The Tower at the Edge of the World

by William Heinesen, Maja Jackson (Translator)

The Tower at the Edge of the World is William Heinesen's last novel written when he was 76, and is the summation of all of his work.

There is the perspective of both the child and the old man looking back at his life as a child. Although there is a lot of tangible detail and recognisable characters the book has a mythic quality. The events in a small community in the windswept Atlantic ocean being recorded by the writer in his room, his tower at the edge of the world, have a larger than life feel. Torshavn and his childhood are used to tell the history of the world and of creation.

William Heinesen describes The Tower at the Edge of the World as a poetic mosaic novel about earliest childhood.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Scandinavian Literature, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

William Heinesen is the best-known writer that the Faroe Islands have produced. He wrote mainly in Danish, but all of his books, which are set in the Faroe Islands, have been translated into his native Faroese. When Heinesen heard rumours that he was to win the Nobel Prize he requested that his nomination be withdrawn, discussing his choice to write in Danish with a mixture of bitterness and regret: "Faroese was at one time held in low regard - it's fair to say that the language was kept down. For all that, Faroese has generated remarkable literature, and it would have been right to award the Nobel Prize to an author who had written in Faroese. If I were given the prize, then a Danish writer would have got it, and Faroese literary endeavours would have been dealt a heavy blow". He died aged 91.

Reviews

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is ideal reading for anyone contemplating a trip to the Faroe Islands in that it is particularly strong on local culture and the characters that inhabit the small wind and rainswept communities. I've seen its described as the 'Under Milk Wood' of the Faroes, which is quite accurate, though not quite as amusing as its Welsh sister.

I visited the Heinesen Museum yesterday, in Tórshavn, but other than being able to take a few photographs from outside, was disappointed, as its only open in the summer, which is a very short period.

William Heinesen (born in 1900) was originally a poet and published his first novel in 1934, writing in Danish, though he spoke Faroese. I have now read two of his books, the first being The Lost Musicians which he wrote in 1950. As its title suggests, it is the story of a group of musicians who find sanctuary in their music amid a series of dramatic and tragic events, set in an unnamed tiny country somewhere in the North Atlantic..

But I enjoyed this much more. It is heavily autobiographical and based on a childhood viewed by an old man looking back. It is frequently humorous, and sufficiently abstract and episodic as to have a mythical quality to it; Tórshavn as a microcosm of the whole world and creation. It was, fittingly, Heineman's last novel, written when he was 76, though he died in 1991.

He is hailed as one of the greatest Nordic writers of the twentieth century.

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Tower at the End of the World” is a highly poetic novel on memory and nostalgia. The author, William Heinesen, is from the Faroe Islands but wrote in Danish rather than his native Faroese, which strangely once led him to reject consideration for the Nobel Prize. This is his last novel, produced when he was 76, and portrays an aged writer named Amaldus, probably a thinly veiled stand-in for the author himself, looking back upon his childhood. What gives the novel appeal is the way he reconstructs the way a child imagines a world he cannot yet fully grasp. In fact, the novel begins in an imagined mythical world, the world of the child, when “God has still not established a borderline between dreaming and waking or between fleeting shadows and real persons” (16). Eventually this world does take a shape as myth and wonder are peeled away and innocence is gradually surrendered.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read whilst in Torshavn, and bought at HN Jacobsens bókahandil. This is a memoir of Heinesen’s early life in the Faroe Islands, a fragmented and hallucinatory collection of memories like sparks from a fire. An old man revisiting lost childhood.

[Ingibjorg Bjorgvinsdottir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virkilega skemmtilegur undirtónn í þessari bók náttúrlýsingar í anda Boris Pasternak. Ég sannfærðist þó en frekar á lesningunni að það sé alltaf rigning í Færeyjum :-)

[Jógvan Helge · Rating 4 out of 5]

klåre kveldar kunne ein sjå det ovfagre tårnljoset glime ute i havmørkret, og då kunne ein kjenne ein ustyrleg trå mot det strålande tårnet som lyfte seg einsamt mot ukjende veldige leite der verdi endar og byrjar, og der Guds ånd sviv over vatni

[Cmac · Rating 4 out of 5]

crazy Faroese man 🇫🇴

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5. Man vender tilbage til Heinesen – her er den fineste fortællerstemme, jeg kender

[Helen King · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual and beautiful book. It took me a while to tune in to the rhythm of the author’s style, but I loved how the stories and reflections of childhood were interspersed with deeper thinking about humanity and existence. William explores, so poetically, our individual relationships with the impermanence of our existence and counterpoints this with beautiful descriptions of the infinity of the sky, stars and nature around us.

[Johan D'Haenen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit klinkt als een autobiografie van de kinderjaren van de auteur, vanaf zijn geboorte in 1900 tot de eerste Wereldoorlog. Het verhaal - als er al van een verhaal sprake kan zijn - is eerder een aaneenschakeling van korte en lange beelden, zoals bijvoorbeeld een reeks legendes van de Faroer of een reeks dromen.
Sommige stukken zijn echt poëtisch, alle zijn goed geschreven met oog voor detail en beeldende voorstelling. Je voelt ook dat dit geschreven is door iemand op latere leeftijd, want doorheen alles vloeit een gevoel van vrede nemen met, een gevoel van berusting, van aanvaarding. Inhoudelijk is er heel veel empathie, begrip voor de anderen, ook al wordt het kind steeds weer geconfronteerd met nieuwe vragen en raadsels.
Het valt zeker te begrijpen dat William Heinesen ooit genomineerd werd voor de Nobelprijs literatuur, ook al heeft hij die nominatie geweigerd omdat hij naar eigen zeggen schreef in het Deens, terwijl hij had moeten schrijven in zijn moedertaal, het Faroers.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And out on the horizon there is a flashing light of the ordinary lighthouse, a mortal light among all the immortals, but in the deep, joy-intoxicated spring night nevertheless a star among other stars."

Now I see why Heinesen was a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature and why he won so many Danish and Faroese prizes. The Lost Musicians showed glimpses of it, but this book shines with it. Delightful, bleak, both--the author relives childhood's memories with the original innocence gradually taking on the the perspective of old age. The childhood scenes are fantastically vivid, formative experiences gaining mythic shape. Feels like a long conversation on the porch with an elderly person reminiscing about their simultaneously wonderful and difficult childhood, and I love those. Four and a half stars rounded up.

[Anneli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable book although my Faroese skills are pretty basic. The book contains moments of life on the Faroese islands, beautifully written as much as I can tell. It is interesting how the use of you-form ties the reader to the landscape and to the people described.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a mythical telling of stories from the author's childhood on the Faroe Islands and reflections from his old age. Despite being translated from Danish the language crackles with poetic vitality. An unusual and fabulous read.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic, rhythmic and beautifully phrased, you feel you are in the very capable hands of a storyteller of old. This book creeps up on you as you experience the world through developing eyes.

[Patrick Cowsill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only thing I've ever read by an author from the Faroe Islands. Any recommendations?