Single-channel video, 7:45 min, sound, 2011.
Interview with Eiríkur Sturla Ólafsson, Nordeuropa Institut, Humboldt University of Berlin.

Íslendingabók og Landnámabók was executed in Reykjavik and Berlin, where an interview with Eiríkur Sturla Ólafsson took place.
The interview starts with the books that give title to the work and elaborates on questions around literature and national identity. Ólafsson describes the content and circumstances in which the books were written. He relates them to the archetype of Icelandic independence by looking at history and language. Through an insight into the main character Bjartur of Summerhouses from the book Independent People, by Haldór Laxness, Ólafsson questions those same national values.

The answers to the posed questions were edited and transcribed as subtitles, reproducing the original pace of the interview.

Excerpt:
RV: Religion does not play a significant role in the settlement, which seems to be rather a political investment.

ESO: Not until later. At the beginning of the settlement, Christianity hasn't started to establish in Iceland. [...] One can discuss, whether it was religion as such, that triggered the disputes or if people would use religion as a power device to state their will.