Halldór Laxness

The title of this article is an Icelandic name; the last name is a family name; but this person is properly referred to by the given name Halldór.
Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness by Einar Hákonarson, 1984.
Born April 23, 1902(1902-04-23)
Reykjavík, Iceland
Died February 8, 1998(1998-02-08) (aged 95)
Reykjavík, Iceland
Nationality Icelandic
Notable award(s) Nobel Prize in Literature
1955

Halldór Kiljan Laxness ([ˈhaltour ˈcʰɪljan ˈlaxsnɛs]) (born Halldór Guðjónsson) (April 23, 1902—February 8, 1998) was a twentieth-century Icelandic novelist and author of Independent People, The Atom Station, and Iceland's Bell. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

Contents

Early life

Laxness was born under the name Halldór Guðjónsson (following the tradition of Icelandic patronymics) in Reykjavik in 1902, the son of Guðjón Helgason and Sigríður Halldórsdóttir. After spending his early years in Reykjavik, he moved with his family in 1905 to Laxnes near Mosfellsbær, a more rural area just north of the capital. He soon started to read books and write stories. At the age of 14 his first article was published in the newspaper Morgunblaðið under the name "H.G."

Roman Catholicism

In 1922, Laxness joined the Abbaye St. Maurice et St. 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 (in honor of the homestead where he had been raised) and added the name Kiljan (an Icelandic spelling of the 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 Catholicism in the book Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír, published in 1927. He would later leave the Catholic faith, becoming an atheist and a committed communist. He also would leave communism, after coming to better understand the political situation in the USSR.

Laxness would eventually return to his Roman Catholic roots requesting a catholic burial.

Literary career

During his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and fifteen novels. In 1955, Laxness won the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland".

Later life

Laxness moved to the United States and attempted to make films in the mid-20th century. He returned to Iceland in 1945 and settled in Gljúfrasteinn, Mosfellsdalur, until his death. His house in Gljúfrasteinn is now a museum operated by the Icelandic government.

He was married twice, including his second marriage to Auður Sveinsdóttir. He had four children.

Laxness died in Iceland in 1998 at the age of 95.

Works about Laxness

A biography of Laxness by Halldór Guðmundsson 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, called Halldór í Hollywood (Halldór in Hollywood) about the years that Laxness spent in the United States.

Publications

The following is a partial list of publications written by or connected with Laxness:

Novels

Stories

Plays

Poetry

Travelogues

Memoirs

Popular culture references

Family

His daughter Guðný Halldórsdóttir is an award-winning filmmaker. Her first work, a popular magical realism-ending film adaptation of Kristnihald undir jōkli (Christianity at Glacier) screened at world film festivals and repertory cinemas for many years since, including in the European cites, the USA and in Canada (at least Toronto and Montreal).

His grandson is known in Iceland as Dóri DNA[1].

References

  1. ↑ Profile in NNDB, access date: 2008-08-24.

Further reading

In Icelandic:

In English:

External links

In English:

Nobel Laureates in Literature

Pär Lagerkvist (1951) · François Mauriac (1952) · Winston Churchill (1953) · Ernest Hemingway (1954) · Halldór Laxness (1955) · Juan Ramón Jiménez (1956) · Albert Camus (1957) · Boris Pasternak (1958) · Salvatore Quasimodo (1959) · Saint-John Perse (1960) · Ivo Andrić (1961) · John Steinbeck (1962) · Giorgos Seferis (1963) · Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award) (1964) · Mikhail Sholokhov (1965) · Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs (1966) · Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967) · Yasunari Kawabata (1968) · Samuel Beckett (1969) · Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1970) · Pablo Neruda (1971) · Heinrich Böll (1972) · Patrick White (1973) · Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson (1974) · Eugenio Montale (1975)
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