Icelandic literature

Introduction

      body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse) through Modern Icelandic.

      Icelandic literature is best known for the richness of its classical period, which is equivalent in time to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. The relative stability of the Icelandic language means that Icelanders today can without difficulty still read Old Icelandic sagas. Because early Norwegian literature is so closely intertwined with early Icelandic literature, both are discussed in this article.

The Middle Ages

      The literature of Scandinavia and, in particular, of Iceland has reflected two extraordinary features of the social and cultural history of pagan Europe and of Iceland. The way in which names such as Siegfried, Brunhild, and Atli (Attila) cropped up again and again in different European literatures has borne witness to the dissemination of legends and traditions common to the early Germanic tribes of Europe, starting from the great movements westward in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. The literature of Iceland not only provides the most detailed descriptions available of the lifestyle of early Germanic peoples but constitutes the most complete account of their literature and literary traditions. Although the sagas and poems were first written down by Christian scribes, they present a picture of a pre-Christian European culture that reached its heights of expression in the new settlements in Iceland.

      A second feature directly concerns the peoples of Scandinavia. A remarkable characteristic of early Scandinavian literature was the accuracy with which it described the geography of northern Europe, accuracy that was born of actual knowledge. From the late 8th century until well into the Middle Ages, the history of the Norsemen (Vikings (Viking)) was one of unceasing movement toward western and central Europe. The Norsemen discovered Iceland, as early Icelandic historians had it, when their ships were blown off course about 860. The next century found them pushing west by way of Britain, Ireland, and France to Spain and then through the Mediterranean to North Africa and east to Arabia. Across land they reached the Black Sea; by sailing north they came to the White Sea; and finally, turning westward again, they reached America long before Columbus.

Literature in Iceland and Norway

      The roots of Icelandic literature and Norwegian literature, which reach back more than 1,000 years, are inextricably intertwined. Although a large part of this early literature was composed either in Iceland or elsewhere in Scandinavia by Icelanders, the Norwegian element in it is considerable and indisputable, even though this cannot always be isolated and defined. In many instances, it is obvious that some of the literature derives from a time before the Scandinavian settlement of Iceland in the 9th century. In other cases, it appears that the composers of the works had resided for long periods in the mother country of Norway.

The classical period

      The best-known Icelandic literature belongs to the classical period, roughly equivalent to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. Icelandic manuscripts yield much knowledge of European myth and legend, which is in part common to all Germanic peoples. Stories of the Norse gods and myths—of Odin, god of war; Balder the Beautiful; Thor, god of thunder; and Valhalla, hall of the slain—form the nucleus of early Icelandic literature.

      Almost all extant early Scandinavian poetry was recorded in Icelandic manuscripts, although some was clearly composed before the Scandinavian peoples reached Iceland in the late 9th century. Much of the oldest poetry was recorded in the Codex Regius manuscript, which contains the Sæmundar Edda (c. 1270), commonly designated by scholars as the Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda (see Edda). The poetry is sometimes called Eddaic and falls into two sections: heroic lays, which, broadly speaking, deal with the world of mortals; and mythological lays, which deal with the world of the gods.

The heroic lays

      The heroic lays follow the mythological in the Codex Regius and are probably the earlier of the two. Many of the legends on which they were based originated in Germany or even among the Goths (Goth). Oldest of all is perhaps the Hamdismál (“Lay of Hamdir”), which forcefully expressed the heroic ideals of Germanic tribal life. The story closely resembles one told by Jordanes, a Gothic historian of the mid-6th century, and his account suggests that his source was an even earlier poem about Hamdir. Another of the older lays in the Poetic Edda is the Atlakvida (“Lay of Atli”), which refers to events that took place in 5th-century western Germany, Atli (or Attila) being king of the Huns from 434 to 453. Nearly all heroic lays are associated with the story of Sigurd (or Siegfried), the valiant hero, and his ill-fated love for Brunhild, who, too, figures to a varying extent in different lays. Many scholars hold that the lays concerned with the spiritual conflict of the heroines Brunhild and Gudrun, which tend to be romantic and sentimental, were composed later than the austere heroic lays. The Poetic Edda contains only a small portion of the poetry known in Iceland in the Middle Ages. Fragments of ancient lays appeared in 13th- and 14th-century sagas such as the Hlǫðskviða (“Lay of Hlǫð”) in the Heidreks saga, as did mention of Danish and Swedish heroes in some fragments that must also have been known to the author of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.

The mythological lays

      Mythological lays about the Norse gods make up the first half of the Poetic Edda. It is unlikely that any of these originated outside Norway, Iceland, and the Norse colonies in the British Isles. The Vǫluspá (“Sibyl's Prophecy”) is a striking poem on the history of the world of gods, men, and monsters, from the beginning until the “twilight of the gods.” Many passages in the poem are obscure, but most modern scholars agree that it was composed in Iceland about the year 1000, when the people were turning from the old religion to Christianity. The Skírnismál (“Words of Skírnir”) tells the story of the god Freyr, lord of the world: sitting in “Gate Tower,” the throne of Odin, he gazes into the world of giants and falls in love with a giant maiden; to win her, he sends his messenger Skírnir, who first offers gifts and then threatens the maiden until she agrees to make a tryst with Freyr. Scholars have seen an ancient fertility myth in this story, and it is certainly one of the older mythological poems in the Poetic Edda and probably originated in Norway before Iceland was settled by Norwegians.

      The mythological poems so far mentioned are all narrative, but many of those in the Poetic Edda are didactic. The Hávamál (“Words of the High One”; i.e., Odin) consists of fragments of at least six poems. In the first section, the god speaks of relations between humans and lays down rules of social conduct; in other sections he discourses on relations between men and women and tells how the love of women may be lost or won; the last two sections are about runes and magic power. Most of the poems were probably composed in Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries. Another didactic poem, the Vafþrúðnir (“Words of Vafþrúðnir”), relates a contest between Odin and a giant.

      Some important mythological lays appear in other manuscripts. Baldrs draumar (“Balder's Dreams”) describes how the god Balder dreamed that his life was threatened and how his father, Odin, rode to the grave of a prophet to force her to reveal the fate in store for Balder.

The Eddaic verse forms

      Three metres are commonly distinguished in Eddaic poetry: the epic measure, the speech measure, and the song measure. Most narrative poems are in the first measure, which consists of short lines of two beats joined in pairs by alliteration. The number of weakly stressed syllables might vary, but the total number of syllables in the line is rarely fewer than four. In these respects it resembles the measure used by Anglo-Saxon and early Germanic poets. The speech measure used in the Atlamál (“Words of Atli”) differs little from the epic measure, though its lines usually have a greater number of weakly stressed syllables. The song measure is the most irregular of the Eddaic verse forms. It is chiefly in didactic poems and generally consists of strophes of six lines divided into half strophes of three lines.

Skaldic verse

      Norwegians and Icelanders of the 9th to the 13th century also composed skaldic poetry (from the Icelandic word skáld, “poet”). It was not composed in the free variable metres of the Poetic Edda but was strictly syllabic: every syllable had to be counted, and every line had to end in a given form. Like Eddaic lines, the skaldic lines were joined in pairs by alliteration, often using internal rhyme or consonance, but this poetry differed in syntax and choice of expression. Word order is freer than in Eddaic poetry. A highly specialized poetic vocabulary employed periphrases, or kennings (kenning), of such complexity that the poetry resembles riddles: the phrase sword liquid, for example, might stand in for blood, while the horse of the land of Haki refers to a ship (the “land” of Haki, a sea king, being the ocean). Little is known about skaldic verse forms, but they are thought to have been developed in Norway during the 9th century and could have been influenced by the forms and diction of Irish poets of the period. The earliest known poet was Bragi the Old, who probably wrote in Norway in the latter half of the 9th century. Harald I (died c. 940) of Norway was eulogized by several poets, among them Þórbjǫrn Hornklofi, whose poem the Haraldskvæði (“Lay of Harald”) was partly Eddaic and partly skaldic in style.

      The distinction between Icelandic and Norwegian literature at this period can be difficult to make. Skaldic verse seems to have originated in Norway and to have been developed by Icelandic poets who, like Egill Skallagrímsson, spent much time in Norway or who wrote in praise of Norwegian kings, as did Sigvatr, counselor and court poet of Olaf II of Norway. Although the complexity of skaldic poetry has limited its modern readership, the orally transmitted poems of the 10th and 11th centuries became valuable sources for Icelandic historians in the following centuries.

Prose

      Iceland's adoption of Christianity in 1000 opened the way for powerful influences from western Europe. Missionaries taught Icelanders the Latin alphabet, and they soon began to study in the great schools of Europe. One of the first was Ísleifr, who, after being educated and ordained a priest, was consecrated bishop. His school at Skálholt in southern Iceland was for many centuries the chief bishopric and a main centre of learning. The earliest remembered historian is Sæmundr the Wise, but Ari Þorgilsson (Ari Thorgilsson the Learned) is regarded as the father of historiography in the vernacular. A short history, Īslendingabók (or Libellus Islandorum, c. 1125; The Book of the Icelanders), and the more detailed Landnámabók (“Book of Settlements”) are associated with his name. Extant works of the period are few or anonymous. Annals of contemporary events date from the 13th century and the oldest religious manuscripts, consisting of homilies and saints' lives, from c. 1150. Larger collections of religious literature appeared in late 12th- and early 13th-century manuscripts. As elsewhere in Europe, the most popular books were often lives of the Apostles and saints.

The sagas

      The word saga is used in Icelandic for any kind of story or history, whether written or oral. In English it is typically used to refer more precisely to the biographies of a hero or group of heroes written in Iceland between the12th and the 15th century. These heroes were most often kings of Norway, early founders of Iceland, or legendary Germanic figures of the 4th to the 8th century. The oldest saga is the fragmentary Ólafs saga helga (“Saga of St. Olaf”), written about 1180. In form it is a hagiographic narrative, laying emphasis on miracles worked through the agency of the saint. It was probably written in the monastery of Þingeyrar, which played an important part in cultural life in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

      Several sagas about King Olaf I Tryggvason, at whose instigation the Icelanders adopted Christianity, were also written at Þingeyrar, where the work of the monks was fanciful rather than realistic. A more critical style of history was established in the south by Sæmundr and Ari, and several notable works were written at Skálholt or nearby in the 13th century, such as the Hungrvaka (“The Appetizer”), a short history of the bishops of Skálholt from Ísleifr to Kloengr. In the late 12th century several short histories of Norwegian kings were taken from Norway to Iceland, where they influenced Icelandic historians. The Ágriþ, a summary of the histories, or sagas, of Norwegian kings, written in the vernacular in Norway, was particularly influential. The Fagrskinna (“Fine Skin”; Eng. trans. Fagrskinna) covered the same period in more detail, while the Morkinskinna (“Rotten Skin”; Eng. trans. Morkinskinna), probably written earlier, covered the period from Magnus I Olafsson (ruled 1035–47) to the late 12th century.

       Snorri Sturluson wrote many kinds of works and played an important role in political wrangles in his time. Among works ascribed to him are the Snorra Edda (c. 1225), a handbook of prosody and poetic diction commonly referred to as the Prose Edda, or Younger Edda. He twice visited Norway, and a large part of his work consists of lives of its early kings: he combined his Ólafs saga with lives of other Norwegian kings to form the Heimskringla (c. 1220; “Orb of the World”; Eng. trans. Heimskringla). The value of these as historical sources has long been debated. Snorri was certainly well read in vernacular history and attempted to write faithful accounts of what he had read in earlier records. But he did not aim to write history in the modern sense of the term, as an analytical reconstruction of past events; his work was creative and therefore portrayed his heroes imaginatively. The stirring Egils saga (on the skald Egill Skallagrímsson) is attributed to Snorri.

The Icelanders' sagas

      The Icelanders' sagas (also called family sagas) are about heroes who supposedly lived in the 10th and 11th centuries. Their origins are unclear, and it is debatable whether they are faithful records of history. One theory has suggested that they were composed in the 11th century and transmitted orally until written down in the 13th century; though researchers now reject this view, it is true that the sagas owed much to oral tales and the tradition of oral verse. Their historicity is difficult to verify, since their content and form were shaped both by the sources used and by the author's intentions.

      It is also difficult to determine the date of many of the sagas. The obviously early works are somewhat crudely structured and express Norse ideals of loyalty and heroism. The Gísla saga, written before the middle of the 13th century, shows the development of artistic skill and contains rich descriptions of nature and verses of considerable beauty and tragic feeling; it tells of the poet Gísli Súrsson (died c. 980). The Laxdæla saga (“Saga of the Men of Laxárdal”), written a few years later, is a delicately worked tragedy in which the author shows an unusual appreciation of visual beauty. One work that is clearly its author's creation was the Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða (“Saga of Hrafnkell, Freyr's Priest”): despite realistic detail, the saga contains little historical fact. As the 13th century progressed, a taste for fantastic and romantic elements grew. The Grettis saga (“Saga of Grettir the Strong”) includes several motifs from folklore and portrays a hero fighting against trolls and ghosts.

      The greatest of Icelanders' sagas, the Njáls saga, has in fact two heroes, Njáll, who is wise, prudent, and endowed with prophetic gifts, and Gunnar, who is young and inexperienced. Njáll embodies traditional Norse ideals of loyalty and bravery yet faces his death by burning with the resignation of a Christian martyr.

The heroic sagas

      The fantastic element was further developed in the fornaldarsǫgur, literally “sagas of antiquity,” whose heroes were supposed to have lived in Scandinavia and Germany before Iceland was settled. The best known, the Vǫlsunga saga (c. 1270), uses prose stories adapted from heroic lays to describe Sigurd (Siegfried), the Burgundians, and the Ostrogoth king Jǫrmunrekr ( Ermanaric). The Hrólfs saga kraka (c. 1280–1350) incorporated ancient traditions about Danish and Swedish heroes who also appeared in the Old English poems Widsith and Beowulf.

      Many of the works on contemporary history were combined about 1300 in the Sturlunga saga, including the Íslendinga saga by Sturla Þórðarson.

Translations from Latin

      A quantity of secular literature was translated from Latin between the 12th and the 14th century. The “Prophecies of Merlin,” already translated in verse by a Þingeyrar monk, were combined with a complete translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae (1135–38; History of the Kings of Britain) and titled Breta sǫgur (“Stories of the Britons”). In one 14th-century manuscript this was preceded by the Trójumanna saga (“Story of the Trojans”), translated from a supposed eyewitness account of the Trojan War attributed to the Trojan priest Dares Phrygius. A Norwegian translation of the Bible was begun in the reign (1299–1319) of Haakon V Magnusson.

Romances

      Romances (romance) were also translated or adapted from Continental romances. Interest in the romance genre began in Norway and soon took root in Iceland. The earliest romance was probably the Tristrams saga (1226), derived from a late 12th-century adaptation of the Tristan and Isolde legend by the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas. This was followed by the Karlamagnús saga (“Saga of Charlemagne”), a collection of prose renderings of French chansons de geste (chanson de geste), including a Norse version of the French epic La Chanson de Roland (Chanson de Roland, La). Romances in Icelandic were numerous, and their effect on the style of later writers is evident in such sagas as the Laxdæla saga and Grettis saga.

Postclassical literature in Iceland

      In the period following the classical age, little was written that attracted attention outside Iceland. Realism and detached objectivity declined, and sentimentality and fantasy gained the upper hand. The shift—often characterized as a decline—in literary standards is sometimes attributed to Iceland's loss of independence in 1262 and the changes that followed. Interest in earlier manuscripts continued, and many manuscript collections of 13th-century material were made during the 14th and 15th centuries. The most beautiful of all Icelandic manuscripts, the Flateyjarbók (c. 1390), includes versions of sagas of Olaf I Tryggvason and St. Olaf, together with texts from other sagas or about heroes associated with Iceland.

Prose

      Prose literature of the 14th century includes several sagas. Among them are the Finnboga saga ramma (“Saga of Finnbogi the Strong”), about a 10th-century hero, and a saga that tells the love story of its hero Víglundr. Sagas about bishops, already a theme in the 13th century, became more numerous, as did lives of foreign saints. A large collection of exempla (exemplum) (moral tales) was also made, each short tale illustrating some moral precept.

Poetry

      Much poetry was written up to the time of the Reformation, in the 16th century, and many new forms were devised. The best poems were religious pieces, in honour of the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, or other saints. The well-known Lilja (c. 1350; “The Lily”; Eng. trans. Lilja) by Eysteinn Ásgrímsson (Ásgrímsson, Eysteinn), a monk from Þykkvabær, gives an account of the fall of Satan, the Creation, the Fall of Man, and the birth, life, and Passion of Christ. The term rímur (ríma)—rhymes—is used to describe the narrative poetry developed after 1500 that consist of mainly end-rhymed (end rhyme) four-line strophes. The metrical forms, although apparently derived from Latin hymns, inherited the alliterative system (see alliterative verse) of earlier poetry. Ballads written in Icelandic never attained the popularity of Danish ballads in Denmark or achieved the high standard of the Norwegian Draumkvæde (“Dream Ballad”). Most of those preserved date from the 14th to the 16th century and are free translations of Danish and Norwegian originals.

The Reformation in Iceland

      In Iceland the chief political figure and poet of the Reformation was Jón Arason (Arason, Jón), the last Roman Catholic bishop of Hólar, beheaded in 1550. By his life he showed that he was a Viking as well as a martyr, although most of his surviving poetry is religious.

      As a result of the Reformation and its effects on Icelandic learning and literature, Catholic poetry was discarded, and the first Lutheran bishops attempted to replace it with hymns poorly translated from Danish and German. Lutheran teachers instructed the people in Protestant dogma, and several translations of sermons and books of instruction by German Lutherans were printed in Icelandic from as early as 1540. Guðbrandur Þorláksson (Thorláksson, Gudbrandur) was the most energetic of the Lutheran teachers. In translating the Bible into Icelandic, he used earlier Icelandic versions of some books of the Old Testament and Oddur Gottskálksson's Icelandic translation of the New Testament. In his psalmbook Þorláksson showed appreciation of Icelandic poetic tradition and adhered to Icelandic alliteration and form.

The 17th century

      In Iceland the foremost poet of the 17th century was Hallgrímur Pétursson (Pétursson, Hallgrímur), a Lutheran pastor who struggled against poverty and ill health. His Passíusálmar (1666; Hymns of the Passion) remains among the most popular books in Iceland. The poet Stefán Ólafsson is remembered for both religious and secular works, the latter notable for exuberantly humorous portrayals of contemporaries and satiric observations of manners and customs.

      As in other countries, interest in antiquity was stirred in Iceland during the 17th century, and modern learning may be said to date from that period. Arngrímur Jónsson (Jónsson, Arngrímur) called the attention of Danish and Swedish scholars to Icelandic traditions and literature in a series of works in Latin, some containing abstracts of sagas now lost. Later in the century Árni Magnússon systematically collected the early Icelandic manuscripts.

The 18th century

      Húss-Postilla (1718–20; “Sermons for the Home”), an outspoken didactic text by Jón Þorkelsson Vídalín (Vídalín, Jón Thorkelsson), bishop of Skálholt, is the best example of early 18th-century prose. Among important later writers, Eggert Ólafsson (Ólafsson, Eggert) carried out a comprehensive geographical field survey (published in Danish 1772) of Iceland's country and its people. In his poetry he expressed 18th-century rationalism combined with Romantic patriotism. Jón Þorláksson, who was a clergyman as well as a poet and a scholar, translated two major English poems—John Milton's Paradise Lost and Alexander Pope's Essay on Man—as well as works by the German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.

      Finnur Jónsson, bishop of Skálholt, wrote Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ (1772–78), which covers the history of Christianity in Iceland. Jón Espólín published Íslands árbækur (1822–55; “Annals of Iceland”), a history of Iceland from 1262.

The 19th century

      The literary and linguistic renaissance in Iceland at the start of the 19th century was fostered by three men in particular: a philologist, Hallgrímur Scheving; a poet and lexicographer, Sveinbjörn Egilsson; and a philosopher and mathematician, Björn Gunnlaugsson. The principal movement in this renaissance was Romanticism. Inspired by the philosopher Henrik Steffens, Bjarni Thorarensen (Thórarensen, Bjarni Vigfússon) produced nationalistic poetry that became a model for 19th-century lyrical poetry. Jónas Hallgrímsson (Hallgrímsson, Jónas), however, surpassed Thorarensen as a metrist. He was one of four men involved in the periodical Fjölnir (“The Many-Sided”), which aimed to revolutionize literary theory and practice. The so-called Fjölnismenn were antitraditional and rejected the use of rhymes.

      The group was replaced after the 1840s by another group of poets, of whom the most outstanding were Benedikt Gröndal, Steingrímur Þorsteinsson (Thorsteinsson, Steingrímur), and Matthías Jochumsson (Jochumsson, Matthías). Gröndal wrote powerful lyric poetry, two prose fantasies, and an autobiography, Dægradvöl (1923; “Day-Spending”). Þorsteinsson wrote nature poetry and satiric epigrams but is best remembered as a translator of The Thousand and One Nights (1857–64) and Shakespeare's King Lear (1878). Jochumsson's Hallgrímur Pétursson (1874) and hymn Fadir andanna (c. 1884; “Father of Spirits”) established him as the greatest lyric poet of the three. He too translated Shakespeare in addition to Ibsen's Brand. The poet Grímur Thomsen was contemporary with but distinct from this group; his poetry was less lyrical but more austere and rugged, as Hemings flokkur Áslákssonar (1885; “The Story of Heming Aslakssonar”) exemplifies.

      The latter part of the century produced three talented poets: Þorsteinn Erlingsson (Erlingsson, Thorsteinn), author of the collection of poems Þyrnar (1897; “Thorns”); Einar Benediktsson (Benediktsson, Einar), a Neoromantic mystic and man of the world; and Stephan G. Stephansson (Stephansson, Stephan G.), an embittered expatriate whose irony passed in Iceland for realism.

      The 19th century also saw a renaissance in imaginative prose. Jón Thoroddsen (Thoroddsen, Jón) wrote two novels that acquired a position not incommensurate with that of the medieval sagas: Piltur og stúlka (1850; Lad and Lass) and the incomplete Maður og kona (1876; “Man and Woman”), distinguished in prose style, narrative skill, wit, and perceptive observation of peasant and small-town life.

The 20th century and beyond

      Modern Icelandic prose writing did not really develop until the late 1870s, when a group of young men, influenced by the theories of the Danish critic Georg Brandes (Brandes, Georg), began their literary careers. They had absorbed Brandes's ideas uncritically, their detractors argued, which resulted in introspective, self-pitying works believed by their authors to be realistically written. The early works of Einar Kvaran (Kvaran, Einar Hjörleifsson) are often dismissed as being in this vein, but he later developed into a novelist of skill and power.

Prose

 Several writers of the first half of the 20th century showed a keen eye for character and an understanding of human feelings and of the stark life of rural Iceland: Jón Trausti (Guðmundur Magnússon), who wrote the cycle Heiðarbýlið (4 vol., 1908–11; “The Mountain Cot”); Gunnar Gunnarsson (Gunnarsson, Gunnar), whose Kirken på bjerget (1923–28; “The Church on the Mountain”) was written in Danish; and Guðmundur G. Hagalín (Hagalín, Gudmundur G.), known for such novels as Kristrún í Hamravík (1933; “Kristrún in Hamravík”). The outstanding modern prose writer was Halldór Laxness (Laxness, Halldór), who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. His mature works were influenced by his conversion to Roman Catholicism and his identification with the basic ideas of socialism. His major works are Salka Valka (1936), Sjálfstætt fólk (1935; Independent People), Íslandsklukkan (1943; Iceland's Bell), and Gerpla (1952; Eng. trans. The Happy Warriors). He helped restore Icelandic as a medium for storytelling.

      Thor Vilhjálmsson, as well versed in European Modernism as in the mythology of Iceland, was one of the leading Icelandic writers and cultural figures in post-World War II Iceland. His novels, written in sophisticated prose, exhibit features characteristic of much modern Icelandic prose writing: realism intertwined with magic and humour in the midst of a general gloominess. He is perhaps best known for his historical novel Grámosinn glóir (1986; Justice Undone). Guðbergur Bergsson, another writer of prose fiction, proved himself one of the most talented and forceful. Reflective of the growing social and political consciousness of the 1960s, some of his novels from that period—Ástir samlyndra hjóna (1967; “The Love of a Harmoniously Married Couple”) and Anna (1969)—subjected contemporary Icelandic society and Iceland's military relations with the United States to biting satiric attacks. His later works, the collection of short stories Hvað ereldi Guðs? (1970; “What Does God Eat?”) and a series of novels produced in the mid-1970s, were decidedly experimental in character, revealing an attempt by the author to go beyond ordinary reality to expose some of the more disgusting and grotesque aspects of life.

      Among other prose writers of the later 20th century were Einar Már Guðmundsson, also a poet, whose work interweaves folklore with history; Einar Kárason, whose novels are spiced with irony and robust humour; and Kristmann Gudmundsson (Gudmundsson, Kristmann), who wrote family sagas and historical novels. It was only during the last decades of the 20th century that women authors attained prominence. Svava Jakobsdóttir, one of the country's leading short-story writers, cast a satiric look, with a touch of the surreal, at the role of women in modern society. Steinunn Sigurðardóttir likewise utilized elements of parody and absurdity in her novels and short stories, while love is the major theme in the works of both Vigdís Grimsdóttir and Kristín Ómarsdóttir.

Poetry

      At the beginning of the 20th century, Icelandic poetry had lyricists in Þorsteinn Erlingsson (Erlingsson, Thorsteinn), whose early delicacy later developed into a more powerful note in Aldaslagur (1911; “Sound of the Ages”) and in an incomplete epic, Eiðurinn (1913; “The Oath”); in Einar Benediktsson (Benediktsson, Einar), who wrote in an ornate style sometimes capable of greatness, as Í dísarhöll (“In the Hall of the Muses”) shows; and in Stephan G. Stephansson (Stephansson, Stephan G.), an expatriate farmer in Canada who was a more bitter poet, although the collection Andvökur, 6 vol. (1909–38; “Sleepless Nights”), reveals a sensitive spirit.

      Prominent poets of the next generation include Davíd Stefánsson (Stefánsson, Davíd), a traditionalist who expressed deep personal feelings in straightforward language and simple verse forms. His approach was shared by Tómas Guðmundsson (Gudmundsson, Tómas) and by Jón Helgason. Steinn Steinarr (Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson), who was deeply influenced by Surrealism, experimented with abstract styles and spearheaded modernism in Icelandic poetry with his collection Ljóð (1937; “Poems”).

      After the middle of the 20th century, several poets distinguished themselves. The early works of Hannes Pétursson show great sensitivity and skill in adapting Icelandic to new, European metres. Pétursson's later poems (such as those in the collection Ur hugskoti [1976; “Recollections”]) reveal a movement away from innovative forms to more traditional verse. Other poets contemporary to Pétursson include Þorsteinn frá Hamri and Sigurður Pálsson. The poems in Hamri's Veðrahjálmur (1972; “Sun Rings”) grapple with questions about lasting values, particularly with the possibility of realizing human fellowship in the modern world. Pálsson's Ljóð vega salt (1975; “Poems on the See-Saw”) combines autobiographical elements with philosophical questioning about the nature of contemporary life. Matthías Johannessen, with roots in modernism, drew successfully on the saga tradition in poems that depict ordinary life in language rich in imagery. Among women poets, the unadorned poems of Ingibjörg Haraldsdóttir focus on the theme of love.

Drama

      Icelandic drama started to develop in earnest with Jóhann Sigurjónsson (Sigurjónsson, Jóhann), whose first success was Fjalla-Eyvindur (1911; Eyvind of the Hills), followed by Galdra-Loftur (1915; “Loftur the Sorcerer”); both plays were based on powerful folktales. Guðmundur Kamban (Kamban, Gudmundur)'s Hadda Padda (1914; Eng. trans. Hadda Padda) was highly praised by Georg Brandes, and he remained important in Scandinavian drama for the next quarter of a century. After Kamban, there were few plays of lasting value, though Davíd Stefánsson's Gullna hliðið (1941; “The Golden Gate”), Jakob Jónsson's Tyrkja-Gudda (published 1948), and Agnar Þórðarson's satiric comedy of modern Reykjavík life, Kjarnorka og kvenhylli (1957; “Nuclear Force and Female Popularity”), had considerable merit. In Ganksklukkan (1962; The Cuckoo Clock) Þórðarson produced a powerful play on the dehumanizing effect of modern life. The years after the 1960s were a productive period for Icelandic drama. One of the leading Icelandic playwrights in the later 20th century was Birgir Sigurðsson, whose Dagur vonar (1987; “A Day of Hope”) achieved success in Iceland and beyond.

Benedikt Sigurdur Benedikz Walton Glyn Jones Virpi Zuck

Additional Reading

Works on early Scandinavian literary history that focus on Icelandic literature include Gabriel Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature (1953, reissued 1975); Carol J. Clover and John Lindow (eds.), Old Norse–Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide (1985); Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland (1988, reissued 1993), which uses Icelandic sagas to analyze social and economic history; Carol J. Clover, The Medieval Saga: Society, Sagas, and Power (1982); Stephen A. Mitchell, Heroic Sagas and Ballads (1991); Jónas Kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas: Iceland's Medieval Literature, 2nd ed. (1992); Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, Saga and Society: An Introduction to Old Norse Literature (1993; originally published in Danish, 1977); Jenny Jochens, Old Norse Images of Women (1996); Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Old Icelandic Literature and Society (2000); John Lindow, Handbook of Norse Mythology (2001), a very useful, alphabetically organized listing of deities, themes, and concepts; and Sarah M. Anderson and Karen Swenson (eds.), Cold Counsel: Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Collection of Essays (2002).Surveys of Icelandic literature are Stefán Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature (1957); and Daisy Neijmann (ed.), A History of Icelandic Literature (2006). Anthologies of modern Icelandic literature include Alan Boucher (compiler and trans.), Poems of Today from Twenty-Five Modern Icelandic Poets (1971); Evelyn Scherabon Firchow (compiler and ed.), Icelandic Short Stories (1975, reprinted as A Ray of Sunshine, and Other Selected Short Stories from Iceland, 1982); Sigurður a. Magnússon (trans.), The Postwar Poetry of Iceland (1982); and Páll Valsson, Brushstrokes of Blue: The Young Poets of Iceland (1994).Benedikt Sigurdur Benedikz Walton Glyn Jones Virpi Zuck

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