Iceland's Bell Quotes

“Vont er þeirra ránglæti, verra þeirra réttlæti.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“...nothing is true that cannot be proven--and therefore, it's not true.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Item, I've read that there's not a single virgin to be found in your country," said the statesman.

"Where might you have read this?" asked the Professor Antiquitatum.

"The good auctor Blefken says this."

"I wonder if the good auctor might not have misread his sources," said Arnaeus. "The best auctores tell us that Icelandic girls remain chaste virgins up until they've had their seventh child, Your Benevolence.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Og nú heldur hann þeir svensku séu ekki jafngáfaðir og hann. Ég skal segja þér: þeir eru gáfaðri en hann, þeir eru svo gáfaðir að einginn kraftur fær þá til að trúa því að það samsafn af lúsugum betlurum norðrí raskati, sem kallar sig íslendinga og nú eru bráðum allir dauðir guðisélof, hafi skrifað fornsögurnar.”
― Halldór Kiljan Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“A fat servant is not much of a man. A beaten servant is a great man, because in his breast freedom has its home.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Тролска руна се чертае с жлъчка от врана върху вътрешната страна на кожа от светлокафява кучка, след туй се нанася отгоре й кръв от чер котарак, чието гърло е било прерязано на пълнолуние от недокосвана девица.
- А ти как успя да накараш недокосвана девица да заколи черен котарак? - попита Йон Хреквидсон.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Can't we make a blusterer ourselves? asked Jón Hreggviðsson. Can't we scratch that damned sign with the ax-point onto the chopping block and get a beautiful, chubby woman in here tonight, right now-or preferably three? It was no easy matter to create such a sign, because in order to do so the two men required much greater access to the animal kingdom and the forces of nature than conditions in the dungeon permitted. The sign of the Blusterer is inscribed with a raven's gall on the rust-brown inner side of a bitch's skin, and afterward blood is sprinkled over the skin - blood from a black tomcat whose neck has been cut under a full moon by an unspoiled maiden. Where'd you find an unspoiled maiden to cut a black tomcat's neck asked Jón Hreggviðsson.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“When I was a child I was told that whoever swallowed a hock-bone would one day own land," she said. "Have you tried that? I was told a sheep's hock-bone bought a croft, a cow's an estate.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Icelanders are grateful to meet foreigners who have heard of their country. And even more grateful to hear someone say it deserves better.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“You know very well that the wealth gathered here in Copenhagen has been garnished for successive generations from the Iceland trade monopoly. The road to the highest rank in the Danish capital has always run through the Iceland trade. Scarcely a single family in this city doesn't have a member who hasn't earned his bread from the Company. And no one would think of Iceland being granted as an emolument to anyone other than the highest-ranking nobleman, preferably royalty. Iceland is a good country. No country has supported so many wealthy people as Iceland.”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“My lord has read in reputable books that Icelanders emit such a foul stench that men have to position themselves upwind when speaking to them."
Jón Hreggviðsson said nothing.
The adjunct said: "My lord has read in reputable books that the abode of the damned and of devils is in Iceland, within the mountain named Hekkenfeld. Is this correct?"
Jón Hreggviðsson said that he couldn't deny it.
Next: "My lord has read in reputable books, primo, that in Iceland there are more specters, monsters, and devils that there are men; secundo, that Icelanders bury shark meat in the dungheaps by their cowsheds and afterward eat it; tertio, that starving Icelanders remove their shoes and cut pieces of them into their mouths like pancakes; quarto, that Icelanders live in mounds of earth; quinto, that Icelanders don't know how to work; sexto, that Icelanders loan foreigners their daughters for purposes of procreation; septimo, that an Icelandic girl is considered to be an unspoiled virgin until she has had her seventh illegitimate child. Is this correct?"
Jón Hreggviðsson gaped slightly.
"My lord has read in reputable books that Icelanders are primo, thievish; secundo, liars; tertio, arrogant; quarto, lice-ridden; quinto, drunkards; sexto, debauchers; septimo, cowards, unfit for war—" the adjunct said all of this without moving and the colonel continued to grind his teeth and stare at Jón Hreggviðsson. "Is this correct?"
Jón Hreggviðsson swallowed to try to wet his throat. The adjunct raised his voice and repeated:
"Is this correct?"
Jón Hreggviðsson straightened up and said:
"My forefather Gunnar of Hlíðarendi was twelve ells high."
The colonel said something to the adjunct and the adjunct said loudly:
"My lord says that whoever commits perjury beneath the standard shall suffer the wheel and the rack."
"Twelve ells," repeated Jón Hreggviðsson. "I won't take it back. And he lived to be three hundred years old. And he wore a gold band around his forehead. His halberd sang the sweetest song that has ever been heard in the North. And the girls are young and slender and come during the night to free men, and are called fair maidens and are said to have the bodies of elves—”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell

“Og í fundarlok eftir þrjá daga stígur biskup í stól fyrir prestum sínum og brýnir enn nú fyrir þeim höfuðgreinir sannrar trúar með þesskonar orðalagi sem öllum fanst gott að heyra og eingan gerði hissa. Menn voru ferðbúnir. Loks var sálmur kyrjaður, Oss lát þinn anda styrkja, uppá reisuna.”
― Halldór Laxness, Íslandsklukkan

“We Danes have always been charitable in our trading operations with Iceland. And when our deceased Highness monopolized trade with the island it was only in order to prevent outsiders from extorting those pitiable people.” As”
― Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell