Most notable among the prolific author’s later works are the novels The Fish Can Sing ( Brekkukotsannáll: 1957), Paradise Reclaimed ( Paradísarheimt: 1960) and Under the Glacier ( Kristnihald undir Jökli: 1968 also translated as Christianity at the Glacier), the play The Pigeon Banquet ( Dúfnaveislan, 1966), and the ecological essay The War Against the Land ( Hernaðurinn gegn landinu: 1970). In 1955 Halldór Laxness was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland”.

Soon the author’s attention turned from religion to socialism, though, and he wrote his most important works Salka Valka ( I: 1931 II: 1932), Independent People ( Sjálfstætt fólk I and II: 1934 1935), World Light ( Heimsljós I-IV: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940), Iceland’s Bell ( Íslandsklukkan I-III: 1943 1944 1946), and The Atom Station ( Atómstöðin: 1948). During this time he produced among others his much acclaimed novel The Great Weaver from Kashmir ( Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír: 1927). In the 1920s he converted to Catholicism and adopted his middle name Kiljan and the last name Laxness while staying in a Benedictine abbey in Luxembourg for studies. He turned to writing early and brought out his first novel, Barn náttúrunnar ( Child of Nature), already at the age of seventeen. Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born Halldór Guðjónsson in Reykjavík, Iceland, in April 1902 and grew up in Laxnes, a village then outside the capital, now part of it and called Mosfellsveit.

Sjálfstætt fólk by Halldór Laxness