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Page 45
The above is by no means said in a spirit of reproach. On the contrary,
all honor to the patriotic men who, by writing dramas in their
mother-tongue, are willing to forego the emoluments and recognition
to be gained from audiences in more favored lands: for the sake of
enriching their native literature; for the sake of showing both the
world and their own people that neither in this art are they inferior to
other nations; for the sake of demonstrating to their satisfaction
that a contribution of Iceland to world-literature is no more an
impossibility now than in the older times, when it enriched us with
lore and history, and gave the world what Greece and Rome did not, the
realistic novel.
Three authors divide the honors in this field: Matth�as Jochumsson, a
gifted lyric poet, now in his old age; the promising young playwright,
J�hann Sigurj�nsson; and Indridi Einarsson, now in his prime, whose most
original contribution to Icelandic literature is herewith presented.
The poet having excellent command of English, I am fortunate to be
able (with his permission) to quote _ipsissima verba_ on his life and
development.
'I was born in the North of Iceland, on April 30, 1851, and was a
farmer's boy of good old family. My chief work at home was haymaking in
summer, and in winter being a shepherd. Every spring I was up all the
long bright nights, watching the flock that they should not damage the
cultivated soil by eating the young grass. I think that solitude (from
the eighth to fourteenth year of my life) has fostered my fancy
and imagination and dipped me deep in the romanticism of that time
(1858-64). In 1865 I went to Reykjavik, and was initiated at the Lyceum
(Latin school) in the spring of 1866. I went through the Lyceum in
ordinary course. When I began to read Virgilius I felt as if I got wings
on my immortal soul, and I think I shall never lose them wholly again.
I began to read the poets, starting with the comedies of Old Holberg the
Dane, and passing to Schiller and Goethe and Heine. I read all plays
of Shakespeare (in Danish translation, then). I studied "Oidipous
Tyrannos," Sophocles' awful tragedy, in the original, and read Plautus
and Terentius as other boys, Icelandic and Danish fiction.
'During my first year at college I saw Matth�as Jochumsson's
"Utilegumenn" (The Outlaws) performed at Reykjavik: they had then very
fine Icelandic scenery, and went home in ecstasy over the performance,
feeling that I had seen the brightest and strongest play in the world.
Of my reading I thought "Macbeth," "Gretchen im Carcer" ("Faust" I),
and "Oidipous Tyrannos" finest and fullest. While at Reykjavik I wrote
"Ny�rsn�ttin" (New Year's Night) and got it acted at the college, with
the greatest possible success. That drama formed a turning point in my
life--as the author of it I went to Copenhagen to pursue my studies as
graduate student. I left college made to half of what I am.
'While studying Political Science at Copenhagen I wrote the drama,
"Hellismenn" (The Cave-dwellers). I had come south with two other dramas
in my mind. But the atmosphere in Copenhagen was strongly realistic
at that time; my Romanticism was not able to withstand it. Without
my knowledge I turned to Realism, and when I began to think about my
intended dramas I could not write on them because all my thoughts had
taken another direction. After completing my examinations I returned,
Copenhagen having made the other half of what I am. In 1880 I was
appointed auditor of the Official Accounts of Iceland, and got married.
During the ten ensuing years I was buried under an avalanche of accounts
and official documents and could hardly hold my head up above the
waters. The wings of my soul drooped with exhaustion. My dramatic muse
awakened several times, but I could not receive her visits. At last,
in 1890, I began to write "Skipit sekkur" [The Ship is Sinking,--a
naturalistic drama], parts of which I rewrote seven times; so badly had
I treated my muse that she began to work so slowly....'
To this I shall only add that the poet has modestly omitted to state
that in his capacity of Chief of the Department of Statistics he is the
compiler of an excellent year-book on the trade relations and industries
of his native isle; that he is the author of several dramas not
mentioned by him; and that 'Sword and Crozier,' his latest drama (1899),
has already been translated into German and Danish.
I subjoin a synopsis of this play, in order to facilitate an
appreciation of it at the first reading.
Act I.--The chieftain of the North Quarter of Iceland, Kolbein the
Young, lies sick unto death from the after-effects of an old wound and
sends for his kinsmen and other nobles of the Quarter. While delivering
his message to them, Thorolf, his favorite (secretly the lover of the
chieftain's wife, Helga), and long a thorn in the flesh of these
proud men as an upstart, infuriates them anew by his insolent bearing.
Obedient to the call of their chief, they assemble about him to
determine on measures for the defence of the land, and to learn of the
disposition of his dominions. The weak Brand is given his lawful share,
which agrees well enough with Lady Helga's self-seeking plans of uniting
all the land under her and Thorolf's rule. The more forceful Broddi is
entitled to the other half; but when Kolbein, very conveniently for
her, becomes delirious she substitutes Thorolf's name instead, shrewdly
taking the precaution of compelling Brand by force of arms to swear him
an everlasting truce--ostensibly to atone for having offered an insult
to Brand.
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