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Vefarinn mikli fr Kasmr
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Wikipedia article
'Vefarinn mikli fr Kasmr' ('The Great Weaver from Kashmir') is the third novel by Halldr Kiljan Laxness, published in 1927 by the Reykjavk publisher Forlagi. The theme of the work is a young man's soul and search for truth, faith and love, and his choice between love and faith. It is particularly noted as the seminal modernist novel in Icelandic.Halldr Gumundsson, 'Loksins, loksins: Vefarinn mikli og upphaf slenskra ntmabkmennta' (Reykjavk: Ml og menning, 1987).
Style and synopsis
The novel to a large extent is an epistolatory novel, comprising letters and sometimes literary works (both prose and verse) or monologues by its characters. It is littered with untranslated epigraphs and quotations by characters of material in other European languages. The modernist narrative mode was characterised by Peter Hallberg as 'very consistently' implying 'an abrupt break with the native Icelandic tradition of narrative art. The story is freely subjective; its rhythm varies like an unstable temperature curve. The principal character, the young Icelandic poet Steinn Ellii, who shares many essential experiences with his author, engages the reader in a whirl of often paradoxical and conflicting ideas.'Peter Hallberg, '[http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/id/eprint/177 Halldr Laxness and the Icelandic Sagas]', [https://archive.org/details/lse-1982-whole-issue 'Leeds Studies in English', n. s. 13] (1982), 1-22 (p. 4).
The novel is divided into eight books and one hundred chapters; the number of the chapters echoes the number of cantos in Dante's 'Divine Comedy', and it too 'records its young protagonist's own heaven, hell, and purgatory'.Hallberg Hallmundsson, '[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41401603 Halldr Laxness and the Sagas of Modern Iceland]', 'The Georgia Review', 49.1 (Spring 1995), pp. 39-45 (p. 39).
Book 1 introduces us to the family of Valgerur Ylfingamir and Ellii: their sons rnlfur and Grmlfur, Grmlfur's wife Jfrur, and their own son Steinn Ellii.
Book 2 is largely a series of epistolatory monologues by Steinn's childhood friend and sweetheart Dilj orsteinsdttir, and his mother Jfrur, exploring their dependence on Steinn and their frustrations with life.
Book 3 follows Steinn's travels in Continental Europe and Britain in 192125, and his grappling with Christian theology.
Book 4, which is mostly third-person narrative, explores Dilj's ultimately unhappy marriage to rnlfur.
Book 5 continues to follow Steinn's travels in Europe and Egypt, and his soul-searching.
Book 6 sees Steinn desperately seeking spiritual meaning by entering a Benedictine monastery at Sept Fontaines in Frankophone Belgium. In the end, however, he decides not to take holy orders and to return to Iceland.
Book 7 recounts Steinn's return to Iceland, where he discovers Dilj's marriage to rnlfur and fails to find satisfaction among his family in Reykjavk. It is again dominated by third-person narrative.
Book 8 sees Steinn returning to a monastic life in Continental Europe. Dilj, who has parted from rnlfur, pursues him, and meets him in Rome. Steinn rejects her, and the novel closes with the image of Dilj abandoned in Rome.
Reviews
'The Great Weaver from Kashmir' had diverse effects on readers when it came out. Two critics are the most famous. Kristjn Albertsson wrote a review of ten pages that appeared in the magazine Vaka the same year as the book was published. It opened thus:
Loksins, loksins tilkomumiki skldverk, sem ris eins og hamraborg upp r flatneskju slenzkrar lja- og sagnagerar sustu ra! sland hefir eignazt ntt strskld a er bltt fram skylda vor a viurkenna a me fgnui. Halldr K. Laxness hefir rita essa sgu 24. aldursri snu. g efast um a a komi fyrir einu sinni aldarfjrungi a skld eim aldri semji jafn snjallt verk og essi saga hans er. 64. gru norlgrar breiddar hefir a aldrei fyr gerzt.[http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?pageId=4411274 Vefarinn mikli fr Kasmr. Tveir ritdmar. I.] 'Vaka', 3 (1927), p. 316.
At last, at last, an impressive literary work, that rises like a cliff-city from the flatness of Icelandic poetry- and narrative-production in recent years! Iceland has begotten a new great writer it is our duty to acknowledge it with joy. Halldr K. Laxness has written this story in the 24th year of his life. I doubt that it will happen once in a quarter of a century that a poet of that age makes an equally ingenious work as this story of his is. At a 64 degree north latitude this has never been done.
However, Kristjan's judgment is not all of one character, and he also says that the work is "no masterpiece", "in some places contrived, fake, unscrewed, its metaphors tasteless or ugly" ("ekkert meistaraverk", "sumstaar tilgerarlegt, falskt, forskrfa, lkingar braglausar ea fagrar"), but it continues: "the development of today's Icelandic narrative style takes half a century's jump with this book of H. K. L." (run tmaborins slenzks sgustls tekur hlfrar aldar stkk me essari bk H.K.L.").
In the same paper was a review by Gudmundur Finnbogason, which was far shorter, and runs as follows: "Vlstrokka tilberasmjr. G. F.".[http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?pageId=4411284 Vefarinn mikli fr Kasmr. Tveir ritdmar. II.] 'Vaka', 3 (1927), p. 316. Hard to translate, this means something like 'machine-churned witch-butter'.
English translation
* Halldr Laxness, 'The Great Weaver From Kashmir', trans. by Philip Roughton (Brooklyn, NY: Archipelago, 2008).
References
Category:1927 novels
Category:Icelandic novels
Category:Novels by Halldr Laxness
Category:Novels set in Iceland
Category:Icelandic-language novels
Category:Icelandic books
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