Icelandic Sheep - Colourful All-Rounders

For more than 1000 years the Icelandic sheep has been the unsung hero of the nation. Until around 1910 the sheep was the main milk producer. Practically all clothing was made from wool, and shoes were usually made of sheep leather. The meat was, and is, an important source of nutrition. Even the innards, bones, and horns were (and are) used, as well as the pelt and leather. Even though white dominates, there is a great diversity of colours. There are sheep without horns and sheep with four horns… and leadersheep of outstanding intelligence. The economic significance of the sheep to the people of Iceland is still enormous. As every tourist to Iceland discovers, one meets small groups of sheep time and again along the way. There were indeed attempts to import other breeds, but all sheep in Iceland today are ultimately descendants of animals which arrived with the first settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries. This small book offers a compact and nevertheless well-founded introduction to the specifics of Icelandic sheep in the past and present. A multitude of historic and current photographs, maps, and diagrams make it a treasure trove for fans of Iceland as well as for sheep experts. A glance beyond the island (“Icelandic Sheep Overseas”) completes the work. The author Caroline Kerstin Mende (Karólina) lives with a dog, horses, and sheep in Skagafjörður in Northern Iceland, where nearly every farm has sheep. She also offers workshops about Icelandic sheep on her small Nes Farm.