En reise til Roma
Dreyers Forlag 2024
Narrative non-fiction / History, Travel
95000 Words
Full English manuscript available
An entertaining and educational journey by bike through medieval Europe.
Pilgrims populated the roads of Europe in the Middle Ages. Every morning they set off on their journey to get closer to the holy places that were their destination. In a travelogue, the Icelandic pilgrim Nikolas Bergsson tells of his journey towards Rome and Jerusalem in the 1150s.
What kind of Europe did Nikolas travel through? Historians Orning and Gullbekk cycle in Nikolas’ footsteps. They pass magnificent cathedrals and modest parish churches, they walk on Roman roads, they travel through dense German forests, along the mighty Rhine and struggle over high mountains in the Alps and the Apennines. But things have changed since Nikolas traveled through the same landscapes almost a thousand years ago. What was recognizable, and what was unknown to a churchman from Ultima Thule?
A rich tale of travel, religion, places and events that bring to life a formative period in European history.
This marvellous book is a road trip with a difference. The authors have followed the long pilgrim road to Rome of an Icelandic monk of the 1150s by the most practical means, bicycles, including over the Alps; and they are both distinguished medievalists, so what they think of the differences in the experiences of travellers between the past and the present are authoritative and compellingly written. The whole is a fascinating read.
Chris Wickham, professor of medieval history emeritus, University of Oxford