Ólafur Egilsson (1564 – 1 March 1639) was an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

minister. In 1627, he was abducted, along with his wife and two sons, by

Barbary Pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe ...

under the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

during their raid on

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

. The raid is known in Icelandic history as '' Tyrkjaránið'' (

The Turkish abductions The Turkish Abductions ( is, Tyrkjaránið) were a series of slave raids by pirates from Northwest Africa that took place in Iceland in the summer of 1627. The pirates came from the cities of Algiers and Salé. They raided Grindavík, the Eas ...

). He returned to Vestmannaeyjar in 1628 but his wife Ásta Þorsteinsdóttir did not return until 1637 and his sons never returned. He later wrote a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

of his abduction and return, which was published both in

and in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. Ólafur Egilsson and his wife Ásta Þorsteinsdóttir are major characters in the 2018 historical novel ''The Sealwoman's Gift'' by Sally Magnusson.

Published work

* Egilsson, Ólafur (1741). ''En kort Beretning Om De Tyrkiske Søe-Røveres onde Medfart og Omgang, da de kom til Island i Aaret 1627, og der borttoge over 300 Mennesker, ihjelsloge mange, og paa tyrannisk Maade ilde medhandlede dem : sammenskreven af Præsten Oluf Eigilssen fra Vest-Manøe, som tillige blev ført derfra til Algier, og 1628 kom tilbage igien''. Danish text. A short account of the Turkish pirates' wicked conduct and dealings when they came to Iceland in the year 1627, and there abducted more than 300 people, struck many dead, and in a tyrannical way mistreated them badly: written by the minister Oluf Eigilssen from Westman island, who was also taken from there to Algiers, and 1628 came back again. * Egilsson, Ólafur (1852). ''Lítil saga umm herhlaup Tyrkjans á Íslandi árið 1627''. Edited by Hallvarður Hængsson and Hrærekur Hrólfsson. Reykjavík. Icelandic text. A short story about the Turkish invasion of Iceland in 1627 * Egilsson, Ólafur (2016). ''The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627''. Translated from the original Icelandic text and edited by Karl Smári Hreinsson and Adam Nichols. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. .

References

External links

The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
*De Reizen van Ólafur Egilsson (Dutch translation of The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
Ólafur Egilsson: A Short Biography
(In Icelandic)
Wikibooks: Lítil saga umm herhlaup Tyrkjans á Íslandi árið 1627
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olafur Egilsson Icelandic priests Icelandic memoirists Turkish Abductions 16th-century Icelandic writers 17th-century Icelandic writers Arabian slaves and freedmen 1639 deaths 1564 births People from Vestmannaeyjar People who wrote slave narratives 17th-century slaves Slave narratives Slaves from the Ottoman Empire Slavery in Algeria

Published work

See also

References

Further reading

External links