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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF HALLDÖR LAXNESS IN HIS FICTIONAL PROSE WORKS Being a thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in the University of Hull by Hilary Virginia Carby-Hall BA September 1989 CONTENTS Chapter Page ........................................................ ii Abbreviations ............................................. Introduction 1 ............................................... 8 1 Barn nAttdrunnar ............................................ 23 2 Nokkrar sögur ............................................. 3 Heiman fbr 32 eg ............................................. 4 Undir Helgahndk 49 ........................................... 5 Vefarinn frA Kasmir 66 mikli ................................. 98 6 Fdtatak manna ............................................. 117 7 Salka Valka .............................................. 8 Själfstmtt fdlk 145 .......................................... töframenn 173 9 Sj8 ............................................ 10 Heimsljbs 191 ................................................ 11 fslendsklukkan 235 ........................................... 12 Atdmstäbin ............................................... 255 13 Gerpla 276 ................................................... 14 Brekkukotsann311 301 ......................................... 15 Paradfsarheimt *........ ................................... 327 16 Sjöstafakveriö ........................................... 347 17 Kristnlhald .............................................. 359 Conclusion ............................................... 389 Bibliography ............................................. 403 i ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations are used for references to Laxness's novels and collections of short stories: AT6 At 6ms t öö in BAR Barn nAttürunnar BRE Brekkukotsannäl1 F6T F6tatak manna GER Gerpla HEF Heiman eg f6r HEI. 1 Heimsl j6s, Part I HEI, II Heimslj6s, Part 2 fSL tslandsklukkan KRI Kristnihald undir Jökli NS Nokkrar sögur PAR Paradisarheimt SAL Salka Valka SJA Själfstxtt f6lk SSK Sj6stafakveri6 TÖF Sjd t öframenn UND Undir Helgahnük VEF Vefarinn mikll frä Kasmir ii INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to explore the religious and spiritual development of Halldßr Laxness, the Icelandic novelist, poet, playwright and essayist, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1955. He was born into a Lutheran family in Iceland in 1902. In his teens he began to move away from the religion of his parents and grandparents, and in 1923 he became a Catholic, reverting to the earlier religion of Iceland. This was a somewhat remarkable step for an Icelander to take in those days. After some time spent in a monastery in Luxembourg, a time of great fervour and study, the young man distanced himself from the Catholic Church, moved by the condition of the people in post-First-World- War Europe and America. He seemed unable to see any practical, workable way emerging from the teachings of the Church; they were fine teachings, but irreconcilable with the nature of man, and, moreover, there seemed to be a lack of living examples to serve as models for him for the Christian life to be led in the world. There were models of monks and contemplatives, but that seemed all. Laxness became a socialist; man became his highest ideal at this, his next stage, He then flirted with Communism, but did not commit himself further. During and after the Second World War, throughout his middle years, he strove and campaigned as a pacifist. A wide reader and an inveterate traveller, he came under the influence of much Eastern thought. This influence first showed itself in his work in 1932, but became more pronounced later on. The fiction of his later years is characterised by a serenity: earlier tensions and dilemmas seem to be resolved; man is no 1 INTRODUCTION longer the only goal; there is balance and harmony; there seems little doubt that Laxness returns to God, but this time to an un- canonical God, the 'Wisdom and Spirit of the universe'. ' In writing of Laxness's religious views the idea of religion doctrine should not be -limited to theology or or any strictly applied or accepted formula, but should be understood in a much wider and all-embracing sense as a pulling of man towards God, on the one hand, and because of this pull towards God, as a pulling of man towards man on the other. It is' a dual attraction, a related compulsion and devotion. For any searcher with- a background in Christianity, it is hard to separate the first two commandments, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart thy is to ... and neighbour as thyself'. 2 Laxness seen obey the first in his youth, the second in his manhood, and to combine the two in his maturity. His love of' God in his early years is marked by his zeal as a Catholic, which comes over in his novels, his social articles, his private correspondence. His love of man, which follows, is marked by an indignation on behalf of suffering mankind and this deepens into a rare quality of compassion. Although his work in his second phase seems to be cut off from religion, it is only cut off from formal religion and his compassion is of a religious, almost holy nature. For this reason it is desirable to look at his developing attitude to suffering and to the sorrows of the people whose cause he speaks for. His love of God combined with a love of man is seen in what seems to me his greatest work, Kristniheld undir Jikli. Because this wider kind of religion is really about relationship 2 INTRODUCTION with God, this means that there is not a simple and passive, unquestioning acceptance on the part of the seeker. On the contrary, everything is questioned and put to the test. All the stages of relationship are present in Laxness's religious life as it is reflected in his fictional prose: first love, high expectation, disillusion, doubt, anger, resistance, rebellion, new and unique experiment, rediscovery, acceptance, capitulation and joy, all- in varying degrees. For this reason, Laxness's reactions against the Church and established religion are as much part of his spiritual journey as his youthful conversion; his anger and his cynicism are as important as his early enthusiasm, as are his irreverences and jibes. But his anger is often righteous and not only personal, and as such it is the expression of a religious feeling for the sacredness of life; such is the case when it comes to war; and his love of peace is thus the dream of the good. Therefore his attitude to war and to peace is examined in this study, but only to the extent that it is an expression of a religious quality. The political expression of these views I have not touched upon, because this has been done by others, and it does not fall within the scope of the work. The same pertains to his treatment of women, his views on the education of children, role his nationalism and his as an artist; in as much as they demonstrate a religious quality, a quality of soul, a profound and humanist love deeper than or reverence for the creature and for life, then they too have been examined. I have paid particular attention to what would appear to be the deep impression Laxness made on by the mystical. There are signs 3 INTRODUCTION of this during the writing of Undir Helgahndk and Heiman eg för, that is at the very start of his Catholic phase. But unlike the formalism of Catholicism, - this fascination with the mystical endures and deepens. His perception becomes like that of Wordsworth, when 'with an eye made quiet by the power / Of harmony life things' and the deep power of Joy', he sees 'into the of and shows knowledge of the 'types and symbols of eternity'. 4 The mystical attraction in Laxness is coupled with a struggle to forge a way to the One Supreme and Unifying Spirit beyond and on the other side of a sometimes restricting religious thought. 'Struggle' is the right word to use, for such a quest is never plain, and necessarily brings much conventional criticism in its wake. But Laxness does not stand alone, and I have turned to other seekers and discoverers to support his own endeavours. Kazantzakis and Hermann Hesse I have found especially thought-provoking and stimulating; but it is the Christian theologians and spiritual leaders that- I have found most helpful in this matter. Walter Johnston's works on East-West mysticism, Bede Griffith's on the comparableness of Hinduism and Christianity, Juan Mascarb's sensitive admiration for all religious truth have all helped me to see that Laxness is one of them, one of those prepared to mine for the gold of universal worth. It is the tendency of the religious thinkers of this age to seek in this way; too much has been destroyed by division in the past. Men of vision seek underlying unity, and where there is difference - respect. The tendency of the twentieth century to turn to the East for spiritual and philosophical inspiration and direction seems 4 INTRODUCTION generally to be caused by a disillusionment with Western culture and Western Christianity. As for as Christianity is concerned it is my view that there are grounds for much of this disillusionment, in that the Western Churches have become preoccupied with regulations, scholasticism and action. By doing so they have left unfulfilled the spiritual longings of man; God is remote and associated with punishment; man is seen solely as a sinner; God is not within. To turn away is a very natural reaction, but it is a simplification; it is a giving up. That which is sought for in the non-Christian East is already contained in Christianity; it has never been lost in the Eastern Churches, and it is preserved in many traditions in the West too, though, lamentably, little prominence has been granted the spirituality of the West, so that an enormous dimension has been neglected, or altogether passed by. Laxness is one of these who appeared to have turned away from Christianity. My argument is that his apparent turning away is only a superficial reaction; he protests too much for it to be an abandoning; what he seeks is not anything new but that which he loved before; he seeks confirmation for old ideas in a new atmosphere.