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Tfrahllin
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Wikipedia article
'Tfrahllin' ('hall of enchantments') is the fifth novel by Bvar Gumundsson, published in 2012 by Uppheimar.
Summary
The protagonist of 'Tfrahllin' is Jsep Malmholm, born in the 1960s into a wealthy and highly educated family. Jsep's father is a member of Iceland's urbane upper classes and his mother a bright, upwardly mobile, but ultimately frustrated woman of working class fishing stock from the Vestmannaeyjar. The summers which the young Jsep spends in the countryside at the farm of Litla-Hfi with older male working-class relatives on his mother's side provides a reference point of happiness and wellbeing through his often dystopian later life. These relatives are his maternal grandfather, a committed communist, and another male relative of roughly Jsep's mother's generation, the farmer Smon, who is milder than Jsep's grandfather and a yet more reliable touchstone for prudent, traditional, rustic Icelandic values.
Jsep meets the nouveau-riche investor Kormkur Cooltran, partly because Kormkur establishes a magnificent fishing lodge on the same salmon-river as the one where Litla-Hfi lies. Kormkur Cooltran enjoys a winning charm which is, however, underlain by a steely resolve to get his own way, if necessary by psychological manipulationframed in Kormkur's case by a selfishly patriarchal worldview and a large helping of homophobia. Kormkur becomes a father-figure to Jsep, whose own (gay) father has abandoned him. He employs Jsep at the fishing-lodge, which Jsep dubs 'Tfrahllin' (hall of enchantments). Kormkur tries, to some extent successfully, to control both Jsep and his daughters by pairing them up: through a slightly convoluted series of events, Jsep finds himself in long-term relationships serially with Kormkur's three daughters (Valhrund Besta, rena, and lfheiur)
Kormkur uses Jsep for around thirty years as a minion in his various power-games and business activities, legal and illegal. Kormkur uses Jsep as his mule in cocaine smuggling, and when caught Jsep chooses to the take the full blame for the smuggling and serves a long prison sentence. Kormkur's influence over Jsep does not wane significantly until eventually, bankrupt and estranged from his children, Kormkur commits suicide.
At this point, Jsep is claimed by a forthright Turkish sex-worker, Fatma zymal, who has been working at the fishing lodge and whom Jsep helps when she is assaulted by Kormkur Cooltran. The novel ends with Fatma popping back to Turkey to collect her daughter in order to bring her to Iceland, retire from sex-work, and, we are promised, to join Jsep in belated petit-bourgeois comfort.
Assessments
The author claimed that the novel, which covers a thirty-five-year span, was thirty years in the making, and attempted to track the changing national character and self-image of Iceland.Kolbrn Bergrsdttir, '[https://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?issId=370473&pageId=6032833&lang=is&q=T%F6frah%F6llin Gaman a skapa persnur]', 'Morgunblai' (26 November 2012), 34. The reviewer Egill lafsson viewed the book as gripping, with colourful characters.Egill lafsson, '[https://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?issId=370472&pageId=6032792&lang=is&q=T%F6frah%F6llin a eru tfrar Tfrahllinni]', 'Morgunblai' (24 November 2012), 69.
Influences
Through its chapter titles and the fact that Kormkur's wife is a member of a sorority called the Liljursriddarareglan ('the order of Liljurs'), named after the protagonist of Iceland's most famous traditional ballad, 'Kvi af lafi liljurs', the novel construes Jsep as a parallel for lafur liljurs. Meanwhile, Kormkur himself is modelled on the 'sinister, manipulative' elvish king in Goethe's poem 'Der Erlknig', which was inspired by the same ballad-tradition. The novel can be seen as a critical commentary on Icelandic culture during the banking boom that preceded the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis.Alaric Hall, [https://www.academia.edu/27038440 'Fornaldarsgur' and Financial Crisis: Bjarni Bjarnasons 'Mannor'], in 'The Legendary Legacy: Transmission and Reception of the Fornaldarsgur Norurlanda', ed. by Matthew Driscoll, Silvia Hufnagel, Philip Lavender and Beeke Stegmann, The Viking Collection, 24 (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2018), pp. 351-75 (pp. 355, 358).
Reviews
*'[https://web.archive.org/web/20160919181511/http://www.visir.is/fyrst-og-fremst-saga-um-personur/article/2012311289992 Fyrst og fremst saga um persnur]', 'Visir' (28 November 2012).
*Egill Helgason, '[https://web.archive.org/web/20160327161649/http://eyjan.pressan.is/silfuregils/2012/12/19/23849/ Limrur, Lur lknir, Sasta freisting Krists og str skammtur af gagnrni]', 'Eyjan' (19 December 2012).
* Egill lafsson, '[https://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?issId=370472&pageId=6032792&lang=is&q=T%F6frah%F6llin a eru tfrar Tfrahllinni]', 'Morgunblai' (24 November 2012), 69.
References
Category:2012 novels
Category:Icelandic novels
Category:Novels set in Iceland
Category:Icelandic-language novels
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