The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1961, Blaðsíða 48

46
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1961
writes under the nom de plume, Thorir
Bergsson: “The Leap”, translated by
Axel Eyberg and John Watkins; “Love
and Flowers”, translated by Mekkin S.
Perkins; and “The Betrayal”, translat-
ed by Loftur Bjarnason. Two short
stories, which the editor classifies as
character sketches, are by Jakob Thor-
arensen: “Last Words”, translated by
Mekkin Perkins; “The Answer”, trans-
lated by Eyberg and Watkins.
There are three selections from the
short stories of Glafur Johann SigurSs-
son, born in 1918, who, Loftur Bjarna-
son says “is unquestionably one of the
best of the younger writers in Iceland
today”. The selections are: “The Dust
of the Road”, and “The Hand”, trans
lated by Eyberg and Watkins; and
“The Padlock”, translated by Marg-
ret Einarsson.
Two short stories are from the pen
of GuSmLindur G. Hagalin: The Fox
Skin” and “Two Big Shots”, both
translated by Mekkin Perkins.
One from each of the following is
selected: Gunnar Gunnarsson, inter-
nationally known, who formerly wrote
mostly in Danish, “Father and Son”,
translated by Minna Wreschner;
Kristman GuSmundsson, whose books,
the editor says, have been more widely
translated than those of any other Ice-
landic author, “The Gift” translated
by Mekkin Perkins; Hallddr Kiljan
Laxness, New Iceland, translated by
Eyberg and Watkins, a short story
which in the opinion of the reviewer
might well have been omitted; Hjortur
Halld6rsson, “His Own Master”, trans-
lated by Eyberg and Watkins; Agnar
ThorSarson “The Thief”, translated
bv Paul Schach.
From the novel “If Your Sword is
Short”, by Agnar ThorSarson there is
an extract also translated by Paul
Schach.
Within the two volumes Bjarnason
managed to include three plays. There
is the well known play “Eyvind of the
Hills”, Fjalla Eyvindur, by Johann
Sigurjonsson, translated from the orig-
inal, written in Danish, by Henning
Krohn Schanche. “Bishop Jon Arason”
by Tryggvi Sveinbjornsson, is a chron-
icle play in four acts, translated by Lee
M. Hollander. The famous Hadda
Padda, by GuSmundur Kamban, has
been translated by Sadie Luise Peller.
This play, Loftur says, “was acclaimed
by Georg Brandes, the great Danish
critic, in a highly complementary re-
view.”
The Anthology closes with five art-
icles: “The National Theatre in
Reykjavik” by Benedikt Grondal; “Ro-
mans in Iceland”, by Kristjan Eldjarn;
“Independent People”, by Thor Thors;
“The University of Iceland”, by Alex-
ander Jdhannesson, and “Icelander in
Copenhagen”, by Stefan Einarsson.
To the younger generation of Ice-
landic descent, who are interested in
their ancestry and desire to acquire
some knowledge of modern Icelandic
literature this Anthology is of inestim-
able value. It merits a wide distri-
bution.
The price for each volume is $5.00,
and may be ordered from Department
of Correspondence Instruction, Uni-
versity Extension, University of Cali-
fornia, Berkley 4, California.
W. J. Lndal