This cultural and environmental history sweeps across the dramatic North Atlantic landscape, exploring its unusual geography, saga narratives, language, culture, and politics, and analyzing its emergence as a distinctive and symbolic part of Europe. <p><b>Karen Oslund</b> is assistant professor of world history at Towson University in Maryland.<p>"One should read this book for its history of ideas and perceptions and its grasp of the tensions that exist and have existed at cultural frontiers." <i>-Geographical Review</i><p>"Sure to be of interest to those studying Iceland and the North Atlantic's culture and environmental history and those interested in the European understanding of that region." <i>-Choice</i>