Iceland’s Younger Choir 
By John G. Holme 
Iceland is having a renaissance of letters. It was to be expected 
that the great changes for the better in the political and economic af¬ 
fairs of the people would be reflected soon in such an intimate phase 
of their lives as their culture. For even in this twenty-second year of 
the twentieth century, Iceland’s first concern is centered on her literary 
crop, not on the record of the trawlers or the sheep ranchers. This 
does not mean that the trawlers, which sweep the gold mines by which 
the island is surrounded, nor the woolly flocks which range over the 
mountains of the country, are neglected. Not at all. The Icelanders 
are ambidextrous culturally. It is nothing rare to find in Iceland a 
poet who is also a successful farmer, lawyer, or surgeon. The chief 
statistician of the island has made quite a reputation as a dramatist. 
Also he writes very graceful verse. It is a matter of necessity with 
the Icelandic writer to earn his living in some other occupation. His 
literary creative work is mostly for pleasure, or the poetic impulse 
drives him to write. The quality of Icelandic lyrics, especially, show 
that they are the spontaneous outburst of real poetic gift. 
The renaissance has been gradual. One might say it began some 
twenty-five years ago with Thorstein Erlingsson and Gudmundur 
Frith jonsson and a few others. These and some of their followers 
displayed a definite tendency toward breaking away from old tradi¬ 
tions in form and in subject matter. The romanticism of the last cen¬ 
tury was elbowed aside, none too gently. There was a marked advent 
toward realism, and in a way toward a cruder form of expression. It 
is difficult to be exact in dealing with this change, for it would be easy 
to point out that few poets have possessed a purer lyrical gift than 
Erlingsson, but he hitched his muse to heavier and perhaps more utili¬ 
tarian freight than had many of his predecessors. To say that these 
two men launched a new literary movement might also be open to 
dispute, but it is safe to say that they produced at least a “new accent.” 
The national note in Icelandic literature has always been strong, 
especially during the past hundred years, and it is needless to re¬ 
peat here how clear and powerful it was during the Golden Age which 
brought forth the old sagas, but I believe that during the past quarter 
of a century this note has developed a new vigor and clarity of tone 
and a distinct individuality. I am of the belief it is growing finer in 
timbre year by year. The youngest poets, David Stefansson, just out 
of college and still under thirty, Stefan fra Hvitadal, who has hardly 
reached middle age, and the two women poets, Mme. Thoroddsen, 
and “Hulda” (Unnur Benediktsdottir) who have revived the fascinat¬ 
ing old ihulur, are all so typically Icelandic in spirit and expression 
