The Far-Farers: A Journey from Viking Iceland to Crusader Jerusalem — Victoria Clark

Just before the year 1000 a young Viking named Thorvald the Far-farer turned his back on the pagan gods of his fathers to preach the Christian gospel. But his Icelandic countrymen mocked him as a homosexual, stoned him and finally outlawed him. Abandoning his homeland, Thorvald embarked on an epic journey to the golden heart of all medieval world maps - Jerusalem. A thousand years later, in the year 2000, Victoria Clark embarked on the same journey to discover to what extent the dramatic changes and conflicts sweeping Western Europe a thousand years ago still resonate today. The Far-farers is both the story of this 21st century journey and a history of extraordinary 11th century western Christendom.'Victoria Clark embarked on a impressive journey in the manner of the old pilgrims to Jerusalem, across time and space, moving in and out of the eleventh and the 21st centuries while traversing Europe of today. I read every word of it, and went back over some of the chapters and read them again for sheer pleasure. A triumph.' John Cornwell, author of Hitler's Pope