About the Story

Heroes and the Icelandic Sagas 

As is the case with most of the “heroes” of the Icelandic Sagas, THORDUR, the main character of A GATHERING OF FOES, is more a flesh and blood human, burdened with a heroic legacy than a larger than life heroic figure. He is bound by a code of honour and family ties that need to be addressed.

The approach to this story will be to emphasize the modern elements of the traditional Saga on which this story is based, with a swift pace of action, montage technique and briskly drawn characterizations and a strong sense of location and setting. The Icelandic Sagas where written in the 13th century describing a unique world which has greatly influenced such different writers as Sir Walter Scott, Ernst Hemingway, Dashiell Hammet Jorge Luis Borges and Jane Smiley.

Written in an economical and very visual style the sagas ask to be seen as much as read. Indeed filmmakers have found ideas, characters and motifs in the Sagas, in particular the scriptwriters who worked on westerns for directors such as John Ford and John Huston in the 50’s.

Now one of Iceland’s most successful scriptwriters and authors Einar Kárason (DEVIL’S ISLAND, FALCONS) has turned his attention to this bountiful literary heritage and created a story that is loyal to its source material and at the same time fast paced and modern. men wherever he goes,