In the Setting

So, I've listened to 'The Thrall's Tale' by Judith Lindbergh. I know, another book review from me. I can't help it, I tell you. These are what make me think of my own writing. I listen, mostly- I have time to read only a few, to these books all day at work while surrounded by other books and magazines and I'm, well, influenced. Anyway, this book, is set in Greenland in the early middle ages with the coming of Christianity. Great book, anyway, she does the whole thing in speech that mimics the speech of old Norse while still in English. Mind you, I'm listening to this book, the performer is great. And I'm thinking, can I possibly match this in my own medieval book, this poetical phrasing? And I'm thinking, of course not. This writer must be a scholar of old Norse culture, must be able to read it. I don't know. At any rate, I am thoroughly intimidated. I try to tell myself that not all writers of medieval fiction steep themselves so thoroughly in the culture that their pores seem to emit the atmosphere. Still, though, to read (or listen) is to be awed, at times.