| Summary: | The article studies the roots of Indridason’s detective novels in Icelandic reality in its different manifestations, both in its recent and more distant history, in its contradictions and constraints, as well as in the country’s literary heritage, especially the medieval sagas. The main focus is on Erlendur, the leading character. His name signifies “foreigner” and the choice of this Christian name is suggestive of what the author’s intention was when he started out writing these novels, i.e. to import a foreign genre, detective fiction, into Icelandic literature. However, this name has more and more called to mind, as Indridason’s work has progressed, another aspect of Erlendur. He is indeed a very strange character, definitely not at home in modern Iceland. For him the world of the dead is more vivid than the one that surrounds him. In this respect he reminds one of shamans from the medieval sagas.
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