The travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson : the story of the barbary corsair raid on Iceland in 1627

The combination of Reverend Olafur's narrative, the letters, and the material in the Appendices provides a first-hand, in-depth view of early seventeenth-century Europe and the Maghreb equaled by few other works dealing with the period. We are pleased to offer it to the wider audience that an English edition allows. Translation Of A 17th-century Narrative Written By A Lutheran Pastor From Iceland Who Was Captured By Turkish Pirates, Taken To North Africa, And Then Released And Managed To Make His Way Back Across Europe To Iceland. His Story, Collected Here With Letters Written By His Fellow Captives, Gives Intimate Details Of Life, And Relations Between Christianity And Islam, In That Period--provided By Publisher. Chapter I. About Almighty God's Will -- Chapter Ii. About Signs And Events -- Chapter Iii. About The Preparations That Were Put Into Effect When Word Of The Pirates Was First Heard -- Chapter Iv. About The Evil Attacks And The Methods Used To Capture Some Of The People -- Chapter V. About What Honest People Told Me Of How The Pirates Captured The Icelanders, And How Some Icelanders Were Killed -- Chapter Vi. About How The People Were Treated As Captives By The Evil Men And Put Into The Stone House, Then Taken Forth And Placed Onboard A Ship -- Chapter Vii. About Events In Preparation For Sailing -- Chapter Viii. About Our Travel To The Barbary Coast And What Happened During That Voyage -- Chapter Ix. About Some Difficulties Which The Turks Had On The Voyage And About How They Reacted -- Chapter X. About How It Went (to The Best Of My Knowledge) For The Good People Who Had Been Captured And Were Taken To That Place [i.e., Algiers] --^ Chapter Xi. About What Happened To Me And My Family Thereafter -- Chapter Xii. About The Remarkable Things I Saw And About The Town [i.e., Algiers] Itself -- Chapter Xiii. About The Dress Of The People And How Their Plates And Drinking Cups Were In That Place -- Chapter Xiv. About How I Was Driven From Algiers And How Things Went On My Miserable Travels -- Chapter Xv. About What Went On In That Place [livorno], Good And Bad, And About My Journey To Germany -- Chapter Xvi. About The Place [livorno], Its Churches, The Habits Of The Monks, Their Dress, And Their Way Of Performing Divine Service -- Chapter Xvii. About Their Dress In That Town [livorno] And The Unusual Things That I Saw There -- Chapter Xviii. About My Travels To Genoa, And From There To Marseilles -- Chapter Xix. About What Happened To Me In Marseilles And What Prevented Me From Travelling To Paris -- Chapter Xx. About Some Of The Handwork And Events Which I Saw There For Providing Food For The People --^ Chapter Xxi. About Marseilles Itself, The Dress Of The Inhabitants, Both Men And Women, And About My Travels From There Chapter Xxii. About What Happened To Me In Holland, And About That Country And Its Places -- Chapter Xxiii. About My Travels To Fleyland [the Island Of Vlieland] And To Kronuborg [kronborg, On The Island Of Zealand, In Denmark] And My Reception There -- Chapter Xxiv. About My Arrival In Copenhagen, My Good Reception, And Donations From Honest Men, Learned And Not -- Chapter Xxv. About My Complaint, Which I Had To Relate To Everyone, And About How I Was Incapacitated By My Sorrows, And About What Sorrow And Pain May Do For Us -- Chapter Xxvi. About My Voyage From Copenhagen To Iceland And How I Was Received When I Came There -- Chapter Xxvii. About The Comfort And Consolation Which We Get From The Words Of God; He Tells Us To Pray For Help And Promises Us A Hearing; And Of This We Have Examples -- Afterword. Translated From The Original Icelandic Text And Edited By Karl Smári Hreinsson & Adam Nichols. Original English Edition, 2008--title Page Verso. Translation Of A 17th-century Narrative Written By A Lutheran Pastor From Iceland Who Was Captured By Turkish Pirates, Taken To North Africa, And Then Released And Managed To Make His Way Back Across Europe To Iceland. His Story, Collected Here With Letters Written By His Fellow Captives, Gives Intimate Details Of Life, And Relations Between Christianity And Islam, In That Period--provided By Publisher. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 229-232) And Index. In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs raided Iceland, killing dozens of people and abducting close to four hundred to sell into slavery in North Africa. Among those taken were the Lutheran minister Reverend Olafur Egilsson. Reverend Olafur (born in the same year as William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei) wrote The Travels to chronicle his experiences both as a captive in Algiers and as a traveler across Europe (he journeyed alone from Algiers to Copenhagen in an attempt to raise funds to ransom the captives that remained in the Barbary States). He was a keen observer, and the narrative is filled with a wealth of detail-social, political, economic, religious-about both the Maghreb and Europe. It is also a moving story on the human level: we witness a man enduring great personal tragedy and struggling to reconcile such calamity with his understandingof God. The Travels is the first-ever English translation of the Icelandic texts. Until now, the corsair raid on Iceland has remained largely unknown in the English speaking world. To give a clearer sense of the extraordinary events connected with that raid, this edition of The Travels includes not only Reverend Olafur's first-person narrative but also a wealth of contemporary letters describing both the events of the raid itself and the conditions in North Africa under which the enslaved Icelanders lived. The book has Appendices containing background information on the cities of Algiers and Sale in the seventeenth century, on Iceland in the seventeenth century, on the manuscripts accessed for the translation, and on the book's early modern European context. The combination of Reverend Olafur's narrative, the letters, and thematerial in the Appendices provides a first-hand, in-depth view of early seventeenth-century Europe and the Maghreb equaled by few otherworks dealing with the period. We are pleased to offer it to the wider audience that an English edition allows. In the summer of 1627, Barbary corsairs raided Iceland, killing dozens of people and abducting close to four hundred to sell into slavery in North Africa. Among those taken were the Lutheran minister Reverend Ólafur Egilsson. Reverend Ólafur wrote The Travels to chronicle his experiences both as a captive in Algiers and as a traveller across Europe.