Studia Islandica - 01.06.1970, Page 113

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matically written by Guðmundui' Jónsson and attributed to H. C. Ander-
sen, Jónas Hallgrimsson and Snorri Sturluson. Whatever one’s views
may be regarding such phenomena, there is no denying that this was an
unusual beginning to a literary career.
Guðmundur was always an internationalist and believed that Ice-
landers should conform more to the fashions and customs of larger na-
tions overseas. In his school years he wrote two notable articles on this
subject. One dealt with surnames and appeared in the periodical Skírnir
in 1908. In it he strongly recommends that Icelanders follow the example
of other civilized nations and adopt the use of sumames. He offers de-
tailed suggestions for Icelandic surnames which he considers aesthetic-
ally pleasing and in conformity with the language, and he announces
his own intention of giving a lead by assuming the surname Kamban -
after his ancestor Grimur Kamban, a pioneer settler of the Færoes. The
other article is called “Grammar and style” (Málfræði og stíll) and
appeared in Isafold on 14th August 1909. In this he makes a vigorous
assault on the “purification-of-the-language” policy and on Icelandic
literary criticism. Fle denies the dependence of good style on a know-
ledge of grammar, and deplores a criticism which he describes as consist-
ing in the counting of words considered by the critic to be bad Icelandic.
The best writers, by his judgement, are those who write so that the
reader can hear them speak. He regards it as a matter of course that
Icelandic authors should use slang and Danish loan-words in their writ-
ing. This síylistic manifesto, issued at just over the age of twenty, was to
set the policy for all his later works. The results are uneven. Some-
times he overshoots the mark and produces a style that seems careless
and slipshod in the extreme.
From school in Reykjavík, Kamban went to the university in Copen-
hagen to study literature, aesthetics and elocution. Here he came in con-
tact with the group of Icelandic writers who had taken to writing in
Danish.
During his first years in Copenhagen, Guðmundur Kamban composed
two plays: Hadda Padda and Kongeglimen, both in the contemporary
neo-romantic style and a setting of Icelandic life among the well-to-do
and official class. The influence of Jóhann Sigurjónsson is evident, espe-
cially in Hadda Padda, where various details are reminiscent of Fjalla-
Eyvindur, while the end is not unlike that of Skyggen, an unpublished
play by Jóhann, in which the betrayed heroine also throws herself over
a cliff. Hadda Padda is well constructed and one of Kamban’s best plays.
The characterisation of Hadda Padda herself is good: she is consistent -
imperious and passionate, but at the same time so proud and secretive
that no one guesses her despair. The author has not been so successful