Halldór Laxness

Icelandic author (1902-1998)

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Source-basedRising

Lived 1902–1998, aged 96

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
93 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1902–1998
Aged 96
Known for
Under the Glacier
1989

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The Icelander who turned his country's sagas and soil into a Nobel Prize, writing everything from novels to travelogues with a style sharpened by Strindberg, Hemingway, and Brecht.

Biography

About

Born Halldór Guðjónsson on 23 April 1902, he later took the name Laxness and spent decades turning Iceland's landscape and spirit into prose. He wrote across forms — novels, poetry, plays, essays, newspaper articles, travelogues, short stories — drawing on influences as varied as August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, and Ernest Hemingway. In 1955 the Nobel committee gave him the prize in Literature. He died on 8 February 1998, leaving behind a body of work that made a small island's voice heard everywhere.

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness

saidundated

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.

Halldór Laxness

saidundated

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.

Halldór Laxness

saidundated

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.

Halldór Laxness

saidundated