A Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North by Madame Ida Pfeiffer, 1853

Ida Pfeiffer's A Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North is the account of the celebrated Austrian traveller's journey to Iceland and Scandinavia in 1845, undertaken at a time when independent travel by a woman through such remote regions was highly unusual. Pfeiffer describes the landscapes, settlements and everyday life she encountered in Iceland, together with her travels through Norway, Sweden and Denmark, combining lively personal observation with accounts of local customs and natural phenomena. This English edition considerably supplements her narrative with an essay on Icelandic poetry, a translation of the Völuspá - one of the most important poems of the Old Norse Poetic Edda - and a concise history of Iceland, and is illustrated with eight tinted engravings.

Of particular interest is the inclusion of an English translation of the Völuspá, one of the most important poems of the Poetic Edda, whose vision of Norse creation, mythology, Ragnarök and the renewal of the world was among the Old Norse literature closely studied by J. R. R. Tolkien; Tolkien later produced his own poem, The Prophecy of the Sibyl, inspired by the Völuspá.

A Visit to Iceland and the Scandinavian North; Translated from the German of Madame Ida Pfeiffer with Numerous Explanatory Notes and Eight Tinted Engravings to which are added an essay on Icelandic Poetry, from the French of M. Bergmann; A Translation of the Icelandic Poem The Voluspa; and a brief sketch of Icelandic History.. By Madame Ida Pfeiffer.

Published by Ingram, Cooke, & Co, London, 1853. Second edition. 

A good red cloth hardback with elaborate raised decoration to covers, including gilt design to front and gilt printed titles. Covers are worn, rubbed and bumped, and there is a loss of cloth to the top of the spine, and a 4cm section of the cloth at the head of spine has been re-glued. With previous owner's presentation inscription to first free endpaper.

Text is bright and clean with a few spots at the plates. All eight plates are present as called for. Contents and Index a little age toned. Gilt edges to text block. A few page edges protrude slightly, but all soundly bound.

Text in English.

xvi + 353pp.

Weight approximately 430g.

Dimensions: Approximately 190mm high x 131mm wide x 25mm deep.