Halldor Laxness
Halldor Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels. Major influences included August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht and Ernest Hemingway. He received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature; he is the only Icelandic Nobel laureate...
NationalityIcelandic
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth23 April 1902
CityReykjavik, Iceland
CountryIceland
Where the glacier meets the sky, the land ceases to be earthly, and the earth becomes one with the heavens; no sorrows live there anymore, and therefore joy is not necessary; beauty alone reigns there, beyond all demands.
For man is essentially alone, and one should pity him and love him and grieve with him.
Icelanders are grateful to meet foreigners who have heard of their country. And even more grateful to hear someone say it deserves better.
Human beings, in point of fact, are lonely by nature, and one should feel sorry for them and love them and mourn with them. It is certain that people would understand one another better and love one another more if they would admit to one another how lonely they were, how sad they were in their tormented, anxious longings and feeble hopes.