Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the
sagasThe sagas , are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families...
written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic works constitute most of Old Norse literature, Old Norse literature is often wrongly considered a subset of Icelandic literature. But still, works by Norwegians are present in the standard reader
Sýnisbók íslenzkra bókmennta til miðrar átjándu aldar, compiled by
Sigurður NordalSigurður Nordal was an Icelandic scholar, writer, and poet. He was influential in forming the theory of the Icelandic sagas as works of literature composed by individual authors. His work on Icelandic culture was used as a standard text in Icelandic colleges...
on the grounds that the language was the same.
Early Icelandic Literature
The medieval Icelandic literature is usually divided into three parts:
- Eddic poetry
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.Codex Regius was written in the...
- Skaldic poetry
- Sagas
Sagàs is a small town and municipality located in Catalonia, in the comarca of Berguedà. It is located in the geographical area of the pre-Pyrenees.-About the Town:...
The Eddas
There has been some discussion on the probable etymology of the term “Edda”. Most say it stems from the Old Norse term
edda, which means great-grandmother, but some see a reference to
OddiOddi at Rangárvellir was a center of learning in South Iceland during the Middle Ages.For centuries it was the central home of the powerful family, Oddaverjar. The two best known leaders in Oddi were Sæmundur Sigfússon the Learned and his grandson Jón Loftsson . The famous historian Snorri...
, a place where
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
(the writer of the
Prose EddaThe Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Old Norse language Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Norse mythology...
) was brought up.
The
Elder Edda or
Poetic EddaThe Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.Codex Regius was written in the...
(originally attributed to
Sæmundr fróðiSæmundr Sigfússon or Sæmundr fróði was an Icelandic priest and scholar. Sæmundr is known to have studied abroad. Previously it has generally been held that he studied in France, but modern scholars rather believe his studies were carried out in Franconia. In Iceland he founded a long-lived school...
, although this is now rejected by modern scholars) is a collection of Old Norse poems and stories originated in the late 10th century.
Although these poems and stories probably come from the
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
n mainland, they were first written down in the 13th century in Iceland. The first and original manuscript of the Poetic Edda is the
Codex RegiusCodex Regius is an Icelandic manuscript in which the Poetic Edda is preserved. It is made up of 45 vellum leaves, thought to have been written in the 1270s. It originally contained a further 8 leaves, which are now missing...
, found in the southern Iceland in 1643 by
Brynjólfur SveinssonBrynjólfur Sveinsson served as the Lutheran Bishop of the village Skálholt in the south of Iceland. His main influence has been on modern knowledge of Old Norse literature. He is currently pictured on the Icelandic 1000 krónur bill....
, Bishop of
SkálholtSkálholt is an historical site situated in the south of Iceland at the river Hvítá.-History:Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. From 1056 and until 1785, it was one of Iceland's two episcopal sees, along with Hólar, making it a cultural and political...
.
The
Younger Edda or
Prose EddaThe Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Old Norse language Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Norse mythology...
was written by Snorri Sturluson, and it is the main source of modern understanding of the
Norse mythologyNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
and also of some features of medieval Icelandic poetics, as it contains many mythological stories and also several
kenningA kenning is a circumlocution used instead of an ordinary noun in Old Norse and later Icelandic poetry...
s. In fact, its main purpose was to use it as a manual of poetics for the Icelandic
skaldThe skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
s.
Skaldic poetry
Skaldic poetry mainly differs from Eddaic poetry by the fact that skaldic poetry were composed by well-known
skaldThe skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
s, the Icelandic poets. Instead of talking about mythological events or telling mythological stories, skaldic poetry was usually sung to honor nobles and kings, commemorate or satirize important or any current event (e.g. a battle won by their lord, a political event in town etc.). Skaldic poetry is written with strict metric system and many figures of speech, like the complicated
kenningA kenning is a circumlocution used instead of an ordinary noun in Old Norse and later Icelandic poetry...
s, favorite among the skalds, and also with much “artistic license” concerning word order and syntax, with sentences usually inverted.
Sagas
The sagas are prose stories written in Old Norse, that talk about historic facts of the Germanic and Scandinavian world; for instance, the migration of people to Iceland, voyages of Vikings to unexplored lands or the early history of the inhabitants of
Gotland' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
. As the Eddas contain mainly mythological stories, sagas are usually realistic and deal with real events, although there some legendary sagas, sagas of saints, bishops and translated romances. Only sometimes some mythological references are added or a story is rendered more romantic and fantastic as it really happened. Sagas are the main source to study the History of Scandinavia between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.
Middle Icelandic literature
Important compositions of the time from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth include sacred verse, most famously the Passíusálmar of
Hallgrímur PéturssonHallgrímur Pétursson was one of Iceland's most famous poets and a minister at Hvalneskirkja and Saurbær in Hvalfjörður. The Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær are named after him. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy...
;
rímurIn Icelandic literature, a ríma is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir . They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza...
, rhymed epic poems with
alliterative verseIn prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of many Germanic...
that consist of two to four verses per stanza, popular until the end of the nineteenth century; and autobiographical prose writings such as the
Píslarsaga of
Jón MagnússonJón Magnússon was an Icelandic Lutheran pastor and author of the Píslarsaga , which recounts the physical and mental torments he believed he had suffered as a result of witchcraft.-Early life:...
. A full translation of the Bible was published in the sixteenth century. The most prominent poet of the eighteenth century was
Eggert ÓlafssonEggert Ólafsson was an Icelandic explorer, writer and conservator of the Icelandic language.He was the son of a farmer from Svefneyjar in Breiðafjörður. He studied natural sciences, Classics, Grammar, Law and Agriculture at the University of Copenhagen.Ólafsson wrote on a wide range of topics...
(1726-1768), while Jón Þorláksson frá Bægisá (1744-1819) undertook several major translations, including the
Paradísarmissi, a translation of John Milton's
Paradise LostParadise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification...
.
Literary revival
In the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was a linguistic and literary revival.
RomanticismRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
arrived in Iceland and was dominant especially during the 1830s, in the work of poets like
Bjarni ThorarensenBjarni Vigfússon Thorarensen was an Icelandic poet and official. He was deputy governor of northern and eastern Iceland. As a poet he was influenced by classicism and romanticism. Politically he was aligned with the Fjölnismenn and favored the reestablishment of the Althing at Þingvellir...
(1786-1841) and
Jónas HallgrímssonJónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet and author. He was one of the founding members of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835...
(1807-45). Jónas Hallgrímsson, also the first writer of modern Icelandic short stories, influenced
Jón ThoroddsenJón Thoroddsen elder was an Icelandic author.His novels Piltur og Stúlka and Maður og Kona mark the beginning of the modern Icelandic novel...
(1818-68), who, in 1850, published the first Icelandic novel, and so he is considered the father of modern Icelandic novel.
This classic Icelandic style from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were continued chiefly by
Grímur ThomsenGrímur Thomsen , Icelandic poet and editor, was born in Bessastaðir in 1820. He was the son of Þorgrímur Tómasson, a goldsmith. In 1837, he went to the University of Copenhagen, where he studied law and philology, but he also became interested in philosophy and aesthetics...
(1820-96), who wrote many heroic poems and
Matthías JochumssonMatthías Jochumsson was an Icelandic poet, playwright, and translator. He is best known for his lyrical poetry and for writing the national anthem of Iceland, Lofsöngur, in 1874. He was born into a poor family and traveled to the continent to further his education...
(1835-1920), who wrote many plays that are considered the beginning of modern Icelandic drama, among many others. In short, this period was a great revival of Icelandic literature.
RealismLiterary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
and
NaturalismNaturalism is a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary...
followed the Romanticism. Notable Realistic writers include the short-story writer Gestur Pálsson (1852-91), known by his satires, and the Icelandic-Canadian poet
Stephan G. StephanssonStephan G. Stephansson , a Western Icelander, poet, and farmer. His original name was Stefán Guðmundur Guðmundsson....
(1853-1927), noted for his sensitive way to deal with the language and for his ironic vein.
In the early twentieth century several Icelandic writers started writing in Danish, among them
Jóhann SigurjónssonJóhann Sigurjónsson was an Icelandic playwright and poet. Atypically, Jóhann wrote plays and poetry in both his native Icelandic and in Danish.Jóhann was the son of an Icelandic farmer and was born in Laxamýri, Iceland...
, and
Gunnar GunnarssonGunnar Gunnarsson was an Icelandic author who wrote mainly in Danish. He grew up, in considerable poverty, on Valþjófsstaður in Fljótsdalur valley and on Ljótsstaðir in Vopnafjörður...
(1889-1975), one of the best-known and most translated Icelandic authors. However, the best-known Icelandic author internationally is
Halldór LaxnessHalldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic novelist and author of Independent People, The Atom Station, and Iceland's Bell...
(1902-98), winner of the
Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
in 1955, author of several articles, essays, poems, short stories and novels, the best known of which are Expressionist works
Independent PeopleIndependent People is an epic novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, published in 1946. It deals with the struggle of poor Icelandic farmers in the early 20th century, only freed from debt bondage in the last generation, and surviving on an isolated croft in inhospitable countryside.The novel ...
,
Salka Valka and
Iceland's BellIceland's Bell is a historical novel by Nobel prize-winning Icelandic author Halldór Kiljan Laxness. It was published in three parts in the period between 1943 and 1946: Iceland's Bell , The Bright Jewel and Fire in Copenhagen...
.
After
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, there was a revival of the classic style, mainly in poetry, with authors such as
Davíð StefánssonDavíð Stefánsson from Fagriskógur was a famous Icelandic poet and novelist, best known as a poet of humanity.He was born January 21, 1895, in Fagriskógur, Eyjafjördur, Iceland and he died March 1, 1964, Akureyri Iceland....
and
Tómas GuðmundssonTómas Guðmundsson was an Icelandic author. He was known as Reykjavík's poet ....
, who later became the representer of traditional poetry in Iceland in the twentieth century. Modern authors, from the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, tend to merge the classical style with a modernist style.
More recently, crime novelist
Arnaldur IndriðasonArnaldur Indriðason is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction. He has repeatedly proved to be the most popular writer in Iceland in recent years - topping bestseller lists year after year. In the year 2004 his books were seven of the ten most popular titles borrowed in Reykjavík City...
's (b. 1961) works have met with success outside of Iceland.
See also
- Icelandic Literary Prize
The Icelandic Literary Prize is an award which is given to two books each year. One of the books is in the category of fiction and poetry writing and the other in the category of academic and nonfiction work. The prize was founded by the Icelandic Publishers Association on the occasion of the...
- Nordic Council's Literature Prize
- List of Icelandic writers
External links