The Viking Immigrants: Icelandic North Americans

"Bertram has made a groundbreaking and unique contribution to the study of this ethnic community’s history, focusing her study on the broad categories of clothing, beverages, the supernatural, Viking symbolism, and baking. The reader who opens this book will not follow a traditional and technical history of Icelandic struggles and settlement in North America, accounts of which are often hyperbolic or narrowly focused on leading men and institutions. Instead, Bertram leads the reader into the lives of characters resurrected from archives, oral accounts, and newspaper sources, among other primary sources."

Andrew McGillivray, Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 93, No. 2

"The focus on the everyday allows Bertram to probe issues that have remained taboo in the more celebratory reminiscences of Icelandic heritage in North America. Particularly intriguing is Bertram’s examination of colonial trauma."

Aleksi Huhta, University of Helsinki, H-Soz-Kult

"The Viking Immigrants breaks new ground, makes an important contribution to the literature on white ethnic groups in western Canada, and, if that were not enough, includes an appendix with historical vínarterta recipes."

Ryan Eyford, University of Winnipeg, Prairie History

"The Viking Immigrants contributes to the fields of Canadian immigrant studies, Icelandic history, and ethnology and displays a close engagement with the major scholarly works on Icelandic culture and history. With interesting analysis enhanced by L.K. Bertram’s personal connection to the relationship between Icelanders and the expatriate community, this book will also attract a ‘heritage’ readership of Canadians of Icelandic descent interested in their family history."

Karen Oslund, Department of History, Towson University

"Observing food, clothing, folk-tales, customs, and language, L.K. Bertram reveals the wealth of material culture belonging to the Icelandic national identity. Based on research on immigrant history and extensive writings of Icelandic scholars, The Viking Immigrants makes a significant contribution to its field, especially as it focuses on important but often overlooked aspects of Icelandic culture in North America."

Jón Karl Helgason, School of Humanities, University of Iceland