BARBARY, TO AND FRO

The Westman Islands are a small and peaceful group of islands, just off the stormy coast of Iceland.

Their peacefulness was broken in 1627 when they became the target of the worst aggression in the history of Iceland. A gang of pirates from Africa ventured further north then ever before, raided the islands and seized all by surprise. They found nothing worth stealing, so they made off with the only thing of any value – the inhabitants themselves. But first they ravaged the land, burned the houses and churches and "chopped up people, as you chop up sheep for soup".

Nearly the whole population, over 300 people, was taken prisoners and sailed away on a long voyage to Algiers, were eventually they were sold as slaves. One of the captives, an old vicar – Oluf Eigilssen – worthless as a labourer, was sent off without a penny on a travel to Copenhagen, to ask the King of Denmark and Iceland for ransom. By his endurance and the kindness of people he met the old vicar manage to travel through the war torn Europe and finally arrive in Copenhagen 9 months after his capture. As a result 27 were freed and returned to Iceland, among them his wife.

Oluf Eigilssen wrote then a brief but meticulous account of his ordeal, now a treasure of the Royal Library of Denmark. His chronicle, dense and emotionless as an Icelandic saga, gives a picture of how an old, but inquiring man used to only fish and sheep on a barren island, experience North Africa and Europe in the beginning of the 17th century.