Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North

Ida Pfeiffer sets out from Vienna in April 1845, eager to see Iceland's unusual natural scenery. Her travel account begins with crowded carriages, damaged railway tracks and the paperwork that can interrupt a departure. In her preface she recalls a childhood fascination with distant places and explains why, after completing her sons' education, she chose to travel independently. The practical inconveniences sit beside a strong religious response to the natural world.

The account follows difficult routes through marshy valleys and describes steam rising from the Geyser, a village funeral and the church at Skalholt. Pfeiffer's blunt judgments of local customs also show the assumptions she brings to unfamiliar places. This English edition adds explanatory notes, an essay on Icelandic poetry, a translation of the Voluspa and a short history of Iceland. Readers interested in early travel writing can compare the narrator's personal observations with the volume's literary and historical material.