Medieval Icelandic Sagas: Tales of Blood Feuds, Dangerous Women and Warriors

In this series of podcasts, Australian writer and broadcaster Richard Fidler and his friend, Icelandic writer Kári Gíslason travel to Iceland to regail us with the stories of the ancient Vikings; tales of blood feuds, dangerous women, fugitives and warrior poets. They also go to the windswept country to discover more about Kari’s own mysterious origins. Estranged from his birth family, his father – now dead once hinted to Kari that he was directly descended from Iceland’s greatest bard – Snorri Sturluson.

This revelation was something akin to an English writer being descended from Shakespeare or from Homer. Snorri was responsible for writing the medieval Icelandic Sagas, one of the centrepieces of Icelandic history culture and literature. This journey of retelling the Icelandic Sagas on podcast is also a personal journey of discovery as well.

Here they are for your listening pleasure

Saga Land 1: The story of Gunnar

Saga Land with the story of Gunnar, a famous Viking warrior, and Hallgerd – the most beautiful and dangerous woman in Iceland. Listen here

Saga Land 2: The story of Gudrun

Two men – best friends – will sacrifice everything for one young woman. Listen here.

Saga Land 3: The story of Gisli

A tale of the difficult choices that can come with the complexity of family life. Listen here 

Saga Land 4: Egil the Viking

Find out whether Kari Gislason is descended from Iceland’s greatest saga writer, Snorri Sturluson. Listen here

Richard Fidler’s Conversations is the most listened-to podcast in Australia, with about 1.2 million downloads each week. Im now yet another person on that bandwagon. I can now understand why someone would listen to a 1 hour podcast. Each conversation is possibly the most interesting conversation you will ever hear. It’s always a pleasure to tune in to his podcasts because the topics are always fascinating. Fidler also has a honeyed, baritone voice which is also pleasurable to listen in a different way as well.