The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1968, Qupperneq 44

42
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Spring 1968
BOOK REVIEWS
FIRE AND ICE
Reviewed by George Hanson
FIRE AND ICE: Three Icelandic Plays by
J6hann Sigurjonsson, DaviS Stefansson, and
Agnar ThorSarson, with an introduction by
Einar Haugen. Madison-
University of Wisconsin Press, 1967,
266 p. $5.95.
Although Iceland has a literary tra-
dition, second to none in the world,
going back centuries, modern drama
came to Iceland only a century ago
with Matthias Jochumsson’s Utilegu-
nrennirnir (The Outlawed Men, 1862).
Once the theatre became established,
drama became rich and varied.
Three ol the chief dramatists of the
twentieth century are represented in
this volume of the “Nordic Translation
Series.” Only forty years separate Jo-
hann Sigurjonsson’s The Wish and
Agnar ThorSarson’s Atoms and Ma-
dams; yet three generations of writers
are represented.
Johann Sigurjonsson was the first
and likely the greatest dramatist in
Icelandic literature. During his short
life (1880-1919) his works, especially
Bjorg Eyvind og Hans Husfru (Eyvind
of the Hills and His Wife), known m
Icelandic as Fjalla-Eyvindur, met with
great success in Copenhagen and other
Scandinavian countries.
Based on a legendary Faust-like
scholar in Icelandic history, The Wish
(Danish, Onsket; Icelandic, Galdra-
Loftur) ranks among the greatest plays
in Icelandic drama. Early in his life
Sigurjonsson was an admirer of Ni-
etzhe, and from the works of the Ger-
man philosopher is seen Loftur’s will
to power, so strong that he feels he
can bring about the death of Steinunn
—with a wish.
Steinunn does die, but he who
“wished” her death dies himself at the
altar of the Holar Cathedral as the
voices of conscience (intone: “Woe!
Woe! Woe” and the voice of Bishop
Gottskald the Grim, long dead and
from whom Loftur wanted to get the
infamous Red Book, pronounces: “In
the darkness-before thou wert born-
evil cleft thy will.”
The Wish is a powerful work. The
charaoter delineation is masterful,
showing in the characters of Loftur,
Steinunn, and Disa the poles of evil
and good.
The second play in this excellent
collection comes from the pen of Ice-
land’s national poet of the twentieth
century, DaviS Stefansson.
Based on an Icelandic folktale
(see Jon Arnason’s Islenzkar hjohsbgur
og Tlintyri, The Golden Gate is the
story of the journey of a soul—“Salin
bans Jons mins—The soul of my John”
—carried in a bag by his wife, a long
journey from earth to heaven. Jon was
a good-for-nothing husband, but his
wife’s love and will were strong enough
to carry his soul, protesting all the way
to the “golden gate” of heaven attend
ed by Saint Peter.
The play, with music by Dr. Pall
Isolfsson, was first presented in Reykj-
avik in 1941 and later in various parts
of Euroep, including the Edinburgh
Festival of 1949.
The last play. Atoms and Madams,
was written by Agnar Thorffarson, a
librarian at the National Library and
one of the leading contemporary
dramatists of Iceland.
Iceland has experienced a new and
unknown postwar prosperity on which
Agnar ThorSarson has written a