Icelandic Literature
Icelandic literature has got many sides. The ancient prose, the sagas, the
romantic poets of the 1800's and the modern day writings.
There has always been a very strong literature tradition in Iceland, a good
example being travellers in the past, who knew lots of stories (not just gossip!)
and poems and were allowed food and accommodation at places they passed, in
exchange for contributing to their "evening wake". This meant sitting
around exchanging stories and poetry, usually while performing a useful task
in the household, but sometimes while drinking. This also brought the whole
family together and played a big part in the family life in those days.
Two other interesting facts are that Icelandic people have always been obsessed
with genealogy, using poetry and sagas to document that, as well as being
obsessive readers, both of poetry and other literature.
(There really is nothing like a good book…)
If we split this discussion up into 3 main categories: "the old", "the middle aged" and "the recent", I believe I can offer some information on Iceland's main creative minds in the field of literature. Some aspects might be missing as this will never be a definitive description of anything mentioned here - Arni Magnusson, script collector, for one, is not mentioned at all here despite being a very important figure in Iceland's literature - but the profiles that are linked to, might shed some further light on the subject.
The Old (874-1500)
In the early days of Iceland, the sagas and the poetry were not really documented
anywhere. This lead to various details being exaggerated or altered as well
as meaning that if someone wanted to know more about them, he would not necessarily
know where to go. Along comes Snorri Sturluson around 1100 (after the actual
Saga period).
Snorri not only wrote his own poetry and Sagas but documented old one's as well. His contribution to the Icelandic Sagas is probably the greatest. He was generally considered a wise man and "the age of Sturlungar" in Iceland is an era dedicated to (the rise of) his family. He was a good friend of the Norwegian king and well respected.
As any well-known man, he was also hated. It was that hatred that led to his death, in his 60th year, by a relative who could see him getting in the way of his own plans.
Some of the most famous literature works of this period are Egil's Saga (the story of Egill Skallagrimsson), Snorra Edda (pagan poetry by Sturluson), Heimskringla (also by Sturluson), Njals Saga (author unknown), Islendingabok (book of Icelanders - a good record of Iceland in that time) and Landnamabok (documenting the colonisation and the activities of the settlers of Iceland).
An interesting introduction to the sagas can be found at the website for the associated newsgroup at http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq55.html
The middle aged (1500-1900)
The main literature activity between 1500 and 1900 was the translation of
the Bible to Icelandic by Gudbrandur
Thorlaksson in 1584 as well as that of the romantic poets and writers.
Amongst them you will find Hallgrímur
Pétursson author of the Psalms of Passion (LINKA A AMAZON!!)and
Jónas Hallgrímsson
and also 1889 marked the birth of the writer Gunnar
Gunnarsson..
The recent (1900-to date)
In the last hundred years or so, the most interesting and best-known Icelandic
authors include Halldor
Laxness, Olafur
Johann Olafsson, his father Olafur
Johann Sigurdsson, Gyrdir
Eliasson, Thorbergur
Thordarson, Thorarinn
Eldjarn and the poets Steinn
Steinarr and David
Stefansson as well as Einar
Benediktsson who was around in both 18- and 1900's.
Also, Einar Mar
Gudmundsson and Einar
Karason have reached fame through their novels as well as the movie versions
(linka a myndirnar a amazon.com!!!) of them.
For more information on the Icelandic writers, check out the associated profile
links (or the profile encyclopaedia)
or try http://edda.is/english/frontpage.asp?cat_id=546
or http://www.amazon.comLINKAICELAND for some more Icelandic authors.
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