Gudmundsson, Kristmann

▪ Icelandic author

born October 23, 1901, Thverfell, Iceland

died November 20, 1983, Reykjavík

      Icelandic novelist who gained an international reputation with his many works of romantic fiction, several written in Norwegian.

      Gudmundsson was born out of wedlock to a country girl who left him in the care of her impoverished family. At age 13 he ran away and turned his hand to all kinds of menial work but, at the same time, managed to learn several languages.

      In 1924 he went to Norway and two years later published in Norwegian a collection of stories, Islandsk kjærlighet (“Icelandic Loves”). It was a literary success and astonished the critics by its mastery of Norwegian idiom and style. He followed that success with the publication of several novels, among them the family sagas Brudekjolen (1927; The Bridal Gown) and Livets morgen (1929; Morning of Life) and the autobiographical Hvite netter (1934; “White Nights”). Gudmundsson's fiction can be loosely classed as romances, family sagas, and historical novels. He drew a great deal on his Icelandic background and on Icelandic literature and social history, but the constant theme in his work is love (both physical and spiritual) between men and women. He was married seven times.

      In 1939 he returned to Iceland and began writing in Icelandic, but those works were not as successful as those he published in Norwegian. Scholars criticized his works in general for their melodrama and “hyperbole.” However, their popularity ensured that many of them were translated into most of the major languages of the Western world.

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