2014 Poll Is Up & Decided!--Iceland

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Asma wrote: "What composes Icelandic cuisine?"
I have made rabarbaragrautur in the past to put on my quinoa flakes. So tasty!

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I have made rabarbaragrautur in the past to put on my quinoa flakes. So tasty!"

I'll try rabarbaragrautur sometime.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

You may not know this, but the Library of Congress classification system (used in most American academic libraries) organizes literature first by country of origin. So for a small country like Iceland, most academic libraries have a pretty browsable collection. When I went to check out the first Laxness of the year, I grabbed a few others.

The first one is Icelandic Poems and Stories, published in 1943. It includes a lot of stuff we probably won't run across otherwise, if you can track down a copy. My review goes into more detail.

[Maggie]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "You may not know this, but the Library of Congress classification system (used in most American academic libraries) organizes literature first by country of origin. So for a small country like Ice..."

Jenny, thank you for the information and the review. Unfortunately, my library has few Icelandic works, mostly Laxness, but they may be adding to it because I've been checking out lots that they've got and they've noticed and emailed me about it. I may have to get a County Library Card for this challenge, which would get me a much wider range of titles.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

There are a few titles available online because they are in the public domain. Quite a feat, actually, because the translations themselves have to be old enough to have entered into the public domain!

Seven Icelandic Short Stories by Ásgeir Pétursson and Steingrímur J. Þorsteinsson

Select Icelandic Poetry

Icelandic Legends

[Maggie]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "There are a few titles available online because they are in the public domain. Quite a feat, actually, because the translations themselves have to be old enough to have entered into the public dom..."

Thanks, that's very helpful.

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "There are a few titles available online because they are in the public domain. Quite a feat, actually, because the translations themselves have to be old enough to have entered into the public dom..."

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "... Icelandic Poems and Stories, published in 1943. It includes a lot of stuff we probably won't run across otherwise..."

The several Icelandic readings look great, Jenny. It's thoughtful of you to point out the online readings. Your point about the translations being in the public domain is most interesting.

[Betty]

Maggie wrote: "...my library has few Icelandic works, mostly Laxness, but they may be adding to it because I've been checking out lots that they've got and they've noticed and emailed me about it..."

Maggie, good news that you're reading the Laxness shelf and are spreading the enthusiasm for Icelandic literature!

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "...The first one is Icelandic Poems and Stories, published in 1943. It includes a lot of stuff we probably won't run across otherwise, if you can track down a copy. My review goes into more detail. "

I'm reading this anthology now, the 1943 one reprinted in 1968. I really like to read some older-in-time, aged-by-the-hands-of-various readers, found-in-a-musty-area-of-a-storeroom, hardcover book. This one fits the criteria. The poems/stories observe Iceland's landscape, etc., centuries ago.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Have you found any favorites? I wish I could hang out with the farmer poets.

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Have you found any favorites? I wish I could hang out with the farmer poets."

From Icelandic Poems and Stories, my favorite poet so far is Bjarni Thorarensen, who writes a nature poem about wintertime's tenacity and a romantic poem about love,

"Then, gladly we'll glide through the infinite spaces,
Kiss with the gleam of the night on our faces,
Ride the Aurora and swim its light-billows
Rosy as flames in a heaven of blisses,
Dance in the star-shine that floods the abysses,
And slumber in love on the clouds' snowy pillows."

He isn't one of the farmer poets, but I shall get to these fellows soon.

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Have you found any favorites? I wish I could hang out with the farmer poets."

The more modern (17thc-19thc) Icelandic poems as in Icelandic poems and stories differ from poetry in medieval Icelandic manuscripts and books. The excerpt above in message 61 from 'Lines to Sigrún' shows a very decided rhyme scheme aabccb. Kristján Jónsson the farmer poet also adopts a regular rhyme, ababcdcd, as in 'The Waterfall'. Rhyme as a consistent feature as here was not so much favored in the old Icelandic poetry. The early poetry favored lots of alliteration, especially on stressed syllables, according to Kenneth G. Chapman in Books Abroad, winter 1964, "Alliteration was the principal formal feature of Old Icelandic poetry." The Icelandic poets writing today might be doing something different with regard to rhyme and alliteration.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

It's hard to know if the poems are alliterative or not, in translation.....

[Betty]

Absolutely, Jenny. If one has in hand the poetry written in the Icelandic language, then it's possible to take note of the initial letters for the presence of alliteration. Double consonants at the beginning of Icelandic words though might be a gray area for alliteration.

In the history of Icelandic stories, alliteration begins in the Settlement period when poetry was committed to memory. Nothing was written down, not even the laws. With Christianization, the book, and writing and reading, made a little headway from about 1000 or 1100 C.E..

Unlike in other parts of Europe, the presence of alliteration in Icelandic poetry and its relation rímur didn't fade out then revive. According to the Books Abroad article above ("From Edda to Atom", freely available article with registration at JSTOR), some modern Icelandic poets do experiment with new forms without rhyme and alliteration. Even so, such nontraditional poetry like free verse is not as accepted in Iceland as it is elsewhere. This is so as of fifty years ago. One would need to look at the style of contemporary Icelandic poets: to read some present-day interviews, to check which contemporary poets are being taught, what poetry books are being bought, and to verify all that with the actual Icelandic-language poem :)

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I have made rabarbaragrautur in the past to put on my quinoa flakes. So tasty!"

It's rhubarb season where I live. I tried stewing the celery-like reddish stalks and the result was flavorful and excellent.

[Catherine]

Stewed rhubarb is one of my favorites. So is rhubarb strawberry pie.

[Marieke]

I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place, but i saw this and thought this group of readers would be interested: Investigating the Icelandic Book Flood

[Betty]

Marieke wrote: "I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place, but i saw this and thought this group of readers would be interested: Investigating the Icelandic Book Flood"

This is definitely the right place for your post, Marieke. I read the interview about Alda Sigmundsdóttir, learning more about the Icelandic penchant for oral and written literature, about books set in Iceland, and about the country's economic meltdown. I appreciate your pointing out the article.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

In the author's note in Burial Rites, she has a long list of resources she used for her research in the book. More general Icelandic resources might be of interest to us, so I typed it out:

“I have also drawn on many nineteenth-century journals by foreign travelers to Iceland, including those of Ebenezer Henderson, John Barrow, Alexander Bryson, Arthur Dillon, William Hooker, Niels Horrebow, Sir George Mackenzie and Uno Von Troil. Húnavetningur, Sagnaþættir úr Húnaþing, and Hunavatnsþing Brandsstaðaannáll also proved to be invaluable publications."

I poked around a little to see what I could find.

-Voyages Into the Arctic Regions Or, Polar Passage Between the Atlantic and Pacific by John Barrow
-Iceland: or, The journal of a residence in thatisland, during the years 1814 and 1815 : containing observations on the natural phenomena, history, literature, and antiquities of the island, and the religion, character, manners, and customs of its inhabit by Ebenezer Henderson
-Notes of a trip to Iceland in 1862 by Alexander Bryson
-A Winter in Iceland and Lapland V2 by Arthur Dillon
-Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809 by William Jackson Hooker
-The Natural History of Iceland by Niels Horrebow
-Travels in the Island of Iceland, During the Summer of the Year 1810 by George Mackenzie
-Letters on Iceland: Containing Observations Made During a Voyage Undertaken in the Year 1772 by Joseph Banks, Esq. by Uno Von Troil

[Betty]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "In the author's note in Burial Rites, she has a long list of resources she used for her research in the book. More general Icelandic resources might be of interest to us, so I type..."

A rich history of exploration in 18th-19th-c. Iceland that is read today. Amazing what was accomplished long ago.

[Maggie]

Thank you, Don, for posting that. Very interesting, and I noticed that one of the people who was interviewed was Agla Magnusdottir, a familiar name since I'm only 3/4s of the way through Burial Rites .

[Betty]

Don wrote: "FWIW - Interesting article about an annual book catalog that goes out free to every Iceland home annually:
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/07/..."

Thanks for mentioning the Bokatidindi catalog, Don. I browsed through the 2013 edition of it on the net--Bokatidindi.

[Betty]

Maggie wrote: "...I noticed that one of the people who was interviewed was Agla Magnusdottir, a familiar name since I'm only 3/4s of the way through Burial Rites..."

How wonderful, Maggie. I just realized your connect between the two Magnusdottirs--the one, an author; the other one, a fictional character.