Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness (1902-1998), Icelandic writer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. He was one of Iceland’s first writers to receive acclaim outside of the country. When Laxness won the Nobel Prize, the award committee cited his “vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland.”

Laxness was born in Reykjavík and educated at the Gymnasium in Reykjavík. His original name was Halldór Gudjónsson, but he later adopted the pen name by which he was known. Laxness traveled extensively in Europe following World War I (1914-1918). Reflecting the intellectual ferment of the period, he successively embraced impressionism, Roman Catholicism, surrealism, and socialism.

Laxness’s first major novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (1927; The Great Weaver from Kashmīr, 1927), grew out of his conversion to Catholicism and subsequent disillusionment with the church. In 1927 Laxness went to the United States, where his observation of dire poverty next to boundless wealth made him a convinced socialist. In the United States he wrote Althýdubókin (The Book of the People, 1929), a group of satiric essays in which he expounded the Marxist viewpoint (see Marx, Karl). Laxness’s sharp criticism of capitalism and of all phases of American life led to demands for his deportation, and in 1930 he returned to Iceland.

During the 1930s Laxness wrote a series of novels based on the everyday lives of the common people of Iceland: Salka Valka (1931-1932; translated 1936), the story of a poor girl in a fishing village; Sjálfstœtt fólk (1934-1935; Independent People, 1946), about a peasant farmer in the mountains; and Heimsljós (1937-1940; World Light, 1969), the story of a long-suffering poet of the people. Written in a bold expressionist style, these works have the epic grandeur and lyrical beauty of the old Icelandic sagas.

The historical trilogy composed of Íslandsklukkan (1943; Iceland's Bell, 2003), Hid ljósa man (1944; The Bright Maiden), and Eldur í Kaupinhafn (1946; Fire in Copenhagen) immortalized the Icelandic people’s stubbornness, pride, and love of learning. In Gerpla (1952; The Happy Warriors, 1958) Laxness satirized the warlike spirit common to the age of the Vikings and to modern times. His other works include Brekkukotsannáll (1957; The Fish Can Sing, 1966), Paradísarheimt (1960; Paradise Reclaimed, 1962), several plays, many volumes of essays, and a novelized memoir of his youth.