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Halldór Laxness

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Halldór Laxness

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Also known as Halldór Kiljan Laxness, Halldor Laxness, Halldor Kiljan Laxness

Icelandic author (1902-1998)

AI overview

Halldór Laxness was an Icelandic writer who lived from 1902 to 1998 and is considered one of Iceland's most important literary figures. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955, making him Iceland's first and only Nobel laureate in that category, and his works significantly shaped modern Icelandic literature and culture.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1902
Died
1998
Works
285

Top works

  • Í Austurvegi
  • Ásmundur Sveinsson
  • Straumrof
  • Den store vaever fra Kashmir
  • De islandske sagaer og andre essays

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Writing · Reykjavik, Iceland

Halldór Kiljan Laxness (born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. Writers who influenced Laxness included August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht and Ernest…

Known for

  • The Fish Can Sing1973
  • The Fish Can Sing1973
  • Halldór Kiljan Laxness — Self (archive footage)1962

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Iceland
Active from
1902
Active to
1998

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
120
Total plays
1,860

Similar artists

Einar Ólafur SveinssonJónas HallgrímssonSigurður Guðmundsson og MemfismafíanRósa GuðmundsdóttirHaukur Morthens

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Halld%C3%B3r+Laxness">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Halldór Laxness

Quotes

  • People who like to display complicated technique in their verse are more given to pride themselves on their work than are those who write for their own solace.
  • He swore repeatedly, ever the more violently the unsteadier his legs became, but to steel his senses he kept his mind fixed persistently on the world-famous battles of the rhymes. He recited the most powerful passages one after another over and over again, dwelling especially on the devilish heroes, Grimur Ægir and Andri. It was Grimur he was fighting now, he thought . . . but now an end would be put to the deadly feud, for now the stage was set for the final struggle.
  • Never did these thanes of hell escape their just deserts. No one ever heard of Harekur or Gongu-Hrolfur or Bernotus being worsted in the final struggle. In the same way no one will be able to say that Bjartur of Summerhouses ever got the worst of it in his world war with the country's specters, no matter how often he might tumble over a precipice or roll head over heels down a gully - "while there's a breath left in my nostrils, it will never keep me down, no matter how hard it blows."
  • Slowly, slowly winter day opens his arctic eye.
  • Never do hymns seem so long as in the days of childhood, never is their world and their language so alien to the soul. In old age the opposite is true, the hours are then too short for the hymns.
  • He wandered away, weeping, away from the farm and up to the rocks at the foot of the mountain, quite overpowered by the evil that seems so often to prevail in life and even to rule it. But what do you think he heard from the rocks at the foot of the mountain? Why, he heard the most delightful singing!

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Image
Halldór Kiljan Laxness 1955.jpg
Show 8 more facts
Commons category
Halldór Laxness
date of birth
1902-04-23
date of death
1988-02-08
Commons Creator page
Halldór Laxness
birth name
Halldór Guðjónsson
start of work period
1916-00-00
end of work period
1998-00-00
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~18 min read

Article

Halldór Kiljan Laxness ( Icelandic: [ˈhaltour ˈcʰɪljan ˈlaxsnɛs] ; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. Writers who influenced Laxness include August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, and Ernest Hemingway.

Life

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