Icelandic literature
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What is Icelandic literature?
Icelandic literature, deeply rooted in Scandinavian traditions, offers detailed descriptions of early Germanic life. Originating before Iceland's settlement in the 9th century, it intertwines with Norwegian literature.
The classical period features the Icelanders' sagas, heroic prose from 1200â1220, portraying Icelandic families between 930 and 1030. These sagas, known for realism and tragic dignity, include works like NjĂĄls saga and GĂsla saga.
Later works saw a shift towards sentimentality after Iceland's loss of independence in 1262. Modern prose, developing in the late 1870s, was influenced by Danish critic Georg Brandes. HalldĂłr Laxness, Nobel laureate in 1955, revitalized Icelandic storytelling.
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Where and in what language is Icelandic literature written?
Icelandic literature is written in Icelandic, the national language of Iceland. This language belongs to the West Scandinavian group of North Germanic languages. Modern Icelandic is the most conservative of the Scandinavian languages, and Icelanders can still read Old Icelandic sagas without difficulty.
Iceland's literary heritage stems from the 12th- to 14th-centuries. More than 1,000 book titles are published every year.
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What are the Icelandic sagas, and why are they important?
The Icelandersâ sagas are heroic prose narratives that were written in Iceland during the years 1200â1220. They tell of the families that lived in Iceland from 930 to 1030.
These family sagas are a unique and central component of Icelandic literature. They are known for realism, objective style, tragic dignity, and character delineation and represent the highest development of Icelandic saga writing's classical age. The sagas encourage people to attain a better understanding of their social environment and a truer knowledge of themselves through studying the real and imagined fates of their forebears. NjĂĄls saga is considered the greatest of these.
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What are the Eddas, and how do they connect to Icelandic poetry?
The Eddas are key texts for understanding Germanic religion and Icelandic literature. There are two versions, the Poetic Edda (also known as the Elder Edda) and the Prose Edda. The Poetic Edda is a collection of mythological and heroic poems of unknown authorship, while the Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson around 1220.
Both Eddas contain stories of Norse gods and heroes that form the nucleus of early Icelandic literature. The Poetic Edda preserves early Scandinavian poetry in Icelandic manuscripts. Skaldic poetry, developed by Icelandic poets, differs in style from Eddaic poetry through its complex verse forms and use of kennings, which are periphrastic metaphors alluding to specific myths.
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How did Icelandic literature influence other countries and cultures?
Icelandic literature, particularly the Icelandersâ sagas from the 12th to 13th centuries, has had a notable impact on other countries and cultures. These sagas offer detailed descriptions of early Germanic people's lifestyles and constitute the most complete account of their literary traditions.
Beyond Iceland, the themes and characters found in Icelandic literature, such as Siegfried, Brunhild, and Atli, appear throughout various European literatures, demonstrating the broad dissemination of early Germanic legends. The accuracy with which early Scandinavian literature described Northern European geography also influenced the perception and understanding of the region in other cultures. Additionally, the Icelandic sagas have served as settings for European literature, such as Jules Verneâs Journey to the Center of the Earth.
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Who are some famous modern Icelandic authors, and what themes do they explore?
Modern Icelandic authors have significantly impacted both local and international literature. HalldĂłr Laxness, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955, is known for works exploring socialism, such as Independent People.
Other prominent authors include Thor VilhjĂĄlmsson, who blends realism with magic and humor, and GuĂ°bergur Bergsson, known for his satirical critiques of Icelandic society and experimental approaches. Einar MĂĄr GuĂ°mundsson interweaves folklore with history, while Einar KĂĄrason infuses his novels with irony and humor.
Several women authors gained prominence in the late 20th century. Svava JakobsdĂłttir satirizes women's roles in modern society, Steinunn SigurĂ°ardĂłttir uses parody and absurdity, and both VigdĂs GrĂmsdĂłttir and KristĂn ĂmarsdĂłttir focus on love as a major theme.
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Icelandic literature, body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse) through Modern Icelandic.
Icelandic literature is best known for the richness of its classical period, which is equivalent in time to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. The relative stability of the Icelandic language means that Icelanders today can without difficulty still read Old Icelandic sagas. Because early Norwegian literature is so closely intertwined with early Icelandic literature, both are discussed in this article.
The Middle Ages
The literature of Scandinavia and, in particular, of Iceland has reflected two extraordinary features of the social and cultural history of pagan Europe and of Iceland. The way in which names such as Siegfried, Brunhild, and Atli (Attila) cropped up again and again in different European literatures has borne witness to the dissemination of legends and traditions common to the early Germanic tribes of Europe, starting from the great movements westward in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. The literature of Iceland not only provides the most detailed descriptions available of the lifestyle of early Germanic peoples but constitutes the most complete account of their literature and literary traditions. Although the sagas and poems were first written down by Christian scribes, they present a picture of a pre-Christian European culture that reached its heights of expression in the new settlements in Iceland.
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A second feature directly concerns the peoples of Scandinavia. A remarkable characteristic of early Scandinavian literature was the accuracy with which it described the geography of northern Europe, accuracy that was born of actual knowledge. From the late 8th century until well into the Middle Ages, the history of the Norsemen (Vikings) was one of unceasing movement toward western and central Europe. The Norsemen discovered Iceland, as early Icelandic historians had it, when their ships were blown off course about 860. The next century found them pushing west by way of Britain, Ireland, and France to Spain and then through the Mediterranean to North Africa and east to Arabia. Across land they reached the Black Sea; by sailing north they came to the White Sea; and finally, turning westward again, they reached America long before Columbus.
Literature in Iceland and Norway
The roots of Icelandic literature and Norwegian literature, which reach back more than 1,000 years, are inextricably intertwined. Although a large part of this early literature was composed either in Iceland or elsewhere in Scandinavia by Icelanders, the Norwegian element in it is considerable and indisputable, even though this cannot always be isolated and defined. In many instances, it is obvious that some of the literature derives from a time before the Scandinavian settlement of Iceland in the 9th century. In other cases, it appears that the composers of the works had resided for long periods in the mother country of Norway.
The classical period
The best-known Icelandic literature belongs to the classical period, roughly equivalent to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. Icelandic manuscripts yield much knowledge of European myth and legend, which is in part common to all Germanic peoples. Stories of the Norse gods and mythsâof Odin, god of war; Balder the Beautiful; Thor, god of thunder; and Valhalla, hall of the slainâform the nucleus of early Icelandic literature.
Almost all extant early Scandinavian poetry was recorded in Icelandic manuscripts, although some was clearly composed before the Scandinavian peoples reached Iceland in the late 9th century. Much of the oldest poetry was recorded in the Codex Regius manuscript, which contains the SĂŠmundar Edda (c. 1270), commonly designated by scholars as the Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda (see Edda). The poetry is sometimes called Eddaic and falls into two sections: heroic lays, which, broadly speaking, deal with the world of mortals; and mythological lays, which deal with the world of the gods.
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The heroic lays
The heroic lays follow the mythological in the Codex Regius and are probably the earlier of the two. Many of the legends on which they were based originated in Germany or even among the Goths. Oldest of all is perhaps the HamdismĂĄl (âLay of Hamdirâ), which forcefully expressed the heroic ideals of Germanic tribal life. The story closely resembles one told by Jordanes, a Gothic historian of the mid-6th century, and his account suggests that his source was an even earlier poem about Hamdir. Another of the older lays in the Poetic Edda is the Atlakvida (âLay of Atliâ), which refers to events that took place in 5th-century western Germany, Atli (or Attila) being king of the Huns from 434 to 453. Nearly all heroic lays are associated with the story of Sigurd (or Siegfried), the valiant hero, and his ill-fated love for Brunhild, who, too, figures to a varying extent in different lays. Many scholars hold that the lays concerned with the spiritual conflict of the heroines Brunhild and Gudrun, which tend to be romantic and sentimental, were composed later than the austere heroic lays. The Poetic Edda contains only a small portion of the poetry known in Iceland in the Middle Ages. Fragments of ancient lays appeared in 13th- and 14th-century sagas such as the HlÇ«Ă°skviĂ°a (âLay of HlÇ«Ă°â) in the Heidreks saga, as did mention of Danish and Swedish heroes in some fragments that must also have been known to the author of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.
The mythological lays
Mythological lays about the Norse gods make up the first half of the Poetic Edda. It is unlikely that any of these originated outside Norway, Iceland, and the Norse colonies in the British Isles. The VÇ«luspĂĄ (âSibylâs Prophecyâ) is a striking poem on the history of the world of gods, men, and monsters, from the beginning until the âtwilight of the gods.â Many passages in the poem are obscure, but most modern scholars agree that it was composed in Iceland about the year 1000, when the people were turning from the old religion to Christianity. The SkĂrnismĂĄl (âWords of SkĂrnirâ) tells the story of the god Freyr, lord of the world: sitting in âGate Tower,â the throne of Odin, he gazes into the world of giants and falls in love with a giant maiden; to win her, he sends his messenger SkĂrnir, who first offers gifts and then threatens the maiden until she agrees to make a tryst with Freyr. Scholars have seen an ancient fertility myth in this story, and it is certainly one of the older mythological poems in the Poetic Edda and probably originated in Norway before Iceland was settled by Norwegians.
The mythological poems so far mentioned are all narrative, but many of those in the Poetic Edda are didactic. The HĂĄvamĂĄl (âWords of the High Oneâ; i.e., Odin) consists of fragments of at least six poems. In the first section, the god speaks of relations between humans and lays down rules of social conduct; in other sections he discourses on relations between men and women and tells how the love of women may be lost or won; the last two sections are about runes and magic power. Most of the poems were probably composed in Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries. Another didactic poem, the VafĂŸrĂșĂ°nir (âWords of VafĂŸrĂșĂ°nirâ), relates a contest between Odin and a giant.
Some important mythological lays appear in other manuscripts. Baldrs draumar (âBalderâs Dreamsâ) describes how the god Balder dreamed that his life was threatened and how his father, Odin, rode to the grave of a prophet to force her to reveal the fate in store for Balder.