Setting during The Elder Edda: During the Viking era, raw material and slaves are the main resources of northern and western Europe. Tens of thousands of European men, women, and children are sold into slavery not only within Europe, but into Muslim Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. Today, the tide of cheap labor has turned and thousands of North Africans are forced to seek a living in Spain and France.

Medieval Iceland: Iceland is poor, with a small population, but it produces a vibrant and extensive literature in prose and poetry. Reading to the family group or to assembled neighbors is a common winter's entertainment into the nineteenth century in farming districts. Iceland still has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

Tenth and Twelfth Century: Norse colonies flourish in Greenland, which they found to be uninhabited and to have...