Longships and Sod Houses : A Thousand-Year Journey from Viking Iceland to the Dakota Plains

A direct descendant of a tenth-century Viking marauder traces his lineage from medieval Iceland to the Dakota plains

The first time Gary Goodman heard that his 24x great-grandfather was a tenth-century Viking pirate and mercenary was when his cousin informed him that they were the direct descendants of an Icelandic poet and cold-blooded killer named Egil Skallagrímsson. Also known as "Egil the Bastard," Goodman's ancestor was the subject of Egil's Saga, one of the great Icelandic epics of the early Middle Ages. Spurred by this revelation of his family's lineage, Goodman set out to discover the route his forefathers had traveled from medieval Iceland to the North Dakota plains in the later 1800s.

Drawing on Egil's Saga, family records, and travels through Iceland, England, and Ireland, Goodman traces his ancestral line from Iceland—the family's homeland for over a thousand years until a volcanic eruption forced them to migrate—to the hardscrabble plains of the Dakota Territory. His panoramic view ranges from the Viking invasion of England in the early Middle Ages to the disappearance of a short-lived Icelandic settlement on the Mouse River in the late 1800s. Along the way, Goodman sketches the highlights of Egil's Saga, making the centuries-old epic accessible to today's readers.

With candor, dry wit, and some bemusement, Goodman shares his trip through history from the perspective of a descendent of an original Viking marauder. An innovative, time-bending family history, Longships and Sod Houses is a noteworthy saga in its own right.

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