Betsy Tobin: Ice Land
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

You tell us in your acknowledgements, "I began my infatuation with Ice Land some years ago, and it continues unabated." Can you tell us more about how this love affair began?

My love affair with Ice Land began with the book, in fact, rather than the other way round. I wanted to write something mythic, and I wanted to steer clear of classical mythology, so on the advice of my ten year old I decided to look at Norse mythology. While all of Scandinavia lays claim to these myths, they are most firmly rooted in Iceland. As soon as I became interested in the idea I announced (firmly) to my husband that we would be taking our annual summer vacation there – he was initially hostile but was won over quite quickly. In the end we spent a marvelous two weeks driving around Iceland, where every village has a fantastic geothermally heated pool, often in a stunning location. My children have been averse to cold pools ever since.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

I'm fascinated by the idea that you based your novel on stories of the Icelandic people and Gods. How did you learn so much and how much of what you tell is real versus imagined?

I spent several months holed up in the British Library reading modern translations of the Poetic Edda and interpretations of scholars who have endeavored to retell the stories it contains. The myths originate in medieval verse poetry that was spoken aloud for centuries by Skaldic poets before it was ever set down on paper. I also became obsessed with the Icelandic Sagas, a hugely entertaining body of medieval prose stories that forms the basis of our understanding of life as it was lived a thousand years ago. In these stories people argue, fight battles, fall in and out of love, set fire to their neighbor's houses, and confront ghosts in the dead of night. The premise of the book's main storyline, that of Freya and her decision to sell herself to four brothers in exchange for a necklace, is taken from the mythic poetry, while the tale of Fulla and her star-crossed romance with young Vili is inspired by the Sagas. But I have taken enormous liberties with both, altering both Freya's motivations and the outcome of her journey. At the end of the day, Ice Land is fiction.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Freya and Fulla are both strong female characters. Where Freya was weak, in matters of the heart, Fulla was strong. By the same token, where Fulla was weak, in her ability to stand up for what she wants, Freya has no trouble. I felt like they were two halves of a whole. Did you mean to write them this way? Tell us about the similarities and differences you felt when writing these women.

I think I saw Freya as an older, wiser and more jaded version of Fulla. Freya herself says that Fulla reminds her of her younger self, before she was "flung out into the world to experience all its failings." Both she and Fulla were raised without mothers, and thus without a model of the women they should be, and they are both blessed and hampered by their beauty. Over the course of the story Fulla loses some of her innocence and idealism, and Freya regains a bit of hers.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

There is a Lord of the Rings feel to this story. I felt like the composition of Freya's world was similar to Middle Earth. I can only assume that these stories are older than Tolkein's. Is it possible he had knowledge of Iceland's folklore and may have been influenced by it when writing his trilogy?

Yes Tolkien readily acknowledged his debt to Norse, Germanic, Celtic and Finnish mythology. He was also influenced by the ‘prose fantasy’ novels of the designer William Morris, and by the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. Morris, more widely known for his contributions to the Arts and Crafts Movement, was also a talented poet and translator . He spent years translating the Poetic Edda, and his version of the myth of the Brisingamen (the tale of Freya and the necklace) is one of several I drew from.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

This early culture you describe is very violent. It seems a way of life for families to lose loved ones at a young age. It's almost as if mothers expected their sons to die before themselves. What made life this way for these people?

Life in medieval Iceland was very harsh indeed. The climate, landscape and geology were (and still remain) extremely treacherous. Icelandic settlers lived on isolated farmsteads in extended family groupings, but they were also very mobile, traveling overland by horseback to visit friends and relations and venturing abroad by ship to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and even Britain and America. And yes they were a violent people, if the Sagas are to be believed. Weapons were crude and the injuries men sustained in battle were horrific, but this did not prevent them fighting to defend their honor. Kinship and loyalty were the twin tenets of life, and medieval Icelanders were prepared to shed blood in their defense.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin

Will we see Freya, Dvalin, Fulla, or Vili again?

I have no plans to write a sequel at the moment, though there is a wealth of material I could draw from.

BCQ: Can you tell us anything about your writing projects?

Betsy: I am just finishing my fourth novel. It is a very different tale set in contemporary Britain about an illegal Chinese immigrant who is presumed dead after an accident and has a rare opportunity to recast his fate. It is about what happens when you are yoked out of your culture by circumstance, and what happens to your identity as a consequence.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Betsy Tobin