Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2013, Qupperneq 37

REVIEW
BOOK The Return Of
Iceland’s Bell
While Halldór felt compelled to add
the disclaimer, “The author would
like to note that this is not a work
of historical fiction. The characters,
style and events are entirely sub-
servient to the needs of the work
itself,” the book is well researched.
Halldór pored over annals from the
period and virtually all characters
have real-life counterparts. The
language too, a curious mixture of
Icelandic, Latin and Danish, feels
authentic for the time.
At the turn of the 20th Century,
independence was the main issue
in Icelandic politics, and it was with
this backdrop that Halldór started
writing ‘Iceland’s Bell,’ which came
out in three parts, respectively in
1943, ‘44 and ‘46. The first part fo-
cuses on the farmer Jón Hreggviðs-
son, a proletarian hero, who also
has elements of the picaresque. It
is he who is given the task of cut-
ting down the titular bell so that it
can be transported to Denmark to
pay the King’s bills.
After coming home, he beats
up his wife and children and we
never learn if he in fact committed
the murder he is accused of, as he
is too drunk to remember himself.
His increasingly improbable adven-
tures, which include being drafted
into the Danish army, witnessing
the great fire in Copenhagen and
trekking back and forth between
Denmark and Iceland while contin-
ually running into the same people,
are also reminiscent of Enlight-
enment novels such as Voltaire’s
‘Candide,’ which Halldór himself
translated into Icelandic at the time
of writing ‘Iceland’s Bell.’
A symbolic return
The second part focuses on Snæ-
fríður Íslandssól, the fairest woman
in Iceland, who marries a drunkard
because she can’t have the man she
wants most. The one she wants is
Arne Arnæus, the hero of the third
part who works directly for the
king and has dedicated his life to
collecting old manuscripts so that
the nation may survive these dark
times and eventually become free.
The book prophesies that Iceland
will in the future cast off the yoke
while the rest of the world burns. It
seems that Halldór was determined
to construct a grand narrative of
Icelandic history where it would
eventually be propelled towards
freedom as long as its literature
survived. In this, he was success-
ful. When Iceland eventually held a
referendum on its independence in
1944, more than 90% of the popula-
tion voted in favour. And Iceland’s
Bell did become the preeminent
novel of the new Republic. A stage
version premiered at the opening
of the Icelandic National Theatre
in 1950, and the novel has been
taught in schools ever since.
The bell itself, if it ever existed,
has never been returned. However,
the return of the saga manuscripts
from Denmark in 1971 marked a
symbolic return of Iceland’s trea-
sures and a considerable part of
Iceland’s population made its way
to Reykjavík harbour to welcome
them back. A similar triumphant
return was made by Laxness him-
self in 1955, when he returned from
Stockholm with Iceland’s first and
only Nobel Prize. In this sense, Ice-
land’s bell had been returned, and
its name was Halldór Laxness.”
- Valur Gunnarsson
Literature
Ask Icelanders about the bad old times under Danish rule and they
will probably tell you about how the Danes periodically whipped
Icelandic farmers if they dared trade with merchants from other
countries or how they stole our bell to pay for their incessant war-
fare on the continent. These are terrifying examples to be sure,
but they don’t come from history books; they come from Halldór
Laxness’s novel, ‘Iceland’s Bell.’ The bell itself is sent off to Den-
mark in the first chapter, never to be seen or heard from again.
Small wonder that this is uppermost in people’s minds, as every-
one here is made to read the novel in around the ninth grade. THE FRESHEST FISH ....AND IDEAS!
SKÓLAVÖRÐUSTÍGUR 14 - 101 REYKJAVÍK - 571 1100
After years of study,
strings of awards and
having led kitchens of
some of Reykjavík’s most
esteemed restaurants,
Gústav still sees him
self as just a kid from
up north, with a life-
time passion for fish.
B O R G R E S TA U R A N T - P Ó S H Ú S S T R Æ T I 9 - 1 1 - 1 0 1 R E Y K J AV Í K
T E L : + 3 5 4 - 5 7 8 - 2 0 2 0 - I N F O @ B O R GRESTAURANT . I S - W W W. B O R GRESTAURANT . I S
“Out of this world!!!”
“It certainly was the best of the many places we dined in Reykjavik!”
FrequentFlyer513 - New York City, New York - Trip Advisor
CBondGirl - Calgary, Canada. Trip Advisor
k100
k60
37
Halldór Laxness’s Iceland’s Bell
The book
prophesies that
Iceland will in the
future cast off the
yoke while the
rest of the world
burns.
The photos on the previous page are from
a book called 'Writers' Homes' by Björn
G. Björnsson. It's part of a series of books
published by the Salka publishing house
called Iceland's Cultural Heritage. Other
books in that series include ´Large Turf
Houses', '18th Century Stone Buildings'
and 'Turf Churches.'