The Icelandic stories crammed into one hilarious show
Culture
by Sara McMahon
|May 12, 2016
Have you heard of Hallgerði ‘Longpants’, Gunnlaug ‘Sormtongu’, Killer-Glúm or Leifi ‘lucky’? No? Well, it’s time for you to get to know these bigger characters from the famous Icelandic sagas.
The Icelandic Sagas – Greatest Hits is a theatrical comedy based on the Icelandic Sagas, prose stories that took place in Iceland in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. The stories tell about the struggles and conflicts of the first generations of Icelandic settlers.
The actors Jói Jóhannsson and Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir portray some of the most infamous characters in history, including Hallgerði ‘Longpants’ and Leifi ‘heppna’, and manage to condense centuries of events into a 75-minute show.
The show deals with problems as old as humanity, such as how to stop your wife’s incessant slave killing, how to react when someone calls you a “horse eater” and why you should never throw blue pants in the face of Icelanders.
The show premieres in the elegant music hall Harpa in May and tickets cost ISK 4,900.