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Icelandic Culture
The culture of Iceland is rich and varied as well as being known for its literary heritage which began in the 12th century. Icelandic traditional arts include weaving, silversmithing, and wood carving. The Reykjavík area has several professional theaters, a symphony orchestra, an opera and many art galleries, bookstores, cinemas and museums. There are four active folk dance ensembles in Iceland. Iceland's List of countries by literacy rate, literacy rate is among the highest in the world, and a love of Icelandic literature, literature, Icelandic art, art, :Chess in Iceland, chess, and other intellectual pursuits is widespread. Arts Architecture Icelandic architecture draws from Scandinavia and traditionally was influenced by the lack of native trees on the island. As a result, grass and turf-covered houses were developed. The Icelandic turf house, original grass houses constructed by the original settlers of Iceland were based on Vikings, Viking longhouses. Literature Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft, woof, or filling. (''Weft'' is an Old English word meaning "that which is woven"; compare ''leave'' and ''left''.) The method in which these threads are interwoven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band that meets this definition of cloth (warp threads with a weft thread winding between) can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques that can be done without looms. The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is the world's largest island. It is one of three constituent countries that form the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark and the Faroe Islands; the citizens of these countries are all citizens of Denmark and the European Union. Greenland's capital is Nuuk. Though a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers) for more than a millennium, beginning in 986.The Fate of Greenland's Vikings , by Dale Mackenzie Brown, ''Archaeological Institute of America'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steinn Steinarr
Steinn Steinarr (born Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson, 13 October 1908 – 25 May 1958) was an Icelandic poet. He is one of Iceland's major poets and wrote both modernist and traditional poems. Early life Steinn Steinarr was nicknamed Alli (a standard nickname for Aðalsteinn). His farm laborer parents in northwest Iceland (sveitabæ) were so poor that the local authorities divided up the family. The three oldest children were shipped off for adoption, during which relocation the oldest died. The rest of the family was escorted off to a west coast farm. Before long Alli was the only family member left on the farm, where he languished in misery. In all probability the world would never have heard from him again had it not been for an elderly governess three years later. Her name was Kristin Tómasdóttir. She discovered the boy by accident and was so shocked to witness the abuse he had suffered that she adopted him on the spot. It soon dawned on Kristín, however, that Alli was no ord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jón Thoroddsen Elder
Jón Thoroddsen elder (October 5, 1818 – March 8, 1868) was an Icelandic poet and novelist. Biography He was born at Reykhólar in western Iceland. He studied law at the University of Copenhagen, entered the Danish army as volunteer in 1848 in the war against the insurgents of Schleswig-Holstein, who were aided by Prussia and the other German states (see First Schleswig War). He went back to Iceland in 1850, became sheriff ( is, sýslumaður) of Barðastrandarsýsla, and later in Borgarfjarðarsýsla, where he died in 1868. His son, Þorvaldur Thoroddsen, became a well-known scientist. Work He is the first novel writer of Iceland. Jónas Hallgrímsson had led the way by his short stories, but the earliest veritable Icelandic novel was Jón Thóroddsen's '' Piltur og Stúlka'' (“Boy and Girl”), a picture of Icelandic country life. Later followed '' Maður og Kona'' (“Man and Woman”), published after his death by the Icelandic Literary Society. His poems, mostly sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Davíð Stefánsson
''Davíð Stefánsson'' (21 January 1895 – 1 March 1964) from Fagriskógur was a popular Icelandic poet and novelist, best known for his ten volumes of poetry. He was born on 21 January 1895, in Fagriskógur, Eyjafjördur, Iceland and he died on 1 March 1964, in Akureyri Iceland. Davíð Stefánsson came of a cultured yeoman family and was brought up with a love for his homeland, its literature, and its folklore. He frequently journeyed abroad but lived most of his life in the town of Akureyri, where he was a librarian (1925–52). Novels and plays In 1926, he wrote ''Munkarnir á Möðruvöllum'' ("The Monks of Möðruvellir") and in 1941, the powerful novel ''Sólon Islandus'' (I - II), a novel about Sölvi Helgason, a daydreaming 19th-century vagabond whose intellectual ambitions are smothered by society. In 1941, he wrote the successful play, ''Gullna hliðið'' ("The Golden Gate") and in 1944, ''Vopn guðanna'' ("Weapons of the Gods") and in 1953, his play ''Landið gley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tómas Guðmundsson
Tómas Guðmundsson (6 January 1901 – 14 November 1983) was an Icelandic writer. He was known as Reykjavík's poet ''(Reykjavíkurskáldið, skáld Reykjavíkur)''. Tómas's parents were Steinunn Þorsteinsdóttir and Guðmundur Ögmundsson, living at Efri-Brú in Grímsnes. He soon got in touch with literature and poetry. He read Icelandic sagas, Jónas Hallgrímsson's poems and more. He also started to write his own poetry at a young age. Career He moved to Reykjavík and studied at Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, there he got in touch with many authors, including Halldór Laxness (they formed a close friendship during the M.R. years), Guðmundur G. Hagalín and Davíð Stefánsson. Tómas graduated from M.R. in 1921. He then studied law at Háskóli Íslands and graduated in 1926. During that time he got in touch with even more authors, including Jón Thoroddsen junior. After his graduation he opened an office to practise law and in 1928 he started working at Hagstofa Íslands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guðmundur Kamban
Guðmundur Kamban (8 June 1888 – 5 May 1945) was an Icelandic playwright and novelist. Biography He was born in the farm of Litlibær in Garðasókn, Iceland, son of a merchant of an old and well-known Icelandic family. He graduated from the College of Reykjavík, where he received honoris causa in literature and language. While still at college, he was made assistant editor of the best known newspaper in Iceland, edited by Björn Jónsson. In 1906 his psychic abilities were also investigated by the Experimental Society founded by Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran: as a clairvoyant, he succeeded in divining the contents of closed books, and as an automatic writer he penned works supposedly by Hans Christian Andersen, Jónas Hallgrímsson, and Snorri Sturluson. But he lost his mediumistic abilities after a serious illness. In 1908 he adopted the family name Kamban in place of his birth name (Guðmundur Jónsson) and advocated a change in Icelandic naming conventions. In 1910, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. Writers who influenced Laxness included August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht and Ernest Hemingway. Early years Halldór Guðjónsson was born in Reykjavík in 1902. When he was three his family moved to the Laxnes farm in Mosfellsbær, Mosfellssveit parish. He was brought up and enormously influenced by his grandmother who "... sang me ancient songs before I could talk, told me stories from heathen times and sang me cradle songs from the Catholic era... " He started to read books and write stories at an early age and attended the technical school in Reykjavík from 1915 to 1916. His earliest published writing appeared in 1916 in the children's newspapers ''Æskan'' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gísla Saga
''Gísla saga Súrssonar'' (, ''The saga of Gísli the Outlaw'') is one of the sagas of Icelanders. It tells the story of Gísli, a tragic hero who must kill one of his brothers-in-law to avenge another brother-in-law. Gisli is forced to stay on the run for thirteen years before he is finally hunted down and killed. The events depicted in the saga take place between 860 and 980. The saga existed in oral tradition until it was recorded, most likely in the 13th century. Manuscripts and dating ''Gísla saga'' survives in thirty-three manuscripts and fragments from the Middle Ages down to the twentieth century. It is generally thought to have been composed in written form in the first half of the thirteenth century, but the earliest manuscript, the fragment Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 445 c I 4to, is from around 1400 and the earliest extensive text in AM 556a 4to, from the later fifteenth. The saga is generally thought to exist in three main versions originating in the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grettis Saga
''Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar'' (modern , reconstructed ), also known as ''Grettla'', ''Grettir's Saga'' or ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It details the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, a bellicose Icelandic outlaw. Overview Grettir's saga is considered one of the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), which were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and record stories of events that supposedly took place between the ninth and the eleventh centuries in Iceland. The manuscript of Grettir's saga was written down some time just before 1400 AD, making it a late addition to the tradition.. Introduction. ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', p. ix The author is unknown but it is believed that his story may have been based on a previous account of Grettir's life written by Sturla Þórðarson. Whoever the author was, the author shows an awareness of the Sagas of Icelanders tradition by making references to other sagas and borrowi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
