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Icelandic literature
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Icelandic literature (literature of Iceland) — literature in the Icelandic language, or written by Icelandic authors in other languages The first monuments of Icelandic literature date back to the beginning of the settlement of Iceland by the Vikings.
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1 Medieval pagan Icelandic literature 1.1 Eddic poetry 1.2 Skaldic Poetry
2 Medieval Christian Icelandic Literature 3 Modern Icelandic Literature 4 Notes 5 Literature 6 References
Medieval pagan Icelandic literature[edit / edit wiki text]
Sample of the manuscript from the "Saga of Nyala"
The title page of the "Younger Edda", published in the XVIII century
Medieval Icelandic literature is unique and rich.
Its uniqueness lies not only in the fact that it is the only ancient German literature that has preserved pre Christian myths and folk epics, but also in the fact that Icelanders have preserved the Old Norse, or almost the same thing — the Old Norse language, which has hardly changed for many centuries, and now samples of medieval Icelandic literature are of the same value for modern Icelanders as for the first settlers of Iceland.
The ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples, the Vikings, brought with them to the island two types of poetry — eddic and skaldic.
Eddic poetry[edit / edit wiki text]
The Edda is the main work of Germano Norse mythology.
It consists of two versions: the Elder Edda (a poetic collection of myths of Scandinavia), and the Younger Edda (a work of the medieval Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, conceived as a textbook of skaldic poetry[1].
Both Eddas were written in the XIII century.
According to the form of the Edda, it is an old German alliterative verse.
Their content is partly mythological, partly aphoristic or didactic, and partly heroic.
Skaldic poetry[edit / edit wiki text]
Skaldic poetry is a more common form of poetry in ancient Scandinavia and in particular in Iceland.
The first Skalds were Norwegians.
In the tenth century, the art of the Skalds became widespread in Iceland.
Since that time, most of the skalds at the courts of the nobility came from Iceland.
The most famous skalds are: Bragi Boddason (IX century), Egil Skallagrimsson (ca. 910 ca. 990), Kormak Egmundarson (X century), Snorri Sturluson, etc.
Medieval Christian Icelandic literature[edit / edit wiki text]
With the adoption of Christianity in the X century, writing came to Iceland and began to develop written literary genres — sagas and poems.
The saga is a prose work of various types.
Some sagas are factual, they describe real facts and people, while others are mytho — heroic.
Some of the most famous sagas are "The Saga of Nyala", "The Saga of Egil" and "The Saga of Gisli", which are generic sagas prose works related to the oral folk tradition.
Royal sagas are stories from the history of Norway until the middle of the 13th century, the best of which is "Heimskringla", written by Snorri Sturluson in the early 13th century.
In the 13-14 centuries, sagas of ancient times were created, telling about people who lived before the 10th century.
The chronicles of the Norwegian kings began in the 12th century with semi legendary sagas about the first Christian kings Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson the Saint.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the romans, somewhat modified French ballads, gained great popularity.
But poems were also widely distributed.
The most famous poem of this time is "Lily", written by E. Ausgrimsson, and the most outstanding poems written by J. Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland, executed on November 7, 1550.
In Iceland, the New Testament was published in 1540, the Bible - in 1584, and the top of the cult literature were the beautiful "Hymns about the Passion of the Lord" by H. Pietursson and "Home Sermons" by Bishop J. Vidalin.
[2].
During the Renaissance in Scandinavia, collectors from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland began to collect Icelandic manuscripts, which were already very highly valued, because even then, in the XVII century, they were considered antiquity, but also of course had literary and artistic value.
A. Magnusson played an important role in collecting and preserving the Icelandic literary heritage.
[2].
Modern Icelandic literature[edit / edit wiki text]
Portrait of H. Laxness, written by Einar Hakonarson
The main direction in the Icelandic literature of the XIX century was Romanticism.
For the first time, romanticism declared itself in the courageous poems of B. Torarensen (1786-1841) and the transparent stanzas of J. Hatlgrimsson (1807-1845).
The first Icelandic romantics were equal to the medieval Eddas and foreign romantics of their time.
The most famous Icelandic writers of the XIX century are B. Graendal, G. Thomsen, M. Jochumsson, S. Torsteinsson, S. Egilsson, J. Arnason, M. Jochumsson, I. Einarsson, J. Torodsen and others.
The pen of the latter belongs to the first Icelandic novel "A young Man and a girl".
In the 80s of the XIX century, realism came to Iceland, marked by socialist, anticlerical and internationalist tendencies.
The most famous Icelandic realists X. Hafstein, G. Paulsson, J. Stefaunsson, S. Stefansson, T. Erlingsson and others.
At the turn of the century, there was a turn of realists towards national ideas, towards idealism and even religion.
This trend is noticeable in the works of the great poet philosopher E. Benedichtsson, the prose writer spiritualist E. Kvaran, the novelist J. Tresti (real name G. Magnusson) and the peasant poet and novelist G. Fridjounsson.
At the end of the XIX century and at the beginning of the XX century, some Icelandic writers wrote in Danish in order to expand the circle of their readers.
Among them, the most famous are Th.
Sigurjounsson, whose drama "Mountain Eyvind" has received European recognition; G. Kamban and G. Gunnarsson, who posed psychological and philosophical problems in his large scale works "The Church on the Mountain" and "The Black Gull".
In the 20s of the XX century, new trends appeared in Icelandic literature, the main of which is modernism.
The most prominent lyrical modernist poets were D. Stefaunsson and T. Gudmundsson, and the most significant novelists were G. Hagalin, who depicted the life of sailors and ordinary people with great humor and gravitated towards realism and socialism, and wrote in Icelandic and Norwegian K. Gudmundsson — an unsurpassed master of a romantically colored love story.
In the mid 20s, T.
Tourdarson wrote his novel "Letters to Laura", which was a new word in Icelandic literature, but the true founder of the new expressionist, surrealist style of writing was Halldor Kiljan Laxness, a Nobel Prize winner.
In the 1930s, he published three monumental novels - "Salka Valka", "Independent People" and "The Light of the World".
His historical trilogy "The Icelandic Bell"was very popular in Iceland and Scandinavia.
In 1955, Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The latest Icelandic literature is characterized by a distance from the traditions of Icelandic literature.
The most prominent innovators of the latest Icelandic literature are G. Danielsson, O. J. Sigurdsson, Hadlgrimur Helgason, Arnald Indridason, Tor Vilhelmsson and G. Bergsson, whose bitter, bizarre novel "Toumas Jonsson, bestseller" (1966) was a scandalous success.
A. Tourdarson, the most important Icelandic playwright, also wrote several sensational novels.
Notes[edit / edit wiki text]
↑ Margaret Clunies Ross Old Icelandic Literature and Society.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
— 352 pages.
— ISBN 0-521-11025-4.
↑ Go to: 1 2 Iceland (state) The Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Literature[edit / edit wiki text]
Icelandic literature / / Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 vol. (82 volumes and 4 supplements).
- St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
Steblin Kamensky M. I.
The Old Icelandic language 2nd ed. - M: Unified URSS, 2002.
- With 288.
- ISBN 5-354-00039-4.
Andresson K. Modern Icelandic Literature.
1918-1948.
- M., 1957.
Steblin Kamensky M. I. The Scandinavian Epic.
The Elder Edda.
The Younger Edda.
Icelandic sagas.
- M: AST, 2009.
- With 858 — - ISBN 978-5-17-054196-6.
Steblin Kamensky M. I. Old Norse literature.
- M., 1979.
Literary encyclopedia in 11 volumes.
- M.: 1929-1939.
Steblin Kamensky M. I. Culture of Iceland.
- L: Nauka, 1967 — - From 183.
Links[edit / edit wiki text]
Icelandic literature (rus.).
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Category: Literature of Iceland
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