Iceland is country of honour at this year's Frankfurt Bookfair

the Iceland pavilion at Frankfurt

The Frankfurt Bookfair (Frankfurter Buchmesse) is the world's largest with some 7,500 exhibitors from 110 countries (although over half the exhibitors are from Germany).  Each year a country is given special focus, and this year it is Iceland (Island), which with a population of only a bit over 300,000 is quite small, but has a much greater presence in proportion - straddling two continental plates, it one of the most volcanically active places in the world, as most people who travel by air learned last year, and very scenic.  In our library we have the large two-volume Icelandic Sagas, the country's best known literary work. 

Iceland has no railways, but offers wild drives and the long tradition with the sea is as extensive as it is in NZ; the settlement during the Viking era lasted from the 9th to 11th centuries.  Today the Icelandic language is virtually unchanged from the Old Norse spoken by the Vikings (including in England).

Next year's country guest of honour at Frankfurt is NZ.