The Saga of Claudia

By Rob Olason

Starting this spring and concluding this fall, Claudia Pétursson is on an incredible journey.

Claudia Pétursson and “Ferðarefill,” the traveling tapestry

She is crisscrossing the North American continent with an 18-foot tapestry containing illustrations from one of Iceland’s most revered sagas.

At the conclusion of her journey sometime in October 2025, she will have visited Minneapolis, Minnesota; Gimli, Manitoba; Victoria, British Columbia; Seattle, Pt. Roberts and Blaine, Washington; Markerville, Alberta; Mountain, North Dakota; back to Gimli, Manitoba; back to Minnesota stopping in Moorhead and Minneapolis (again); then on to Rapid City, South Dakota; followed by Denver and Boulder, Colorado. Her journey (may) end in Washington, D.C., in October. She may also even add additional stops if the opportunity arises.

Maxine Ingalls sewed on the tapestry in Hvolsvöllur in 2017. Maxine took her grandchildren on a trip to Iceland and discovered the tapestry. She was so thrilled that Claudia brought the “Ferðarefill,” the traveling tapestry, to the INLNA Convention and was so happy to hear all the news about its completion and the proposed museum.

During this journey, she will give presentations, embroidery workshops, school visits, and display the “traveling tapestry,” a remarkable work of embroidery that beckons viewers to take the trip to Iceland to see the original tapestry. All ninety meters of it.

Claudia’s saga actually began several years ago, when she discovered the embroidery project taking place in the small town of Hvolsvöllur. Two avid fiber artists, Gunnhildur Edda Kristjánsdóttir and Christina M. Bengtsson, thought about how their small community could do something really big and historic.

They looked at their community and said we should make a tapestry that tells the story of the saga that took place in our backyards over a thousand years ago.

They had in mind Njáls saga, which is one of Iceland’s most famous sagas.

The saga is so important to Icelandic culture that each year, schools across the country take a day to recite the entire saga. The saga explores the theme of honor and vengeance and the consequences of roiling conflict in the early Icelandic settlement.

Claudia sharing her presentation about the tapestry at the 2025 INLNA Convention in Gimli, Manitoba

The saga was written in the thirteenth century. The first stitch on the tapestry that will tell the story visually was made in 2013.

Modeled after the Bayeux tapestry, a nearly thousand-year-old chronicle of the Norman Conquest of England, the Njáls saga tapestry employs the same ancient stitch.

As the tapestry grew from that first stitch, it started slowly but the momentum began building as word got out, and soon thousands of volunteer embroiderers from over 150 countries joined in the effort. One of those volunteers was Claudia, who became so enraptured with the project that she returned again and again to contribute her time and talent.

Heidi Bergstrom and Claudia. Heidi is hosting the tapestry May 12 -19, at the Metchosin Arts and Cultural Center on Vancouver Island.

When the project was completed in 2020, a new challenge arose: how to display this gigantic tapestry. In the current building, it was difficult to display more than a portion of the total length at one time. A new building, a museum, would be needed to display the work in its entirety. Claudia took it upon herself to find ways to let the world know about the tapestry and the need to display it in a way that could be enjoyed for generations to come, perhaps even for a thousand or more years.

As Claudia journeys this year bringing the traveling tapestry to communities across North America, she is also offering the public an incredible opportunity to feel the power of the saga story, the visual artistry of the tapestry and witness the impact that a story still holds on a community, a people, and a country, a millennia later.

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Upcoming dates for the Traveling Tapestry:

May 12-19 Victoria, British Columbia, Metchosin Art Center - presentations, workshops, school visits

May 21 Pt. Roberts, Washington, 6 pm presentation at Point Roberts Community Center, with Point Roberts Historical Society

May 22 Blaine, Washington, presentation at Blaine Library with Blaine Icelandic Heritage Society, 4 pm

July 12-13 Calgary, Alberta with the Leif Eiriksson Icelandic Club

July 14-27 Markerville, Alberta, with the Stephan G. Stephansson Icelandic Society

July 31-August 2 Mountain, North Dakota August the Deuce Celebrations with the Icelandic Communities Association of North Dakota

August 3-4 Gimli, Manitoba, Íslendingadagurinn, Icelandic Festival of Manitoba

August 5-13 Moorhead, Minnesota, Tapestry presentation and classes, with Historical Cultural Society of Clay County

August 14-21 Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tapestry presentation and classes, with the Hekla Club and Danish American Club

Sept. 5 Rapid City, South Dakota, event at St. Martin Village

Sept. 6 Rapid City, South Dakota, event at Rapid City Public Library

Sept. 8-21 Colorado stops:

Sept. 8 Denver, Colorado, event with Icelandic Association of Colorado

Sept. 9 Boulder, Colorado, Presentation for Handweavers Guild of Boulder

Sept. 13 Boulder, Colorado, Embroidery classes with Handweavers Guild of Boulder

Date Pending: Boulder, Colorado, event with University of Colorado at Boulder/Nordic Program

Oct. Date Pending: Tapestry showing at the Icelandic Embassy to the United States, Washington, D.C.