I have been in Iceland last year for a 3000 km tour and at the end of the tour I didn't want to go home. Iceland is a land full of magic, myths and legends. Geologically it is the youngest land emerged on our planet and for millennia it was uninhabited: the first to colonize it were the Vikings and this can already be considered a sign of privilege. The cultural imprint of the Vikings, with all their cosmogony, is very present. In this book I have found places, myths and legends that I have visited and touched upon on my journey. I still feel the chills. Hjalmarsson's book can be considered a manual, but a truly extraordinary manual, unique and cared for in the smallest details and immediately made me want to pack my bags and leave for Iceland, a fascinating land like few others, inhabited by a people with a multiform culture, unknown to the majority of people, who think of Iceland only for the usual 4 stereotypes, the Geyser, the volcanoes and the rotten shark. Superficial. Iceland is a country of which, generally, little is known, and that little is always connected to the religious sphere. In reality, among the glaciers and the woods there are priceless treasures, milestones that make up, piece by piece, the history of one of the most varied and fascinating cultures ever. Iceland is a fusion of past and present and in this special atlas you will live an experience that will change (or strengthen) your way of looking at it. Iceland has a literary heritage of myths and legends handed down over the centuries that is still a living presence in people's lives today. This happens because in Iceland the stories cannot be separated from the landscape; that landscape so unique, so deeply linked to the depths of the planet, to its violence, populated by trolls, elves and wizards. Every bay in the country, every mountain, every waterfall, every volcano, every rock, has its own legend, from which it often takes its name and therefore every legend can also be well identified geographically. This book is a guide through the island, on the famous State Road No. 1, the main road in Iceland that crosses the country from North to South, to discover the most memorable legends of each place, from the most famous places to the most isolated corners. These are stories that explain the birth of a village, the origin of its name, why a spirit lives there; there are stories of epic deeds, or of catastrophic natural events; there are stories related to the Viking gods, such as the legend of Asbyrgi, the canyon created by the hoof of Sleipnir, the 8-legged horse of Odin; there are the magical runes of the Western Fjords, there is the myth of Helgafell (I've been there!) the Sacred Mountain that can fulfill three wishes of those who climb it under certain conditions; stories of woods inhabited by trolls and treasures behind certain waterfalls. On the pages there are small maps and drawings, and the book is divided into geographical areas, with each legend preceded by an introduction that locates it and describes the surrounding landscape. It is a special book, which cannot be missing in the library of a Nordic literature lover or, more simply, in that of those who love to travel and daydream. After the first 3 or 4 chapters I thought it was really a serious flaw that each of the stories was too short, because I would have liked it to be longer and more thorough. Instead, I gradually became convinced that the fact that each story is short enough allows there to be many in the book, then leaving the passionate reader the opportunity to go and look for the desired deepening in other books. Any book that prompts you to search for other books already has an added value in itself, and this book deserves all 5 stars. Great.