Halldór Laxness

Early years

Laxness was born in 1902 in Reykjavík. In 1905 his family moved to a farm near the town of Mosfellsbær, about 15 km east of Reykjavík. At an early age he started to read books and write stories. In the winter of 1915-1916 he attended the technical school in Reykjavík. In 1916 he had an article published in the newspaper Morgunblaðið. By the time his first novel, Barn náttúrunnar (1919), was published he had already begun his travels on the European continent.

1920s

In 1922, Laxness joined the Abbaye Saint-Maurice-et-Saint-Maur in Clervaux, Luxembourg. The monks followed the rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia. Laxness was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church early in 1923. Following his confirmation, he adopted the surname Laxness after the homestead on which he was raised and added the name Kiljan (the Icelandic name of Irish martyr Saint Killian).

Inside the walls of the abbey, he practiced self-study, read books, and studied French, Latin, theology and philosophy. While there, he composed the story Undir Helgahnjúk, published in 1924. Soon after his baptism, he became a member of a group which prayed for reversion of the Nordic countries back to Catholicism. Laxness wrote of his experiences in the books Undir Helgahnúk (1924) and, more importantly, in Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great Weaver from Kashmir), a breakthrough in Modern Icelandic fiction: "The essential feature of Vefarinn mikli is the witches' brew of ideas presented in a stylistic furioso of style." The novel, published in 1927, was also hailed by noted Icelandic critic Kristján Albertsson: "Finally, finally, a grand novel which towers like a cliff above the flatland of contemporary Icelandic poetry and fiction! Iceland has gained a new literary giant - it is our duty to celebrate the fact with joy!"

"Laxness's religious period did not last long; during a visit to America he became attracted to socialism." Due, in part, to the influence of Upton Sinclair "... Laxness joined the socialist bandwagon... with a book Alþýðubókin (The Book of the People, 1929) of brilliant burlesque and satirical essays... one of a long series in which he discussed his many travel impressions (Russia, Western Europe, South America), unburdened himself of socialistic satire and propaganda, and wrote of the literature and the arts, essays of prime importance to an understanding of his own art..."

Between 1927 and 1929 Laxness lived in the United States, giving lectures on Iceland and attempting to write screenplays for Hollywood films. He was "enamored" of Charlie Chaplin's film City Lights.

1930s

By the 1930s Laxness "had become the apostle of the younger generation" and was "viciously" attacking the Christian spiritualism of Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran, an influential writer who had been considered for the Nobel Prize.

"… with Salka Valka (1931–32) began the great series of sociological novels, often coloured with socialist ideas, continuing almost without a break for nearly twenty years. This was probably the most brilliant period of his career, and it is the one which produced those of his works that have become most famous. But Laxness never attached himself permanently to a particular dogma."

In addition to the two parts of Salka Valka, Laxness published Fótatak manna (Steps of Men) in 1933, a collection of short stories, as well as other essays, notably Dagleið á fjöllum (A Day's Journey in the Mountains) in 1937.

Laxness's next novel was Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People, 1934, 1935) which has been described as "… one of the best books of the twentieth century."

When Salka Valka was published in English in 1936 a reviewer from the Evening Standard stated: "No beauty is allowed to exist as ornamentation in its own right in these pages; but the work is replete from cover to cover with the beauty of its perfection."

This was followed by the four-part novel Heimsljós (World Light, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940), which was "… consistently regarded by many critics as his most important work." It was based in large part on the life history of Magnús Hjaltason Magnusson, a minor Icelandic poet of the late 19th century.

Laxness also traveled to the Soviet Union and wrote approvingly of the Soviet system and culture.

1940s

Laxness translated Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms into Icelandic in 1941, which featured controversial neologisms.

Laxness' sprawling three-part work of historical fiction Íslandsklukkan (Iceland's Bell) was published, 1943–46

In 1946 Independent People was released as a Book of the Month Club selection in the United States, selling over 450,000 copies.

By 1948 he had a house built in the rural countryside outside of Mosfellsbær. He then began a new family with his second wife, Auður Sveinsdóttir, who also assumed the roles of personal secretary and business manager.

In response to the establishment of a permanent US military base in Keflavík, he wrote the satire Atómstöðin (The Atom Station), an action which may have contributed to his being blacklisted in the United States.

"The demoralization of the occupation period is described... nowhere as dramatically as in Halldór Kiljan Laxness' Atómstöðin (1948)... [where he portrays] postwar society in Reykjavík, completely torn from its moorings by the avalanche of foreign gold."

1950s

In 1953 Laxness was awarded the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council Literary Prize.

An adaptation of his novel Salka Valka was filmed by Sven Nykvist in 1954.

In 1955 Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "… for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland":

"His chief literary works belong to the genre… [of] narrative prose fiction. In the history of our literature Laxness is mentioned beside Snorri Sturluson, the author of "Njals saga", and his place in world literature is among writers such as Cervantes, Zola, Tolstoy, and Hamsun… He is the most prolific and skillful essayist in Icelandic literature both old and new…"

In the presentation address for the Nobel prize E. Wesen stated:

“He is an excellent painter of Icelandic scenery and settings. Yet this is not what he has conceived of as his chief mission. ‘Compassion is the source of the highest poetry. Compassion with Asta Sollilja on earth,’ he says in one of his best books… And a social passion underlies everything Halldór Laxness has written. His personal championship of contemporary social and political questions is always very strong, sometimes so strong that it threatens to hamper the artistic side of his work. His safeguard then is the astringent humour which enables him to see even people he dislikes in a redeeming light, and which also permits him to gaze far down into the labyrinths of the human soul.”

In his acceptance speech for the Nobel prize he spoke of:

“… the moral principles she [his grandmother] instilled in me: never to harm a living creature; throughout my life, to place the poor, the humble, the meek of this world above all others; never to forget those who were slighted or neglected or who had suffered injustice, because it was they who, above all others, deserved our love and respect…”

Laxness grew increasingly disenchanted with the Soviets after their military action in Hungary in 1956.

In 1957 Halldór and his wife went on a world tour stopping in: New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Madison, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Peking, Bombay, Cairo and Rome.

Major works in this decade were Gerpla, (The Happy Warriors and Wayward Heroes) 1952, Brekkukotsannáll, (The Fish Can Sing) 1957, and Paradísarheimt, (Paradise Reclaimed) 1960.

Later years

In the 1960s Laxness was very active in the Icelandic theatre, writing and producing plays, the most successful of which was The Pigeon Banquet (Dúfnaveislan, 1966.)

He published the "visionary novel" Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier / Christianity at the Glacier) in 1968. Later, Laxness published what he called "essay novels": Innansveitarkronika (A Parish Chronicle, 1970) and Guðsgjafaþula (A Narration of God's Gifts 1972), neither of which have been translated into English.

Laxness was awarded the Sonning Prize in 1969.

In 1970 Laxness published an influential ecological essay Hernaðurinn gegn landinu (The War Against the Land).

He continued to write essays and memoirs throughout the 1970s and into 1980s. As he grew older he began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and eventually moved into a nursing home where he died at the age of 95.

Family and legacy

Laxness had four children: Sigríður Mária Elísabet Halldórsdóttir (Maria, b. 1923), Einar Laxness (b. 1931, d. 2016), Sigríður Halldórsdóttir (Sigga, b. 1951) and Guðný Halldórsdóttir (Duna, b. 1954). He was married twice: Ingibjörg Einarsdóttir (Inga, 1930-1940), and Auður Sveinsdóttir (1945-1998).

Gljúfrasteinn, his house and its grounds, is now a museum operated by the Icelandic government.

Guðný Halldórsdóttir became a filmmaker whose first work was the 1989 adaptation of Kristnihald undir jōkli (Under the Glacier). In 1999 her adaptation of the Laxness story Úngfrúin góða og Húsið (The Honour of the House) was submitted for Academy Award consideration for best foreign film.

In the 21st century interest in Laxness increased in English-speaking countries following the re-publishing of several of his novels and the publication of Iceland's Bell (2003), The Great Weaver from Kashmir (2008) and Wayward Heroes (2016) in new translations by Philip Roughton.

A biography of Laxness by Halldór Guðmundsson, The Islander: a Biography of Halldór Laxness, won the Icelandic literary prize for best work of non-fiction in 2004.

In 2005, the Icelandic National Theatre premiered a play by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson, titled Halldór í Hollywood (Halldór in Hollywood) about the author's time spent in the United States in the 1920s.