Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On September 10 in coordination with this months Taste of Iceland festival, well be discussing Herostories, a work from Icelandic poet-historian Kristn Svava Tmasdttir composed from the memoirs and biographies of 100 Icelandic midwives, out now in translation by K.B. Thors from Deep Vellum.
Herostories reveals tales untold by most history books: the harrowing journeys and vital triumphs of 19th- and 20th-century midwifery in the vast landscape of Iceland. Forgoing traditional sagas of androcentric conquest, these poems center the adventures of ljsmur, mothers of light. Tmasdttir leverages epic elementsdashing mountain treks, rivers forded on horseback, unyielding compassionto challenge how and by whom stories become legend. Beyond archival recognition, the texts formally ambitious poetics render gender-based battles for literacy and education alongside narratives of selfless womanly caretaking, pressurizing the fundamental tensions between feminine self-actualization and the romanticized service of these trailblazing figures.
The follow-up to Tmasdttir and Thors award-winning, PEN-nominated Stormwarning, Herostories documents the professional achievements of Icelands first women to work outside the home, precursors to todays midwives who remain central to contemporary health care on the island.
