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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 241 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RECENT LITERATURE The recent literature of See also:

Iceland has been in a more flourishing See also:state than ever before since the 13th See also:century Lyrical See also:poetry is by far the largest and the most interesting portion of it. The See also:great See also:influence of See also:Jonas Hallgrfmsson (18o7-1845) is still See also:felt, and his school was the reigning one up to the end of the 19th century, although then a See also:change seemed to be in sight. The most successful poet of this school is Steingrimr Thorsteinsson (b. 1830). He is specially famous for his splendid descriptions of scenery (The See also:Song of Gilsbakki), his love-songs and his sarcastic epigrams. As a translator he has enriched the literature with The Arabian Nights, Sakuntala, See also:King See also:Lear and several other masterpieces of See also:foreign literature. Equal in fame is See also:Matthias Jochumsson (b. 1835), who, following another of Jonas See also:Hallgrimsson's many ways, has successfully revived the old metres of the classical Icelandic poets, whom he resembles in his majestic, but sometimes too gorgeous, See also:language. He is as an artist inferior to Steingrimr Thorsteinsson, but surpasses him in bold See also:flight of See also:imagination. He has successfully treated subjects from Icelandic See also:history Grettisljocl5, a See also:series of poems about the famous outlaw Grettir). His See also:chief See also:fault is a certain carelessness in See also:writing; he can never write a See also:bad poem, but rarely a poem absolutely flawless. He has translated See also:Tegner's Frithiofs See also:Saga, several plays of See also:Shakespeare and some other foreign masterpieces.

The great religious poet of Iceland, Hallgrfmr Petursson, has found a worthy successor in Valdemar Briem (b. 1848), whose Songs of the See also:

Bible are deservedly popular. He is like Matthias Jochumsson in the copious flow of his See also:rhetoric; some of his poems are perfect both as regards See also:form and contents, but he sometimes neglects the latter while polishing the former. An interesting position is occupied by See also:Benedict GrOndal (b. 1826), whose travesties of the old romantic stories,' and his Aristophanic See also:drama Gandreioin (" The Magic Ride ") about contemporary events, are among the best satirical and humorous productions of Icelandic literature. Influenced by Jonas Hallgrfmsson with regard to language and poetic diction, but keeping unbroken the traditions of Icelandic See also:medieval poetry maintained by Sigur5r BreiofjorN (1798-1846), is another school of poets, very unlike the first. In the See also:middle of the 19th century this school was best represented by Hjalmar Jonsson from Bola (1796-1875), a poor See also:farmer 1 E.g. " The See also:Battle of the Plains of See also:Death," a See also:burlesque on the battle of See also:Solferino.with little See also:education, but endowed with great poetical talents, and the author of satirical verses not inferior to those of See also:Juvenal both in force and coarseness. In the last decades of the 19th century this school produced two poets of a very high See also:order, both distinctly See also:original and Icelandic. One is See also:Pall Olafsson (b. 1827). His songs are mostly written in the medieval quatrains (ferskeytla), and are generally of a humorous and satirical See also:character; his convivial songs are known by See also:heart by every See also:modern Icelander; and although some of the poets of the See also:present See also:day are more admired, there is none who is more loved by the See also:people.

The other is porsteinn Erlingsson (b. 1858). His exquisite satirical songs, in an easy and elegant but still manly and splendid language, have raised much discussion. Of his poems may be mentioned The See also:

Oath, a series of most beautiful See also:ballads, with a tragical love-See also:story of the 17th century as their See also:base, but with many and happy satirical allusions to modern See also:life; Jorundr, a See also:long poem about the convict king, the Danish pirate Jorgensen, who nearly succeeded in making himself the See also:master of Iceland, and The See also:Fate of the Gods and The Men of the See also:West (the Americans), two poems which, with their See also:anti-clerical and See also:half-socialistic tendencies, have caused strong protests from orthodox Lutheran See also:clergy. Near to this school, but still See also:standing apart, is Grfmur See also:Thomsen (b. 182o). In the beginning of the 'eighties a new school arose—having its origin in the See also:colony of Icelandic students at the University of See also:Copenhagen. They had all attended the lectures of Georg See also:Brandes, the great reformer of Scandinavian literature, and, influenced by his See also:literary theories, they See also:chose their See also:models in the realistic school. This school is very dissimilar from the half-romantic school of Jonas Hallgrfmsson;, it is nearer the See also:national Icelandic school represented by Pall Olafsson and porsteinn Erlingsson, but differs from those writers by introducing foreign elements hitherto unknown in Icelandic literature, and—especially in the See also:case of the See also:prose-writers—by imitating closely the See also:style and manner of some of the great See also:Norwegian novelists. Their influence brought the Icelandic literature into new roads, and it is interesting to see how the tough Icelandic See also:element gradually assimilates the foreign. Of the lyrical poets, Hannes Hafsteinn (b. 1861) is by far the most important.

In his splendid ballad, The Death of Skarphedinn, and in his beautiful series of songs describing a voyage through some of the most picturesque parts of Iceland, he is entirely original; but in his love-songs, beautiful as many of them are, a strong foreign influence can be observed. Among the innovations of this poet we may See also:

note a predilection for new metres, sometimes adopted from foreign See also:languages, sometimes invented by himself, a thing practised rarely and generally with small success by the Icelandic poets. No Icelandic novelist has as yet equalled Jon Thoroddsen (1819-1868). The influence of the realistic school has of See also:late been predominant. The most distinguished writer of that school has been Gestur Palsson (1852-1891), whose See also:short stories with their See also:sharp and biting See also:satire have produced many imitations in Iceland. The best are A See also:Home of Love and See also:Captain See also:Sigurd. Jonas Jonasson (b. 1856), a clergyman of See also:northern Iceland, has, in a series of novels and short stories, given accurate, but somewhat dry, descriptions of the more gloomy sides of Icelandic See also:country life. His best novel is RandiOr from Hvassafell, an See also:historical novel of the middle ages. Besides these we may mention Torfhildur Holm, one of the few See also:women who have distinguished themselves in Icelandic literature. Her novels are mostly historical. The last See also:decade of the 19th century saw the See also:establishment of a permanent See also:theatre at Reykjavik.

The poet Matthias Jochumsson has written several dramas, but their chief merits are lyrical. The most successful of Icelandic dramatists as yet is Indri6i Einarsson, whose plays, chiefly historical, in spite of excessive rhetoric, are very interesting and possess a true dramatic spirit. In See also:

geography and See also:geology porvaldr Thoroddsen has acquired a See also:European fame for his researches and travels in Iceland, especially in the rarely-visited interior. Of his numerous writings in Icelandic, Danish and See also:German, the History of Icelandic Geography is a monumental See also:work. In history Pall Melste6's (b. 1812) chief work, the large History of the See also:World, belongs to this See also:period, and its pure style has had a beneficial influence upon modern Icelandic prose. Of the younger historians we may mention porkell Bjarnason (History of the See also:Reformation in Iceland). Jon porkelsson (b. 1822), inspector of the archives of Iceland, has rendered great services to the study of Icelandic history and literature by his See also:editions of the Diplomatarium Islandicum and Obituarium Islandicum, and by his Icelandic Poetry in the 15th and 26th Century, written in Danish, an indispensable work for any student of that period. A leading position among Icelandic lexicographers is occupied by Jon porkelsson, formerly See also:head of the Latin school at Reykjavik, whose Supplement tit islandske OrdbO,ger, an Icelandic-Danish vocabulary (three See also:separate collections), has hardly been equalled in learning and accuracy. Other distinguished philologists are his successor as head of the Latin school, Bjorn Magnusson Olsen (Researches on Sturlunga, See also:Ari the See also:Wise, The See also:Runes in the Old Icelandic Literature—the last two See also:works in Danish); Finnur Jonsson, See also:professor at the University of Copenhagen (History of the Old Norwegian and Icelandic Literature, in Danish, and excellent editions of many old Icelandic classical works); and Valtyr Gu5mundsson, lecturer at the University of Copenhagen (several works on the old See also:architecture of Scandinavia) and editor of the influential Icelandic literary and See also:political See also:review, Eimrei6in (" The See also:Locomotive "). See J.

C. Poestion, Islandische Dichter der Neuzeit (See also:

Leipzig, 1897) ; C. Kuchler, Geschichte der islandischen Dichtung der Neuzeit (Leipzig, 1896); Ph. See also:Schweitzer, See also:Island; See also:Land and Leute (Leipzig, 1885); See also:Alexander Baumgartner, Island and See also:die Faroer (See also:Freiburg See also:im See also:Breisgau, 1889). (S.

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