Þórbergur Þórðarson (''Thórbergur Thórdarson'') (Hali í Suðursveit, 12 March 1888/1889 –

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

, 12 November 1974) was an Icelandic author and

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

. An ironist, satirist, volatile critic, and ground-breaking achiever in experimental auto-fiction, Þórbergur arguably remains among Iceland's most beloved 20th century authors. Þórbergur was an autodidact. As recounted in his largely autobiographical works, ''Íslenzkur aðall'' (1938) and ''Ofvitinn'' (1940), Þórbergur lived in poverty for much of his youth and early adulthood and could not afford secondary or higher education.

The 1934 trial for offending Nazis

In January 1934, Þórbergur wrote a series of essays for the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

daily ''Alþýðublaðið'', titled "The Nazis' Sadistic Appetite" ("Kvalaþorsti nazista"). Iceland's public prosecutor filed charges against Þórðarson for supposedly offensive clauses in the article, one of which labelled

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

"a sadist". The Supreme Court of Iceland agreed with the prosecutor and found the author guilty of "derogating a foreign nation". The court sentenced Þórbergur to pay a fine of 200 krónur.„Æra Hitlers metin á 200 krónur“, grein í Alþýðublaðinu, 103. tbl, 1. ágúst 1997, bls. 8.
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English translations

The relatively little of Þórbergur's work which has been translated into English consists mainly of fragments from his larger works. Portions of ''Íslenzkur aðall'' (1938) were published as ''In Search of My Beloved'' in 1967. In recent years, Professor Julian Meldon D'arcy has translated a fragment from ''Bréf til Láru'' (1924) as a short story, titled "When I got pregnant", as well as the first full book to appear in English translation: ''The Stones Speak'' (2012), Þórbergur's childhood memoirs, originally published as ''Steinarnir tala'' in 1956.

Bibliography

* 1915: Hálfir skósólar * 1917: Spaks manns spjarir * 1922: Hvítir hrafnar (reprint of "Hálfir skósólar" and "Spaks manns spjarir") * 1924: Bréf til Láru * 1938: Íslenzkur aðall (Portions published in English as ''In Search of My Beloved'' by Twayne Publishers, 1967) * 1940–1941: Ofvitinn * 1945–1950: Ævisaga Árna Þórarinssonar prófasts, (memoirs of Árni Þórarinsson) * 1954–1955: Sálmurinn um blómið * 1956: Steinarnir tala (Published in English as ''The Stones Speak'' by Mál og menning, Reykjavík 2012) * 1960: Ritgerðir 1924–1959 (essays) * 1975: Í Suðursveit * 2010: ''In the Footsteps of a Storyteller'' (excerpts accompanied by photographs, Forlagið 2010)

Museum

On 30 June, 2006, a museum and cultural centre was opened in Hali, Suðursveit. It is called the Þórbergssetur, and is dedicated to Þórbergur's work.

Notes

References

* ''Íslenska Alfræðiorðabókin P-Ö. 1990.'' Editors: Dóra Hafsteinsdóttir and Sigríður Harðardóttir. Örn og Örlygur hf.,

External links

Thorbergur.is
– The museum's website * http://www.sagenhaftes-island.is/en/icelandic-literature/authors/nr/1121 – A biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Thordarson, Thorbergur 1889 births 1974 deaths

Þórbergur Þórðarson Þórbergur Þórðarson (''Thórbergur Thórdarson'') (Hali í Suðursveit, 12 March 1888/1889 – Reykjavík, 12 November 1974) was an Icelandic author and Esperantist. An ironist, satirist, volatile critic, and ground-breaking achiever in expe ...