Iceland's Bell

Halldor Laxness, Philip Roughton

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English

Vintage
15 October 2003

Literary studies: general; Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Series: Vintage International

One of the most beloved of Halldor Laxness's novels among Icelanders, ICELAND'S BELL encompasses themes of the dignity and pride of a tiny downtrodden country that clings to the memory of a once-glorius past. Seventeenth-century Iceland suffers under the oppression and contempt of its Danish overlords, as well as from plague and famine. The poor of Iceland suffer from local oppression as well, as archaic justice is served out annually at the convening of the Althing, the ancient Icelandic assembly, where thieves are branded or have their hands cut off for stealing a bit of fishing line, adulterers are beheaded, and adulteresses are drowned in the Women's Pool. ICELAND'S BELL follows three very different main characters whose stories entwine over twenty years. One is a semi-literate peasant. John Hreddvigsson, an irrepressible farmer with a wry sense of humor who is accused of murdering the king's hangman and who spends years in and out of prison and court in an increasingly complicated welter of lawsuits. He is being used as a pawn in a struggle between two more powerful figures - the dazzingly beautiful and highly educated Lady Snaefridur, known to the people as ""Iceland's Sun."" who is the daughter of Iceland's Magistrate, and the learned and wordly aristocrat and scholar Arnas Arnaeus. who serves the Danish king in Cophenhagen and eventually risks his fortune and career in a doomed effort to save his despised and lowly homeland. Arnaeus and Snaefridur had fallen in love years earlier, only to find themselves years later on opposite sides of a political struggle, one in which rumors of their adulterous affair will spread through Iceland and reach the Danish court, with disastrous results.

By: Halldor Laxness
Translated by: Philip Roughton
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: Vintage International ed
Dimensions: Height: 202mm, Width: 131mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 374g
ISBN: 9781400034253
ISBN 10: 1400034256
Series: Vintage International
Pages: 425
Publication Date: 15 October 2003
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Iceland's Bell

“Laxness has genuine magic as a novelist.” –New York Herald Tribune “Laxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: He takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humor; it is not possible to be unimpressed.” –Daily Telegraph