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Kristmann Guðmundsson (1901-1983) |
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Icelandic writer, who published over 30 novel and gained fame with
his
books of romantic fiction, several written in Norwegian. With Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975) and Halldór Killian Laxness
(1902-1998) Kristmann Guðmundsson was among the first internationally known
Icelandic authors. His novels often dealt with youthful, erotic
passion, which earned him a reputation as a northern D.H. Lawrence.
Guðmundsson published over 30 novels, which have been translated into
thirty-six languages. His most acclaimed early works include Bjudekjolen: Roman fra Island
(1927, The Bridal Gown) and Livets
morgen (1929, Morgen of Life). Guðmundsson is a master of the modern romance. Like no other Icelandic novelist he understands the psychology of love, especially young love, and describes it with a realism that nevertheless seems ethereally romantic. (Stefán Einarsson in Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, edited Jean Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton, New York: Columbia University Press, 1980, p. 334) Kristmann Guðmundsson was born on a farm in Þverfell in the
district of Borgarfjörður.
His father, Guðmundur Jónsson, was a temperamental rover, not ready to
settle down for family life; thus Guðmundsson was raised by his
maternal grandparents in Snæfellsnesi. Sigríður Guðlaug Björnsdóttir,
his mother, was a country girl. She offered him a model for
love of the soil, the underlying theme of many of his novels. Guðmundsson's early years were hard, shadowed by lack of
parental care and by sickness. Because of the poverty of his family,
his formal education was minimal, but he grew up to be a healty boy
with
a thirst for learning. Later in life he studied at 'folk
high-schools' in Denmark and Norway. His first stories and poems Guðmundsson wrote when he was a child. At the age of 13, immediately after his confirmation, Guðmundsson ran away from home, optimistically trying his luck in odd jobs. In his free time, he read voraciously on all topics. Talented with a broad range of skills, he started to work in 1923 as a journalist. When many Icelandic writers moved to Denmark, among them Gunnar Gunnarson, he decided to go to Norway, where he embarked on a career in literature. Until 1938, Guðmundsson worked as a free-lance writer in Copenhagen and Oslo, and then returned to Reykjavík. In 1941, he settled with his fifth wife, Guðrún Guðjónsdóttir, in Hveragerði, where he lived for the next two decades, and cultivated a garden there. While in Oslo, Guðmundsson published a collection of stories, Islandsk kjærlighet (1924), which gained success and astonished critics with its mastery of Norwegian idiom and style. Livets morgen (1929, Morning of Life) was praised for its strong and noble protagonist who incarnates the heroic ideal of the sagas in his struggle against fate. Haldor Bessason, a sailor and farmer, is happily married with the beautiful Salvør. "Now Salvør was him woman, sturdy and handsome. Salvør whom everyone wanted and who had chosen him alone." (Morning of Life, translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Sprigge and Claude Napier, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1936, p. 6) After a storm his boat is stranded on a far shore. He spends a passionate night with a French girl, and after returning home Haldor realizes that he cannot forget her. He separates from Salvør, who marries a Danish shop owner. Haldor's life with Maria doesn't give him the comfort and happiness he experienced with Salvør. "Maria's passion was devoid of charm; there was something morbid about it, and this was not good for a man's temper, especially when so many other thingss were weighting on him." (Ibid., p. 139) Haldor's passion is ruinous. "It is a genuine novel, the plot growing from its characters as they, in their turn, grown from the soil-if one may use that euphemism for the black lva sand of the beaches and the scanty turf of the meadows. The unusual local color is far more than perceptive bits of description, excellent as these are. It pierces the winter with the green and yellow northern lights: it envelops the summer with translucence, and it permeates the substance of the tale." (Agnes Rothery, The Satuday Review, May 2, 1936, p. 12) Robert A. Stemmle's sceen version of the novel, entitled Du darfst nicht länger schweigen (1955), contributed to boom of the popular Heimat-film genre in the 1950s. Although shot partly in Sweden with German actors, the film was otherwise faithful to Guðmundsson story. Helmut Ashley's cinematography captured the close relationship between the characters and the rugged landscape. In spite of writing in fluent Norwegian in Norway, practically
all of
Guðmundsson's works were set in Iceland. The autobiographical novel Hvite
netter (1934) brought out the author's optimistic world view.
Guðmundsson's other famous early novels include Brudekjolen
(1927, The Bridal Gown), a family saga set in rural Iceland. Again love
largely determines the fate of the characters, Björn, Hallgerdur,
Sigurn, Matthildur, and others. Upon the publication of
the book, a critic called it perhaps the best love story of the year. Det
hellige fjell (1932) described the old Norse and Irish settlement
of his birthplace.
After returning to his native country, Guðmundsson began writing in Icelandic, confirming his place among the most popular writers. At the height of his international fame, Guðmundsson dissuaded a Czech professor from nominating him for the Nobel Prize for Literature, because Icelanding left-wing intellectuals had already agreed that they would campaign in favour of Laxness. In Norway, where Guðmundsson had launched his literary career, his work fell gradually into oblivion. Guðmundsson's central themes were obsessive love, hate and
fear; in its day, his writing was notorious for its eroticism. Guðmundsson, who was married seven
or nine times, was known as an
incurable womanizer. His life furnished material for his fiction. Also forces of nature play a major role in the stories. Det
hellige fell opens
with a sudden thunder, and then under the clear sky three Viking ship
start they voyage toward north, to a strange misty island. Askell
Gunnkallsson is leaving with his family Norway; the house is sold and
there is no turning back. In Jordens barn (1935) Valborg falls
in love with Thorgils in spring. The marriage is not happy and her
little child, Gunnar, dies in a cold autumn night. In Brudekjolen a folk tale of a magic stain on a bridal gown allegorically reflects the tangled relationships between two families, which affect the lives of the younger generation. Kolfinnan, the central character of the story, inherits her mother's bridal gown but she washes the black stain away. The historical romace Winged Citadel (1937) was set in Crete during the Mycenaean times, but it also was full of allusions to psychoanalysis and World War II politics. In another excursion into the early European history, Þakan rauða (1950-52), Guðmundsson dealt with the creator of the ancient Völuspa poem, which probably came from the period when Christianity was making its way in Iceland. Its author represented the old faith in such gods as Odin, Balder, Loki, and the day of Ragnarok. The impact of the presence of American troops in Iceland was recorded in Félagi kona (1947), in which a poet named Eggert Hansson falls in love with an American army nurse and have to choose between his country and her. With Kristmannskver, published in 1955, Guðmundsson returned to poetry. His later books from the 1960s and 1970s are considered light entertainment, which still show his joy in telling a good story. Ferðin til stjarnanna (1959, A Journey to the Stars), a science fiction story written in the reformist spirit of H.G. Wells, was published under the pseudonym Ingi Vítalín. The first volume of his memoirs, entitled Isold hin svarta, came out in 1959. It was followed by Dærgin blá (1969); Loginn hvíti (1961), and Ísold hin gullna (1962). Guðmundsson died on November 20, 1983, in Reykjavík.
Believing to be a victim of
persecution, Guðmundsson accused communists within the Icelandic Post of
stealing his correspondence with foreign publishers during fifteen
years. In the communist press he was labelled as a paranoid. (True North: Literary
Translation in the Nordic Countries, edited by B.J. Epstein,
2014, p. 6)
Even though his claims were never proven, the fact was that Guðmundsson
spoke against communism and not surprisingly, his works were attacked
by
communist critics. Guðmundsson's libel suit against the writer
Thor
Vilhjámsson in the 1960s was the subject of Sigurjón Magnússon’s novel Borgir
og eyðimerkur (2003). Guðmundsson won the legal battle but lost in
the court of public opinion. He considered himself misunderstood. For further reading: 'Kristmann Guðmundsson' by G.G. Hagalín in Iðunn 14 (1930); History of Icelandic Prose Writers 1800-1940 by S. Einarsson (1948); Det moderna Islands litteratur 1918–1948 by Kristinn E. Einarsson (1955); A History of Icelandic Literature by Stefán Einarsson (1957); 'Guðmundsson, Kristmann' by S.E. [Stefán Einarsson], in Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, edited by Jean-Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton (1980); A History of Scandinavian Literature 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel (1982); Íslensk bókmenntasaga IV, ed. by Guðmundur Andri Thorsson (2006); A History of Icelandic Literature, edited by Daisy Neijmann (2007); True North: Literary Translation in the Nordic Countries, edited by B.J. Epstein (2014) Selected works:
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