Studia Islandica - 01.07.1982, Page 188

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Whcn Gunnar Gunnarsson’s novels from the 1915-20 period are
examined as a whole, one observes incessant tension between wishful
longing and earthbound intelligence. The author himself, it seems, is
split by contrasting moods, thrown back and forth between tragic vision
and wishful hope. While most of his works from that time are parables
illustrating exile from which there is no retum, certain ones, such as
Drengurinn (The Boy, 1917), express a romantic dream about man’s
harmonious unity with the eternal being in death, an existentialist
nirvana of sorts. Even so, existentialist realism is a prime characteristic
of this phase, showing man as a split creature belonging to two worlds.
Gunnarsson draws a picture of the human being rising from nature and
seeking to transcend that origin, to be united with a superior entity of
some kind, forever in search of new gods.
The reason for this striving is that the material world fails to satisfy
man’s spiritual needs. Its prime reality is merciless destruction, the
main adversary of human longings, so the protagonists grope for the
universal in order to survive; they hope to find values affirming true
existence, while facing nature where death holds sway. The cause of
their tragic fate is that the vital link between the divine and human
worlds is broken, leaving them at the end of their resources, confronting
insurmountable obstacles. Reason tells them that Heaven is empty
and God dead; experience denies the refuge of faith to them. The action
of Ströndin, Vargur í véum and Sælir eru einfaldir therefore involves
self-destruction to a notable extent: when faith is eliminated by the
reasoning consciousness, the self is lost, too. The cross on which the
central characters in these novels are nailed is the awareness of life,
a source of unspeakable anguish and lonliness.
Translated by Haukur BöSvarsson.