that sears its painful consequences into course of her life. It brands her as damaged goods and isolates her from protection of social conventions. Cornered into an austere and lonely circumstances, she finds purpose as gifted domestic manager of the Bishop's household. Her respected position affords her privileged insights into the political posturing of powerful men. She is witness to the murderous treachery of foreign traders and is sickened by the worldly deceits of ordained men.

As a mother her primal motivation is to support and protect her son Michael from life's villainies. As a daughter she is mindful of her family heritage. As a lover she gives herself with wanton, sensual abandonment to the forbidden Thorkel. As a woman Ragna's struggles to find harmony of heart and mind. The storms that sculpt the coastline are echoed in the tempests that buffet her emotions. It is not difficult to be mindful of the words spoken by her restless inner voice.

The Cold Coasts is engaging piece of storytelling that breathes with character and leaves this reader hungry for the next episode in history's play.

This is a translation of a novel set in 14th-century Iceland, an interesting place and period, but I began to worry when the cliches started piling up in the first few pages - in the blink of an eye, pale and wan, the kiss of death, in her mind's eye - all within two pages. What I don't know for sure is whether to blame this on the author or the translator. Similarly, calling girls "wenches" might be the translator reflecting deliberate but ill-advised archaism on the writer's part.

But certain things are undoubtedly the translator's fault. She has lived in English-speaking countries but English is clearly not her native language and I don't think any literary translator can work into a non-native tongue; the idiom just isn't natural to them. No native speaker would repeatedly refer to rowdy sailors as "ribalds", an adjective-derived noun I have never seen or heard used in English. ("Rowdies", now, would have been OK.) Nor would a native speaker construct the remarkable phrase "the bishop had taken along with him a sympatic entourage" - yes, that's sympatic not sympathetic. It means he was accompanied by his fellow-countrymen, but that's the trouble; native English speakers frequently need a translation of this translation.

I'd have to blame the author, though, for my dissatisfaction with the story's structure. There are two narrative arcs, one concerning the changing relationship between Ragna, the book's protagonist, and her lover Thorkell, the other concerning Ragna's half-English son Michael and his search for his paternal heritage. The second is never resolved, it just peters out at the end of the novel, while the first seems to be resolved very suddenly and not entirely convincingly.

There are some good things about this book; the characters convince and the story of Ragna and Thorkell is interesting in itself, as is the background of Iceland's diplomatic and ecclesiastical history. But in the end it isn't the story that matters in a novel, it's the way you tell it, and in this case, translate it.

Galdur, translated as Magic,Sorcery, Witchcraft, is the Icelandic title of this book.
I have just finished this novel today. When I started the story I had a lot of questions, about Iceland, the geography, the history, the names and the traditions. Soon however I was captivated by the tale of Ragna and the life she was forced into. Never seeming to have any choices, always subject to the will and the welfare of the men in her life. The English sailor who fathered her illegitimate son Michael, her stepfather Thorsteinn, her betrothed husband Thorkell and her subsequent employer Bishop Craxton. The life of the Icelanders and the influences of the Church, the English and Danish Kings, trading rights and Ragna's original homeland Greenland all play their part in the unfolding of the tale. I hope this is the first of many of Vilborg Davidsdottir's stories to be translated into English. There is so much more to learn and many more stories, customs and traditions to share. Maybe a map and a list of characters would help in the next book.