James began our February ’23 talk with a little background on the main geographical features of Iceland with its lack of trees (chopped down by Vikings), and situated on a fault line with numerous waterfalls, geysers and volcanoes.
The literature features Nordic gods, still familiar to us today in the naming of the days of the week (Thor – Thursday/god of Thunder ) , Odin ( Woden – Wednesday) and Freya ( goddess of fertility) Frigg – Friday. The prose stories of mediaeval Iceland were the forerunners of the modern novel, depicting the lives of ordinary people. In 1955 the Nobel prize for literature went to Iceland’s Halidór Laxness and in 2011 Reykjavik was named a city of Literature by UNESCO. The country has a 99% literacy rate and one in ten of the population will publish a novel! It imports and translates a considerable amount of international literature and the number one Christmas gift is a book. Their medieval stories influenced writers such as Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Louis MacNeice. Hemingway’s terse, objective style is similar to those of the sagas – prompting some academics to speculate that they influenced his writing and plots.
The focus of the talk was on three stories:
Hrafnkel’s Saga – a short medieval tale of struggle and revenge between the early Viking settlers in the 10thcentury. This is a story with vivid characterisation and is a good introduction to the terse, objective, yet engaging style of saga writing. It features a Chieftain, his horse and his refusal to pay compensation for an axe killing together with the court case and the revenge that ensues.
Iceland’s Bell (1943) an historical novel written in 1943 by Nobel-prize winning author Halidór Laxness. Set in the 17thand 18th centuries, it paints a picture of the country’s decay and neglect under Danish rule and served as a rallying cry for post-war independence. Iceland was invaded by Britain and America during the second world war to prevent it falling into Nazi hands: in response Laxness crafted a saga-like novel full of metaphor to stir pride in Iceland’s national endurance, its beauty and its literary treasures.
Black Skies (2009) – Arnaldur Indriðason’s contemporary crime fiction novel, part of the series featuring detective Sigurdur Óli. It is a scathing attack on the circumstances that led to Iceland’s financial meltdown in 2008 and the country’s eternal cycle of boom and bust.
Iceland came late to Nordic noir novels, but in the last thirty years crime fiction has boomed, covering topics including the financial crisis, social injustice, criminal activity and drug addiction. Arnaldur Indriðason has had global sales of over 18 million books.. Black Skies had sales of 18 million. Other recommended titles mentioned by James were:
Silence of the Grave – Arnaldur Indriðason and Snow Blind by R. Jonasson.
Members were able to view examples of the literature at the end of a very interesting talk on a topic little-known to most of us! I am sure some of our members will be heading to the library for some follow up reading!
Lois Coulthart and James Vaux