Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the
sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As
Icelandic and
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
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. However, works by
Norwegians
Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...
are present in the standard reader ''Sýnisbók íslenzkra bókmennta til miðrar átjándu aldar'', compiled by
Sigurður Nordal 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 the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...
*
Sagas
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to th ...
*
Skaldic poetry
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditional ...
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
Oddi
Oddi ( Icelandic: ) is a small village and church at Rangárvellir in Rangárvallasýsla, Iceland. Oddi at Rangárvellir was a cultural and learning center in South Iceland during the Middle Ages. There has been a church at Oddi since the introdu ...
, a place where
Snorri Sturluson (the writer of the ''
Prose Edda
The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...
'') was brought up.
The ''Elder Edda'' or ''
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...
'' (originally attributed to
Sæmundr fróði
Sæmundr Sigfússon, better known as Sæmundr fróði (''Sæmundr the Learned''; 1056–1133), was an Icelandic priest and scholar.
Biography
Sæmundr is known to have studied abroad. Previously it has generally been held that he studied in Fra ...
, 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
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
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 Regius
Codex Regius ( la, Cōdex Rēgius, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; is, Konungsbók) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it ...
'', found in southern Iceland in 1643 by
Brynjólfur Sveinsson
Brynjólfur Sveinsson (14 September 1605 – 5 August 1675) served as the Lutheran Bishop of the see of Skálholt in Iceland. His main influence has been on modern knowledge of Old Norse literature. Brynjólfur is also known for his support ...
, Bishop of
Skálholt
Skálholt (Modern Icelandic: ; non, Skálaholt ) is a historical site in the south of Iceland, at the river Hvítá.
History
Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. A bishopric was established in Sk ...
.
The ''Younger Edda'' or ''
Prose Edda
The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...
'' was written by Snorri Sturluson, and it is the main source of modern understanding of
Norse mythology and also of some features of medieval Icelandic poetics, as it contains many mythological stories and also several
kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...
s. In fact, its main purpose was to use it as a manual of poetics for the Icelandic
skalds.
Skaldic poetry
Skaldic poetry mainly differs from Eddaic poetry by the fact that skaldic poetry was composed by well-known
skalds, the Norwegian and Icelandic poets. Instead of talking about mythological events or telling mythological stories, skaldic poetry was usually sung to honour nobles and kings, commemorate or satirise important or any current events (e.g. a battle won by their lord, a political event in town etc.). In narratives, poems were usually used to pause the story and more closely examine an experience occurring. Poetry was also used to dramatise the emotions in a saga. For example,
Egil's Saga
''Egill's Saga'' or ''Egil's saga'' ( non, Egils saga ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years ...
contains a poem about the loss of Egil's sons that is lyrical and very emotional.
Skaldic poets were highly regarded members of Icelandic society, and are typically divided into four categories:
1) Professional Poets (for the court or aristocrats)
When Skaldic poets composed lyrics for the king, they wrote with the purpose of praising the king, recording his dealings, and celebrating him. These poems are generally considered historically correct because a poet would not have written something false about the king; a king would have taken that as the poet mocking him.
Ruling aristocratic families also appreciated poetry, and poets composed verses for important events in their lives as well.
2) Private Poets
These poets did not write for financial gain, rather, they wrote to participate in societal poetic exchanges.
3) Clerics
These poets composed religious verses.
4) Anonymous Poets
These poets are anonymously quoted and incorporated into sagas. The anonymity allowed them to mask the comments they made with their verses.
Skaldic poetry is written using a strict metric system together with many figures of speech, like the complicated
kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...
s, favoured amongst the skalds, and also with a lot of “artistic license” concerning word order and syntax, with sentences usually inverted.
Sagas
The sagas are prose stories written in
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
that talk about historical aspects of the Germanic and Scandinavian world; for instance, the migration of people to Iceland, voyages of
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...
to unexplored lands, or the early history of the inhabitants of
Gotland. Whereas the Eddas contain mainly mythological stories, sagas are usually realistic and deal with actual events, although there are some legendary sagas of saints, bishops, and translated romances. Sometimes mythological references are added, or a story is rendered more romantic and fantastical than as actually occurred. Sagas are the main sources for studying the history of Scandinavia between the 9th and 13th centuries.
Literature by women
Little medieval Icelandic writing is securely attested to be by women. In theory, anonymous sagas might have been written by women, but there is no evidence to support this, and known saga-writers are male. A fairly large number of Skaldic verse stanzas are attributed to Icelandic and Norwegian women, including
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir,
Jórunn skáldmær,
Gunnhildr konungamóðir,
Bróka-Auðr, and
Þórhildr skáldkona. However, the poetry attributed to women—just like much of the poetry attributed to men— is likely to have been composed by later (male) saga-writers. Even so, this material suggests that women may sometimes have composed verse.
However, the authorial voice of the fifteenth-century ''
rímur
In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. T ...
''-cycle ''
Landrés rímur'' describes itself with grammatically feminine adjectives, and accordingly the poem has been suggested to be the earliest Icelandic poem reliably attributable to a woman.
Middle Icelandic literature
Important compositions of the time from the 15th century to the 19th include sacred verse, most famously the ''
Passion Hymns
The ''Passíusálmar'' or ''Passion Hymns'' are a collection of 50 poetic texts written by the Icelandic minister and poet, Hallgrímur Pétursson. The texts explore the Passion narrative, as traditionally presented, from the point where Chri ...
'' of
Hallgrímur Pétursson;
rímur
In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. T ...
, rhymed epic poems with
alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...
that consist of two to four verses per stanza, popular until the end of the 19th century; and autobiographical prose writings such as the ''Píslarsaga'' of
Jón Magnússon. The first book
printed in Icelandic was the New Testament in 1540. A full translation of the Bible was published in the sixteenth century, and popular religious literature, such as the ''
Sendibréf frá einum reisandi Gyðingi í fornöld'', was translated from German or Danish or composed in Icelandic. The most prominent poet of the eighteenth century was
Eggert Ólafsson (1726–1768), while (1744–1819) undertook several major translations, including the ''Paradísarmissir'', a translation of John Milton's ''
Paradise Lost''. Sagas continued to be composed in the style of medieval ones, particularly
romances, not least by the priest
Jón Oddsson Hjaltalín (1749-1835).
Modern Icelandic literature
Literary revival
In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a linguistic and literary revival.
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
arrived in Iceland and was dominant especially during the 1830s, in the work of poets like
Bjarni Thorarensen (1786–1841) and
Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–45). Jónas Hallgrímsson, also the first writer of modern Icelandic short stories, influenced
Jón Thoroddsen (1818–68), who, in 1850, published the first Icelandic novel, and so he is considered the father of the modern Icelandic novel.
This classic Icelandic style from the 19th and early 20th centuries was continued chiefly by
Grímur Thomsen
Grímur Thomsen (May 15, 1820 – November 27, 1896), 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 ...
(1820–96), who wrote many heroic poems and
Matthías Jochumsson (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.
Realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
and
naturalism followed romanticism. Notable Realistic writers include the short-story writer
Gestur Pálsson (1852–91), known for his satires, and the Icelandic-Canadian poet
Stephan G. Stephansson (1853–1927), noted for his sensitive way of dealing with the language and for his ironic vein.
Einar Benediktsson
Einar Benediktsson, often referred to as Einar Ben (31 October 1864 – 12 January 1940) was an Icelandic poet and lawyer.
Einar Benediktsson's poetry was a significant contribution to the nationalistic revival which led to Iceland's independenc ...
must be mentioned here as an early proponent of
Neo-romanticism. He is in many ways alone in Icelandic poetry, but is generally acknowledged to be one of the great figures of the "Golden Age" in poetry.
[Einar Benediktsson and Stephan G. Stephansson share, despite all differences, this certain "loner" status. They may not have influenced many other poets directly, but every poet has read them, and they are present in all relevant anthologies and are both required reading in schools.]
In the early 20th century several Icelandic writers started writing in Danish, among them
Jóhann Sigurjónsson
Jóhann Sigurjónsson (June 19, 1880 – August 31, 1919) was an Icelandic playwright and poet. Atypically, Jóhann wrote plays and poetry in both his native Icelandic and in Danish.
Biography
Jóhann was the son of an Icelandic farmer and wa ...
, and
Gunnar Gunnarsson
Gunnar Gunnarsson (18 May 1889 – 21 November 1975) 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. During ...
(1889–1975). Writer
Halldór Laxness (1902–98), won the 1955
Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the author of many articles, essays, poems, short stories and novels. Widely translated works include the
expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
novels ''
Independent People
''Independent People: An Epic'' ( is, Sjálfstætt fólk) is an novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935; literally the title means "Self-standing .e. self-reliantfolk". It deals with the ...
'' (1934–35) and ''
Iceland's Bell'' (1943–46).
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, there was a revival of the classic style, mainly in poetry, with authors such as
Davíð Stefánsson and
Tómas Guðmundsson, who later became the representer of traditional poetry in Iceland in the 20th century. Modern authors, from the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, tend to merge the classical style with a modernist style.
More recently, crime novelist
Arnaldur Indriðason
Arnaldur Indriðason (pronounced ; born 28 January 1961) is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction; his most popular series features the protagonist Detective Erlendur.
Biography
Arnaldur was born in Reykjavík on 28 January 1961, the son of ...
's (b. 1961) works have met with success outside of Iceland.
See also
*
Icelandic Literary Prize The Icelandic Literary Prize ( Icelandic: ''Íslensku bókmenntaverðlaunin''), or Icelandic Literary Award, is an award which is given to three books each year by the Icelandic Publishers Association. The prize was founded on the association's cen ...
*
List of Icelandic writers
Iceland has a rich literary history, which has carried on into the modern period.
Some of the best known examples of Icelandic literature are the Sagas of Icelanders. These are prose narratives based on historical events that took place in Icel ...
*
Nordic Council's Literature Prize
The Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded for a work of literature written in one of the languages of the Nordic countries, that meets "high literary and artistic standards". Established in 1962, the prize is awarded every year, and is worth ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Icelandic Saga Database - Icelandic sagas in translationOld Norse Prose and PoetryNorthvegr.orgElectronic Gateway for Icelandic Literature (EGIL)Sagnanetið - digital images of Icelandic manuscripts and textsIcelandic LiteratureInformation on contemporary authors
Literary works in Icelandic.
The complete Sagas of Icelanders Icelandic Online Dictionary and Readingsfrom the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center. Collection includes interactive Icelandic dictionary; bilingual readings about Iceland and Icelandic history, society, and culture; readings in Icelandic about contemporary Iceland and Icelanders; and Icelandic literature.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Icelandic Literature
European literature
Nordic literature