Iceland's Bell
1955 Nobel Prize in Literature
Halldor Kiljan Laxness (1902-1998)
RG Gold Medal 2005
May 2005 at Max's house
Synopsis
Sometimes grim, sometimes uproarious, and always captivating,
Iceland’s Bell by Nobel
Laureate Halldór Laxness is at once an updating
of the traditional Icelandic saga and a caustic social satire.
At the close of the 17th century, Iceland is an oppressed
Danish colony, suffering under extreme poverty, famine, and
plague. A farmer and accused cord-thief named Jon Hreggvidsson
makes a bawdy joke about the Danish king and soon after finds
himself a fugitive charged with the murder of the king’s
hangman.
In the years that follow, the hapless but resilient rogue
Hreggvidsson becomes a pawn entangled in political and personal
conflicts playing out on a far grander scale. Chief among
these is the star-crossed love affair between Snaefridur,
known as “Iceland’s Sun,” a beautiful, headstrong
young noblewoman, and Arnas Arnaeus, the king’s antiquarian,
an aristocrat whose worldly manner conceals a fierce devotion
to his downtrodden countrymen. As their personal struggle
plays itself out on an international stage, Iceland’s
Bell creates a Dickensian canvas
of heroism and venality, violence and tragedy, charged with
narrative enchantment on every page.
First lines
There was a time, it says in books, that the Icelandic people had ony one national treasure: a bell.
Published reviews
Halldor Laxness is a beacon in twentieth-century literature,
a writer of splendid originality, wit, and feeling, who deserves
to be read and valued by all who care about writing everywhere.
Alice Munro
Laxness has genuine magic as a novelist.
New York Herald Tribune
Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a
visionary who allows us a plot: He takes a Tolstoyan
overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humor; it is not
possible to be unimpressed.
Daily Telegraph
Related resources
Biography
on Pegasos site
Nobel
Prize Citation for 1955
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