This novel is dedicated to my brothers David, Ken, and Brett, who have all supported me in their own ways. And no, none of the characters are based on any of them.
And I’d also like to dedicate this novel to all the Icelanders out there. Thanks for letting me borrow bits and pieces of your wonderful stories and heritage. I may have inadvertently changed the schedule for the Nordurleid bus to Hvammstangi and the Icelandair flight from New York to Keflavík. They will be running at the proper time from this moment forward.
I would like to thank my wife, Brenda Baker, for her editing skills and my publisher, Bob Tyrrell, for the same. I also want to give a special tip o’ the Viking helmet to Jón Jónson for reading a rough draft of this novel and to Brynjólfur Gíslason, who was kind enough to tell me a little about his hometown of Hvammstangi. And I perhaps owe the most to Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), who was an Icelandic historian, poet, and chieftain best known for his Prose Edda, a prose account of the Norse myths. Without his version of the myths, these books wouldn’t have been possible.