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Halldór Kiljan Laxness (1902-1998) - originally Halldór Guđjónsson - pseudonym Halldór frá Laxnesi |
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Icelandic writer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in
1955.
Halldór Laxness published his first book at the age of 17. He is
best-known for
his fiction depicting the hardships of the working fishermen and
farmers, and historical novels combining the tradition of sagas and
mythology with national and social issues. Along with Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975) and Kristman Guđmundsson (1902-1983)
Laxness was among the first internationally known Icelandic authors.
His breakthrough work was Salka Valka
(1931-1932). "It was no secret that Bjartur had a poor opinion of Einar’s poetry, for Bjartur had been brought up on the old measures of the eighteenth-century ballads and had always despised the writing of hymns and new-fangled lyrics as much as he despised any other form of empty-headed fantasy. "My father,” said he, "was a great man for poetry and was gifted with the tongue; and I owe it to him that I learned the rules of metre when I was still a youngster and have kept them since in spite of all the newfangled theories of the great poets. Madam of Myri, for instance. I inherited my copies of the rhymes from my father, seven of them belonging to the days when there were men of genius in Iceland, men who knew too well what they were about to trip over their feet; men who only needed four lines to the verse, and yet you could read it in forty-eight ways and always it made sense." (from Independent People: An Epic by Halldór Laxness, translated from the Icelandic by J. A. Thomsom, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1946, pp. 60-61)) Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born Halldór Gudjónsson in Reykjavík. When he was three, his parents Guđjón Helgason and Sigríđur Halldórsdóttir moved to Laxnes, a farm in nearby Mosfellssveit parish, where the young Halldór spent his boyhood. His pen name Laxness took from the farm. Besides taking care of the farm, his father worked as a road construction foreman. An accomplished amateur violinist, he also taught his son to play the instrument. Becoming a writer was not Laxness's only choice – he also planned a career as musician. Barn náttúrunnar (1919), the author's first book, came out when he was 17. Laxness was educated at the Icelandic Latin School and he attended the gymnasium in Reykjavík briefly, without graduating. His family had enough money to allow him to travel freely. After World War I Laxness spent much time in Europe and the United States, where he tried to find place in Hollywood film industry. In 1923, Laxness turned to Catholicism and got the name Kiljan after Irish St Kilian. He spent some time at Saint-Maurice de Clervaux, a monastery in Luxemburg, studied in London at a Jesuit-run school, and continued his spiritual search at Lourdes and Rome. Laxness wrote several books with Catholic themes before arriving at a state of disillusionment. His controversial first major novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (1927), was partly written under the influence of St Thomas ŕ Kempis and the surrealist poet André Breton. Laxness also read Proust while writing the book. A number of publishers rejected the work before it appeared. Laxness's veiled autobiography broke with the epic realism traditional in Icelandic fiction. In the end of the novel, the young protagonist turns to God, but in his own life Laxness become less and less interested in metaphysical questions, and finally he abandoned the Catholic faith. Returning to Iceland, Laxness spent several years traveling through the country. During a stay in the United States, he lectured among others about fishing at a IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) club, but was not enthusiastic by their anarchist activities and believed that they opposed as much Marx and Lenin as Rockefeller and Morgan. In San Francisco he read James Joyce's Ulysses – later he wondered why Joyce is not counted among the most important surrealist writers. German authors, such as Thomas Mann, did not inspire him – according to Laxness, Mann was too professor-like and Goethe overrated. Perhaps the most important novelist for him was Upton Sinclair, whom he considered primus inter pares and who influenced Salka Valka. Sinclair did not mention Laxness in his book of memoir, but Laxness's letters are included in My Lifetime in Letters, Upton Sinclair (1960). In June 1929 the Los Angeles Record published news about an "Icelandic author who faces possible deportation" – immigration officers taken away Laxness's passport. After the intervention of Sinclair and Helen Crane, the niece of Stephen Crane, it was given back. In 1930 Laxness married Ingibjřrg Einarsdóttir and settled in Reykjavík. The marriage was stormy, but his financial situation became stable when he started to receive the state writer's grant. Permanent residence Laxness found from the parish of his youth. Salka Valka was the first of Laxness's novels to be
translated into a foreign language. Originally it was
written as a screenplay for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under the title "Woman
in Pants". The story depicted a young woman, Salka, and a small fishing
community. Evil enters into the community in the form of merchants and
fishing entrepreneurs and is pitted against labor movement. Salka
Valka reflected Laxness's Socialistic views which marked his
fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. Gunnar Gunnarsson translated the book in 1934
into Danish, and reciprocally, Laxness translated later some of his
friend's novels into
Icelandic. The English edition was published by Allen & Unwin in
1936. The Evening Standard, which chose it as its Book of the
Mont, wrote that Greta Garbo would be the perfect Salka in its
film adaptation. Laxness's other major early works include World Light (1937-40), about a sympathetic folk poet Ólafur Kárason. The book was based on the life of the minor poet Magnús Hjaltason and showed the influence of Knut Hamsun. The trilogy Iceland's Bell, published when the author was in his 40s, made him a prominent spokesman for the Icelandic nation. In 1945, Laxness married Auđur Sveinsdóttir, the daughter of
Svenn
Guđmunddson, a blacksmith, and Halldóra Kristín Jónsdóttir. She was 21
and 16 years younger than Laxness. They had first met in 1936 and three
years later they started to go together. At that time Laxness was
writing World Light and divorcing his first wife, Ingibjřrg,
who then married a photographer, Oskar Gíslason; it was a happy
marriage. Before deciding to marry Laxness Auđur and planned to immigrate to the U.S. They moved to a new house in Mosfellssveit, the house was called Gljúfrastein. The marriage did not break up, although there was other women in Laxness's life. In addition to working as Laxness's secretary, Auđur wrote articles to magazines, and took care of their household and raised their children. Before and after World War II Laxness devoted himself to political and economic issues, and wrote about everyday life of Icelanders. Laxness's popular work, Sjálfstćtt fólk (1934-35, Independent People), drew a vivid portrait of a Icelandic small farmer. The story is set in the early 20th century in a remote valley, cursed by an Irish sorcerer Kolumkilli and his later partner, the witch Gunnvor. The protagonist, a stubborn sheep-farmer, Bjartur of Summerhouses, loses two wives in his life-long struggle for financial independence. Bjartur's son leaves him, and his dearest child Asta is disowned. Like Job in the Bible, he is plagued by superior forces – now exemplified by prosperous farmers and their commercial interest – and finds what he truly values after losing all of his wealth. Independent People was first praised by Icelandic Communists. This did not stop German publishers from translating it into Germany in 1937. Eventually the book was forbidden. Equipped with curiosity and belief in the benefits of collectivization, Laxness made his first journey to the Soviet Union in 1932. Already then he noted the poverty and failures of the economic system. Laxness missed such everyday items as razor blades, good soap, and scissors, but he was impressed by the high level of cultural amusements. In 1938 he followed in Moscow the Stalinist show trial, in which the Marxist political theorist Nikolai Bukharin was charged with treason and then shot. Laxness gradually abandoned socialism. When he met Bertolt Brecht in East Berlin in 1955, they both condemned in their discussion Stalinism and rigid Marxist cultural policy. In the pacifist The Happy Warriors, published three years after Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Laxness warned of the worship of totalitarian ideologies. In the course of his philosophical search, Laxness became
interested in Oriental religion, especially Taoism of Lao-tze, which is
seen in Paradise Reclaimed (1960), a story about spiritual
discovery, and Christianity at Glacier / Under the Glacier
(1968), which mixes folk mythology with pagan beliefs and Christian
ideas. Against the expectations of his readers, the provocative story,
set in the then-present day, had nothing to do with topical issues
(Laxness was a high-profile opponent the Vietnam war and decried the
American bases in Iceland). At the beginning of the
novel the narrator, Embi, a young man, feels he is unable to carry out
the mission of the Bishop of Iceland. Something very strange is going
on in a remote village, where the church is closed and the local pastor
has abandoned his ministerial work. He is adviced: "Don't forget that
few people are likely to tell more than a small part of the truth; no
one tells much of the truth, alone the whole truth. Spoken words are
facts in themselves, whether true or false. When people talk they
reveal themselves, whether they're lying or telling the truth. . . .
Remember, any lie you are told, even deliberately, is often a more
significant fact than a truth told in all sincerity." (Under the Glacier,
translated from the Icelandic by Magnus Magnusson, introduction by
Susan Sontag, New York: Vintage International, 2005, pp. 11-12)
Susan Sontag said in her introduction: "This is a novel of immense
charm that flirts with being a spoof. It is a satire on religion, full
of amusing New Age mumbo jumbo. It's a book of ideas, like no other
Laxness ever wrote." (Ibid., p. xvi) From novel to novel Laxness changed his style but maintained always his ironic humor. His production consists over 60 works: novels, plays, essays, short stories, memoirs and travel books. Laxness's several awards include also Stalin Peace Prize (later renamed the Lenin Peace Prize), the Danish Nexö Award, and Sonning Award. At the time of hearing of the Nobel Prize, Laxness was traveling in Sweden, and asked himself, alone in his hotel room, what can fame and success give an author. "A measure of material well-being brought about by money? Certainly. But if an Icelandic poet should forget his origin as a man of the people, if he should ever lose his sense of belonging with the humble of the earth, whom my old grandmother taught me to revere, and his duty toward them, then what is the good of fame and prosperity to him?" (from Halldór Laxness's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1955; www.nobelprize.org) In 1995 Laxness moved to a nursing home outside Reykjavik; he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for some years. Halldór Kiljan Laxness died on February 1, 1998. For further reading: Den store vävaren. En studie i Laxness' ungdomsdiktning by Peter Hallberg (1954); Skaldens hus: Laxness' diktning fran Salka Valka till Gerpla by Peter Hallberg (1956); A History of Icelandic Literature, edited by Stefán Einarsson (1957); Das Problem Dichter und Gesellschaft im Werke von Halldór Kiljan Laxness by Günter Kötz (1966); Halldór Laxness by Peter Hallberg (1971); Innovation und Restauration: Der Romancier Halldór Laxness seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg by Aldo Keel (1981); Halldór Laxness: en monografi by Erik Sřnderholm (1981); Den politiske Laxness by Árni Sigurjónsson (1984); Halldór Laxness die Romane: eine Einführung by Wilhelm Friese (1995); 'Laxness, Halldȯr Kiljan.' in World Authors 1900-1950, Volume 2, edited by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); 'Laxness’s Wives Tell Their Stories' by Ulfar Bragason, Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia, Vol. 3 (January 1996); 'Introduction' by Brad Leithauser, in Independent People by Halldór Laxness, translated by J.A. Thompson (1997); Halldor Laxness: Leben und Werk by Halldór Guđmundsson (2002); Halldór Laxness: Ćvisaga by Halldor Gudmundsson (2004); A History of Icelandic Literature, edited by Daisy Neijmann (2006); The Islander: A Biography of Halldor Laxness by Halldor Gudmundsson and Philip Roughton (2008); På fest hos litteraturen: Balzac, Lagerlöf, Laxness: tre foredrag by Tore Renberg (2012); True North: Literary Translation in the Nordic Countries, edited by B.J. Epstein (2014); 'Audiences and Ideological Work in the "Dream Factory": Halldór Laxness and Cinematic Modernity' by Björn Pór Vilhjálmsson, Scandinavian Studies, Volume 93:Number 4 (2021, February) - Suom.: Laxnessilta on suomennettu alla mainittujen lisäksi mm. Hopeakuu (1954) Selected works:
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