Ólafur Egilsson (1564 – 1 March 1639) was an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

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

Barbary Pirates The Barbary corsairs, Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources) were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the largely independent Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barba ...

under the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

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, Vestmannaeyja ...

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

The Turkish abductions The Turkish Abductions ( ) were a series of Slave raiding, slave raids by Barbary pirates, pirates from Algier and Salé that took place in Iceland in the summer of 1627. The adjectival label "''Turkish''" () does not refer to ethnic Turkish pe ...

). 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 on 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 autob ...

of his abduction and return, which was published both in

and in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. 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 Christian clergy Icelandic memoirists Turkish Abductions 16th-century Icelandic writers 17th-century Icelandic writers 1639 deaths 1564 births People from Vestmannaeyjar Writers of slave narratives 17th-century slaves in the Ottoman Empire Algerian slaves 17th-century slaves

Published work

See also

References

Further reading

External links