Tómas Gudmundsson

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Tómas Gudmundsson

Icelandic poet

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Born:: January 6, 1901, Efri-Brú, Iceland

Died:: November 14, 1983, Reykjavík (aged 82)

Notable Works:: “Fljótid helga”

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Tómas Gudmundsson (born January 6, 1901, Efri-Brú, Iceland—died November 14, 1983, Reykjavík) was a poet best known for introducing Reykjavík as a subject in Icelandic poetry. His poetic language is characterized by Neoromantic expressions and colloquial realism.

Gudmundsson, who was born in the countryside, graduated in law from the University of Iceland in Reykjavík and subsequently became a civil servant in 1928. His first collection of poems, Vid sundin blá (1924; “Beside the Blue Waters”), caused no great stir but revealed his control of poetic form and an intelligent, thoughtful, slightly nostalgic voice. His next publication, Fagra veröld (1933; “The Fair World”), established him as an outstanding poet. It won immediate attention for its appreciation of the city and urban life, and Gudmundsson was unofficially adopted as poet laureate of Reykjavík.

Travel in the Mediterranean, afforded him by the city of Reykjavík, gave him a new stimulus, apparent in Stjörnur vorsins (1940; “Stars of Spring”). After 1943 he devoted himself to writing. From 1943 to 1946 and in 1954 he coedited a literary magazine, Helgafell. During this period Fljótid helga (1950; “The Holy River”) was published. It addressed many of the social issues that were brought to light by World War II and revealed Gudmundsson as a mature philosopher of loss and resignation, though his light touch and rich humour remained. An edition of his collected poems was published in 1953. His later works include Heim til thín, Ísland (1977; “Home to You, Iceland”), containing personal reflections on life and death, as well as several poems written for specific occasions. In addition to writing poetry, he translated works in German and Italian into Icelandic. Many of his own poems are in translation in the Scandinavian languages, French, German, and English.

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

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Icelandic literature

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Icelandic literature

Written by Benedikt Sigurdur Benedikz, Virpi Zuck•All

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Key People:: Halldór Laxness; Snorri Sturluson; Jóhannes Bjarni Jónasson; Gudmundur G. Hagalín; Tómas Gudmundsson

Related Topics:: Icelanders’ sagas; fornaldarsǫgur; Atli; Poetic Edda; sagnaskemmtun

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Icelandic literature, body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse) through Modern Icelandic.

Icelandic literature is best known for the richness of its classical period, which is equivalent in time to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. The relative stability of the Icelandic language means that Icelanders today can without difficulty still read Old Icelandic sagas. Because early Norwegian literature is so closely intertwined with early Icelandic literature, both are discussed in this article.

The Middle Ages

The literature of Scandinavia and, in particular, of Iceland has reflected two extraordinary features of the social and cultural history of pagan Europe and of Iceland. The way in which names such as Siegfried, Brunhild, and Atli (Attila) cropped up again and again in different European literatures has borne witness to the dissemination of legends and traditions common to the early Germanic tribes of Europe, starting from the great movements westward in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. The literature of Iceland not only provides the most detailed descriptions available of the lifestyle of early Germanic peoples but constitutes the most complete account of their literature and literary traditions. Although the sagas and poems were first written down by Christian scribes, they present a picture of a pre-Christian European culture that reached its heights of expression in the new settlements in Iceland.

A second feature directly concerns the peoples of Scandinavia. A remarkable characteristic of early Scandinavian literature was the accuracy with which it described the geography of northern Europe, accuracy that was born of actual knowledge. From the late 8th century until well into the Middle Ages, the history of the Norsemen (Vikings) was one of unceasing movement toward western and central Europe. The Norsemen discovered Iceland, as early Icelandic historians had it, when their ships were blown off course about 860. The next century found them pushing west by way of Britain, Ireland, and France to Spain and then through the Mediterranean to North Africa and east to Arabia. Across land they reached the Black Sea; by sailing north they came to the White Sea; and finally, turning westward again, they reached America long before Columbus.

Literature in Iceland and Norway

The roots of Icelandic literature and Norwegian literature, which reach back more than 1,000 years, are inextricably intertwined. Although a large part of this early literature was composed either in Iceland or elsewhere in Scandinavia by Icelanders, the Norwegian element in it is considerable and indisputable, even though this cannot always be isolated and defined. In many instances, it is obvious that some of the literature derives from a time before the Scandinavian settlement of Iceland in the 9th century. In other cases, it appears that the composers of the works had resided for long periods in the mother country of Norway.

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The classical period

The best-known Icelandic literature belongs to the classical period, roughly equivalent to the early and medieval periods in western European literature. Icelandic manuscripts yield much knowledge of European myth and legend, which is in part common to all Germanic peoples. Stories of the Norse gods and myths—of Odin, god of war; Balder the Beautiful; Thor, god of thunder; and Valhalla, hall of the slain—form the nucleus of early Icelandic literature.

Almost all extant early Scandinavian poetry was recorded in Icelandic manuscripts, although some was clearly composed before the Scandinavian peoples reached Iceland in the late 9th century. Much of the oldest poetry was recorded in the Codex Regius manuscript, which contains the Sæmundar Edda (c. 1270), commonly designated by scholars as the Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda (see Edda). The poetry is sometimes called Eddaic and falls into two sections: heroic lays, which, broadly speaking, deal with the world of mortals; and mythological lays, which deal with the world of the gods.

The heroic lays

The heroic lays follow the mythological in the Codex Regius and are probably the earlier of the two. Many of the legends on which they were based originated in Germany or even among the Goths. Oldest of all is perhaps the Hamdismál (“Lay of Hamdir”), which forcefully expressed the heroic ideals of Germanic tribal life. The story closely resembles one told by Jordanes, a Gothic historian of the mid-6th century, and his account suggests that his source was an even earlier poem about Hamdir. Another of the older lays in the Poetic Edda is the Atlakvida (“Lay of Atli”), which refers to events that took place in 5th-century western Germany, Atli (or Attila) being king of the Huns from 434 to 453. Nearly all heroic lays are associated with the story of Sigurd (or Siegfried), the valiant hero, and his ill-fated love for Brunhild, who, too, figures to a varying extent in different lays. Many scholars hold that the lays concerned with the spiritual conflict of the heroines Brunhild and Gudrun, which tend to be romantic and sentimental, were composed later than the austere heroic lays. The Poetic Edda contains only a small portion of the poetry known in Iceland in the Middle Ages. Fragments of ancient lays appeared in 13th- and 14th-century sagas such as the Hlǫðskviða (“Lay of Hlǫð”) in the Heidreks saga, as did mention of Danish and Swedish heroes in some fragments that must also have been known to the author of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.

The mythological lays

Mythological lays about the Norse gods make up the first half of the Poetic Edda. It is unlikely that any of these originated outside Norway, Iceland, and the Norse colonies in the British Isles. The Vǫluspá (“Sibyl’s Prophecy”) is a striking poem on the history of the world of gods, men, and monsters, from the beginning until the “twilight of the gods.” Many passages in the poem are obscure, but most modern scholars agree that it was composed in Iceland about the year 1000, when the people were turning from the old religion to Christianity. The Skírnismál (“Words of Skírnir”) tells the story of the god Freyr, lord of the world: sitting in “Gate Tower,” the throne of Odin, he gazes into the world of giants and falls in love with a giant maiden; to win her, he sends his messenger Skírnir, who first offers gifts and then threatens the maiden until she agrees to make a tryst with Freyr. Scholars have seen an ancient fertility myth in this story, and it is certainly one of the older mythological poems in the Poetic Edda and probably originated in Norway before Iceland was settled by Norwegians.

The mythological poems so far mentioned are all narrative, but many of those in the Poetic Edda are didactic. The Hávamál (“Words of the High One”; i.e., Odin) consists of fragments of at least six poems. In the first section, the god speaks of relations between humans and lays down rules of social conduct; in other sections he discourses on relations between men and women and tells how the love of women may be lost or won; the last two sections are about runes and magic power. Most of the poems were probably composed in Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries. Another didactic poem, the Vafþrúðnir (“Words of Vafþrúðnir”), relates a contest between Odin and a giant.

Some important mythological lays appear in other manuscripts. Baldrs draumar (“Balder’s Dreams”) describes how the god Balder dreamed that his life was threatened and how his father, Odin, rode to the grave of a prophet to force her to reveal the fate in store for Balder.