Svava Jakobsdottir (b.1930) is one of Iceland's leading short story writers for more than thirty years, also acclaimed as a playwright, literary scholar and novelist. Jakobsdottir' s writing balances on the realistic - her style has been called a reconsideration of realism. Central to all her work is the role of women.

The Saga of Gunnlod

(Gunnlaðar saga, 1987)

Nominated for the Nordic Council Literary Prize

Winner of the Henrik Steffens Prize 1997

A young Icelandic woman is arrested in the National Gallery of Denmark for stealing a priceless gold urn. The police suspect she is either mad or a terrorist, but the woman herself claims she is just recovering her birthright - the gold urn containing the mead of poetic creativity which she, Gunnlod, guarded in ancient times, until it was stolen by the god Odin. The narrator is the woman's mother, who gradually comes to understand and appreciate the significance of her story.

Sold to: Norway (Cappelens Forlag), Sweden (Norstedts), Denmark (Rhodos), Finland (Otava), France (Le Lettre), Switzerland (Amman), Lithuania (Tyto Alba), Italy (Giardini)

"The style of this book is unusually rich and composed of dissimilar elements, harsh realistic descriptions and poetic inspiration from the world of the Edda and myth. ... Svava Jakobsdottir's most significant, most mature and greatest work to date, and one of the best and most noteworthy novels to appear in Icelandic in recent years."

Sveinn Sk. Hoskuldsson,

Professor of Icelandic Literature

"... artfully written, some descriptions linger like poetry in one's mind after reading. It is easy and exciting to read, but the polyphonic echo between present and past is most enjoyable on reflection and second reading."

DV newspaper