PORTFOLIO

Karl Smári Hreinsson

SAGA AKADEMIA SCHOOL FOUNDER  /  ICELANDIC TEACHER  /  INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR

Karl Smári Hreinsson lives in Iceland. He is an independent scholar who has spent years researching the Icelandic sources of the corsair raid on Iceland. From 2000 to 2005, he was an assistant professor of Icelandic for the University of Maryland.

Karl has written several books in cooperation with Adam Nichols on the history of the Turish Raid on Iceland in 1627. Karl has also written books on Icelandic grammar and used to be a contributing writer for Icelandic monthly magazines such as Heima er bezt. He has also written the scripts for, and co-produced, two English-language documentary films:
– Spoils of War (2010), the story of the lost stained glass windows of Coventry Cathedral
– Svarihnjúkur (Black Peak: a War Story) (2015), the story of a Wellington bomber that crashed in the west of Iceland during the Second World War.

Karl owns and operates Saga Akademia an independent language school in Iceland. When he is not focused on researching Icelandic literature or teaching Icelandic, Karl moonlights as a guide for tours around the wilds of Iceland and Greenland.

Karl Smári Hreinsson holds an M. Paed in Icelandic Language and Literature from the Uniwersity of Iceland. He studied linguistics at Lund University in Sweden and completed advanced Teacher Training at Boston University. He was an Adjunct Professor at UMUC. He is also a writer on Icelandic culture and history.

Karl Smári Hreinsson

Karl's Works

SPOILS OF WAR
SPOILS OF WAR

Scenarist

BLACK PEAK - A WAR STORY
BLACK PEAK - A WAR STORY

Scenarist, Cooproducer

Published Articles & Reviews

Article authored by Karl Smári Hreinsson

“Bænaskrá úr Barbaríinu” (“Petition from the Barbary”), Heima er bezt, October 2017. pp. 444-446

“Afdrif Járngerðarstaðafolks í Tyrkjaáninu 1627” (“What Happed to the People of Járngerðarstaðir During the Barbary Corsair Raid of 1627”) Heima er bezt, November, 2018.

“Tyrkjaránið í Grindavík 1627 og afdrif Járngerðarstaðafólksins” (“The Turkish Raid on Grindavík and the fate of the folk from Járngerðarstaðir”), Sjómannadagsblað Grindavíkur 2019 30 ára (30 Year Commemorative publication of The Grindavík Seamen’s Journal), June, 2019.

“Á þrælamarkaði Algiersborgar: Algiersborg á tíma Tyrkjaránsins” (“In the Algiers Slave Market: Algiers at the time of the Turkish Raid”). Vestmannaeyjabær í 100 ár (Westman Islands Township – for 100 Years). Commemorative publication for the centenary of the incorporation of the town of Heimaey, on the Westman islands, July 2019.

“Um reisubók séra Ólafs Egilssonar” (“About the Travelogue of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson”). Heima er Bezt, Volume 69, Issue 9, September, 2019.

“Sjóræningjaforinginn Jan Janszoon van Harlem – öðru nafni Morath Reis” (“The naval Commander Jan Janszoon van Harlem – Otherwise Known as Morath Reis”). Sjómannadagsblað Grindavíkur (The Grindavík Seamen’s Journal) 2023.

The Northern Raid: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raids on Iceland in 1627

This book is a combination of Northern Captives, Stolen Lives, and Enslaved (see the chronological list of works below). It recounts the complete story of the Barbary corsair raids on Iceland in the summer of 1627, covering the raid by corsairs from Salé on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, the pillaging of the East Fjords, in southeast Iceland, by corsairs from Algiers, and the assault on Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands, by those same Algiers corsairs. It also follows what happened to the Icelandic captives in Salé and Algiers, where they were taken to be sold into slavery.

The Northern Raid is narrative history. That is, it recounts the events of the raid and their aftermath in novelistic style, focusing on the characters involved as much as possible—but always basing the story carefully on the seventeenth century Icelandic documents

The book is complete and ready for publication.

Tyrkjaránið á Íslandi 1627 í ljósi sögunnar (The Turkish invasion of Iceland in 1627 in the light of history)

This is an Icelandic translation of the full text of The Northern Raid, done by Karl Smári Hreinsson, a task that includes not only translating the English text itself but also reinterpreting it for Icelandic readers. The expected completion date for this book is sometime in mid to late 2024.

BIKING & WALKING TOURS

Biking and Walking Tours

Guide

Scroll to Top