Guðmundur Kamban (8 June 1888 – 5 May 1945) was an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

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 An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

in literature and language. While still at college, he was made assistant editor of the best known newspaper in Iceland, edited by

Björn Jónsson Björn Jónsson (8 October 1846 – 24 November 1912) was minister for Iceland from 31 March 1909 to 14 March 1911. He was the father of Sveinn Björnsson, the only regent of Iceland and first president of Iceland. Björn became Minister for ...

. In 1906 his psychic abilities were also investigated by the Experimental Society founded by

Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran Einar Gísli Hjörleifsson Kvaran (6 December 1859 in Vallanes, Iceland as Einar Hjörleifsson – 21 May 1938 in Reykjavík) was an Icelandic editor, novelist, poet, playwright and prominent spiritualist. Life Einar Kvaran was the son of ...

: as a

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to ...

, he succeeded in divining the contents of closed books, and as an automatic writer he penned works supposedly by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

Jónas Hallgrímsson Jónas Hallgrímsson (16 November 1807 – 26 May 1845) was an Icelandic poet, writer and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal ''Fjölnir'', which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The magazine was used by J ...

, and

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

. But he lost his

mediumistic Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

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 proceeded to the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

, where he specialized in literature and received his master's degree. In 1914 he published his first play, ''Hadda Padda'' which was endorsed by

Georg Brandes Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (4 February 1842 – 19 February 1927) was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind ...

and shown in the Danish Royal Theatre with Kamban as assistant director. He later married an actress from the play, Agnete Egeberg, and they had a daughter in 1921. In 1915 Kamban moved to New York, intending to establish himself as an English language writer. He was not successful and moved back to Copenhagen with his wife in 1917. In 1920 he achieved success at Dagmarteatret with ''We Murderers'' and was employed as a director at the theatre. He is also the author of spirited and erudite historical novels based on the Icelandic sagas, including ''Skalholt'' (4 vols., 1930–32; tr. of Vol. I and II, ''The Virgin of Skalholt'', 1935) and ''I See a Wondrous Land'' (1936, tr. 1938). Kamban directed plays, wrote novels and produced motion pictures in Copenhagen until 1934, when he moved to London. Not finding success there, he relocated to Berlin in 1935 and lived there until 1938, when he moved back to Copenhagen. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, his play ''Marmari'', or ''Marble'', was produced by the

National Theatre of Iceland The National Theatre of Iceland (NTI) (, pronounced ) in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland. The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on 20 April 1950. Since 2020, the artistic director of The National Thea ...

Death

During the

German occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral, but that neutrality did not prevent Nazi Germany from occupying the country soon after the outbreak of war; the occupation lasted until Germany's defeat. The ...

, Kamban received German research funding and came to be seen as a collaborator although a police investigation found no evidence that he betrayed the resistance to the Nazi. On 5 May 1945, as the German forces in Denmark surrendered, Kamban was murdered at a Copenhagen restaurant in front of his wife and daughter, by Danish partisans. His body was returned to Iceland and he was buried with honors in Reykjavik. Although known by Danish authorities, the name of Kamban's killer was kept secret for decades. In September 2023 Icelandic historian and journalist, Guðmundur Magnússon, revealed the identity of the man that shot Kamban as Egon Alfred Højland, who was a prominent leader of the Danish resistance and later became a member of the Danish parliament.

References

Sources

We murderers; a play in three acts

Guðmundur Kamban

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamban, Guomundur Kamban, Gudmundur Kamban, Gudmundur Assassinated Danish people Assassinated Nazis Icelandic collaborators with Nazi Germany Gudmundur Kamban Gudmundur Kamban Executed Danish collaborators with Nazi Germany People murdered in Denmark People murdered in 1945