Iceland's Bell

by Halldor Laxness

  At the time that this story takes place, the king of Denmark had absolute power over Iceland (absolute monarchy was established in 1662 by Frederik III, who reigned 1648–1670; Christian V was king from 1670–1699, and Frederik IV from 1699–1730). Iceland’s government was controlled by the Danish Rentekammer (Ministry of Finance) and the Kancelli (Chancery). Answering to these ministries was the stiftamtmaður, the highest governmental authority in Iceland (the post was actually established in 1684); following him, in descending order of executive power, were the amtmaður (established in 1688), the landfógeti (established 1683), the sýslumenn, umboðsmenn sýslumanna, and hreppstjórar. In Iceland’s Bell, Gyldenløve performs the function of the stiftamtmaður, although he is called lénsherra, landstjóri, or gouverneur; thus his title has been translated as “governor.” Laxness refers to the character Páll Beyer variously as landfógeti and amtmaður (combining the two separate offices), and as he reports directly to Gyldenløve, or acts as Gyldenløve’s representative in the governor’s absence (he is also called at times the umboðsmaður lénsherrans, or “governor’s representative”), both landfógeti and amtmaður have been translated as “regent.” The sýslumenn are district authorities who have executive and judicial authority; these are rendered as “bailiffs.” Umboðsmenn sýslumanna, or representatives of the bailiffs, are not really seen in this novel; mention is made, however, of hreppstjórar, the authorities of hreppar, or parishes; this term is translated as “parish administrators.”

  The Kancelli was in charge of the ecclesiastical government of Iceland; in the latter part of the seventeenth century Iceland’s highest ecclesiastical authorities, the bishops of Skálholt and Hólar, answered to the bishop of Sjaelland in Denmark. Below the bishops on the hierarchical ladder in Iceland were the prófastar (deans) and then prestar (priests); Reverend Sigurður Sveinsson occupies a somewhat unique position in this novel as the dómkirkjuprestur, or archpriest (literally, “cathedral priest”), the assistant to the bishop.

  The legislative and judicial branches of Iceland’s government also answered directly to the king of Denmark; the main legislative assembly in Iceland was the Alþingi, with eighty-four representatives, thirty-six of them serving in the lögrétta, or judiciary body. The highest native Icelandic legislative and judicial authority was the lögmaður, literally “lawman”; in Iceland’s Bell the lögmaður is shown primarily in his role as a judge, and he has been given the exclusive title “magistrate.” Two men could hold the office of lögmaður at this time and Arnæus mentions that the “second magistrate’s office was not filled,” although later he appoints a second lögmaður to help him judge Magistrate Eydalín; this office is called by Laxness vísilögmaður or “vice-magistrate.” The highest court in Iceland, which was subordinate to the Danish Supreme Court ( hæstiréttur), was the yfirdómur (translated as Iceland’s “high court”), consisting of twenty-four lögréttumenn (“legislators” or “jurists”) and under the control of the amtmaður. After this was the lögmannsdómur (magistrate’s court), consisting of six, twelve, or twenty-four lögréttumenn chosen by the lögmaður, and then the héraðsdómur (district court), with dómsmenn (judges) appointed by the sýslumaður (bailiff). Jón Hreggviðsson’s case obviously goes through all of these courts, beginning with district court and ending up in the Supreme Court in Denmark.

  In 1602 the king of Denmark established a monopoly over trade in Iceland. In 1620 the Iceland trade company (Det Islandske Kompagni, called in the novel “Compagniet” and translated “the Company”) was set up and given the opportunity to pay rents to do business in Iceland. In 1662 Iceland was divided into four commercial districts, and the number of these districts was increased in 1684. Each district was controlled by a Danish kaupmaður, translated here as “merchant.” The value of goods and the taxes imposed on them fluctuated during the seventeenth century; prior to 1684 merchants had to pay a high tax on Icelandic wool and other domestic products but not on fish, and had to sell grain for a price less than could be made elsewhere; hence the Icelanders could sell little and there was little grain to be bought. After 1684 taxes on goods imported into Iceland were raised and on domestic goods for export lowered (as is mentioned in the novel), which was another policy that provided no benefit to the Icelanders. Further harmful policies at this time included laws preventing the Icelanders from trading with foreigners other than the Danes (such as the Dutch or English), as well as from doing any commercial business outside of their own district; examples of these various prohibitions are found in the novel.

  p. 4 Gunnar of Hlíðarendi is one of the heroes of Njáls saga (also known as Brennu-Njáls saga), which is considered by many to be the greatest of the medieval Icelandic sagas. Gunnar was regarded as the peerless hero of his age; he is renowned for his prowess and elegance, as well as for his dramatic death.

  p. 4 Bessastaðir, just south of Reykjavík, was the site of the Danish headquarters in Iceland, and is the current residence of the president of Iceland. The Þrælakista was a workhouse for criminals.

  p. 5 Hólmship: A ship that sailed to and from the trading station of Hólmur (Hólmurinn), which was set up at Reykjavík.

  p. 6 There was no farm named Fíflavellir in the Þingvellir area listed in the Icelandic census of 1703, though apparently there was a farm of that name, near Skjaldbreiður, at an earlier time.

  p. 6 The Elder Ballad of Pontus: Beginning in the fourteenth century, balladry, the composition and singing of heroic or romantic epic poems, was the most popular literary form in Iceland. Icelandic ballads were characterized by the use of intricate language and complex meters. The Ballad of Pontus (Icelandic Pontusrímur ) was composed in the sixteenth century by Magnús prúði (“the Courteous”), with additions by the legislator Pétur Einarsson and Reverend Ólafur Halldórsson. The ballad is based on the fourteenth-century French romantic epic Ponthus et la belle Sidoine. In this epic (which is derived from the older Anglo-Norman poem Horn et Rimenhild ), King Thibour of Galicia is defeated by a sultan’s son, but Thibour’s son Ponthus, along with other noblemen’s children, are sent into hiding in Brittany. Ponthus grows up at the court of the king of Brittany and falls in love with the king’s daughter, Sidoine, but in order to win her hand, and recover his kingdom in Galicia, he must undergo a number of dangerous adventures. The Elder Ballad of Pontus referred to in Iceland’s Bell is a creation of Laxness: Jón Hreggviðsson is inspired by the heroic Pontus, but the verses he sings are taken mostly, and anachronistically, from other nineteenth-century ballads.

  p. 6 Axlar-Björn is an infamous Icelandic criminal who lived at Öxl on Snæfellsnes. He killed eighteen people, mostly travelers to whom he had granted hospitality, and sunk their bodies in a pond near his homefield; he was executed in 1596.

  p. 8 The westernmost point on the Akranes peninsula, where the town of Akranes is now located, had the old name of Skagi (later changed to Skipaskagi). Modern residents of Akranes are often called “Skagamenn” (people from Skagi). In Iceland’s Bell Akranes and Skagi, as well as the name of Jón Hreggviðsson’s farm, Rein, are used interchangeably as the names of Jón Hreggviðsson’s home. When Laxness writes of Jón Hreggviðsson going “out to Skagi” he means the farmer goes west from his farm toward the headland.

  p. 8 The “six-cow inventory” (in Icelandic, sex kvígildi ) is a term for the value of the farm. The farm that Jón Hreggviðsson inherits comes with chattel to the value of six cows, that is, either six cows or thirty-six sheep, or a combination of both.

  p. 8 Skálholt (in southern Iceland), where much of the action of the novel takes place (especially in the second part), is the site of the episcopal see in Iceland, established in 1056 by Iceland’s first bishop, Ísleifur Gizurarson. A second episcopal see was established at Hólar in the north in 1106 by Ísleifur’s son Gizurr.

  p. 10 Rixdollar (Danish rigsdaler): A type of Danish silver currency.

  p. 12 Wadmal (Icelandic vaðmál): Thick, woolen homespun cloth (used as payment in Scandinavi
an countries before coined gold and silver came into use).

  p. 13 Brennivín: A distilled spirit flavored with angelica root or caraway seeds.

  p. 18 Beneficium (Latin): Assistance.

  p. 19 Njáll Þorgeirsson is the eponymous hero of Njáls saga. He was a great lawyer and, according to the saga, tried everything he could to maintain peace in Iceland, though in the year 1011 he was finally burned alive in his own home along with his family.

  p. 19 The Graduale is a book of plainsong that gives the words and music to the parts of the mass sung by the choir. The Kross School Hymns were actually composed by Reverend Jón Einarsson in the late seventeenth century. The character of Reverend Halldór from Presthólar is also based upon the well-known psalmist Reverend Sigurður Jónsson of Presthólar (1590–1661).

  p. 20 Örvar-Oddur is the eponymous hero of Örvar-Odds saga (Arrow-Oddur’s saga), one of the so-called legendary sagas (in Icelandic, fornaldarsögur; these are mainly fantastical tales composed during the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries). He traveled widely, battling with giants and sorcerers, and did indeed live to be three hundred years old. Haraldur hilditönn (Danish hildetand, “Battletooth”) was a semi-legendary eighth-century Danish king who was purportedly killed by the god Óðinn at the Battle of Bråvalla; for the story, see for instance the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus (ca. 1150–ca. 1220).

  p. 22 Auro carior (Latin): More precious than gold.

  p. 22 Involucra (Latin): Bindings; wrapping.

  p. 23 Professor Antiquitatum (Latin): Professor of Antiquities.

  p. 24 Membranum (Latin): Parchment.

  p. 24 Pretiosissima, thesaurus, cimelium (Latin): Most precious, a treasure, a jewel.

  p. 24 The name Skálda, in Old Norse paleographical studies, is normally used for a collection of philological treatises, dating from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, that are attached as an appendix to the Ormsbók manuscript of the Edda of Snorri Sturluson (1178–1241). Two texts in Icelandic literature bear the name Edda: the first, the Poetic Edda (referred to also as the Elder or Sæmundar Edda), is a collection of mythological and heroic poems recorded in Iceland probably in the twelfth century. Snorri’s Edda (also referred to as the Younger or Prose Edda) uses older Eddaic poems as the foundation for a treatise on poetry consisting of three main parts: Gylfaginning (mythological tales), Skáldskaparmál (poetical arts, primarily diction), and Háttatál (poetic meters); the second part, Skáldskaparmál, is also often referred to as Skálda. Arnas Arnæus’s description of the Skálda manuscript that he finds in Jón Hreggviðsson’s house as containing the most beautiful poems in the northern hemisphere suggests that it contains specimens of Eddaic poems, although the nonspecific description suggests that this manuscript should be taken as a representative of any or all of the precious manuscripts that preserve the literature of the ancient Icelanders (and, as is suggested in the novel, the soul of the Nordic lands).

  p. 25 Minutissima particula (Latin): The slightest particle.

  p. 25 Sine exemplo (Latin): Unique; exceptional; phenomenal.

  p. 25 Antiqui (Latin): Antiquity; days of old.

  p. 25 Litteras (Latin): Literature, letters.

  p. 31 Bishop Jón Arason (1484–1550) was the last Catholic bishop of Hólar (see note to pages 3 and 8 above), and a great opponent of the Lutherans. The Danes beheaded him at Skálholt on November 7, 1550.

  p. 31 Þórir Steinfinnsson jökull (“Glacier”) was a character in Sturlunga saga (thirteenth century). He received a mortal wound at the battle of Örlygsstaðir and recited a stoic verse just before he died.

  p. 33 Bremerholm: Beginning in 1620, dangerous male criminals were sentenced to hard labor at the naval dockyards at Bremerholm in Copenhagen.

  p. 33 Suðurnes is the name of Iceland’s southwesternmost peninsula, although in older days the name was used to indicate all of the area in the southern part of Faxaflói (including Romshvalanes, Álftanes, and Seltjarnarnes).

  p. 35 A sending is a ghost conjured and sent by a sorcerer to an enemy; there are many examples of these in Icelandic folktales.

  p. 38 Moving days (Icelandic fardagar): Four days at the end of May when working folk in Iceland changed abodes.

  p. 38 Grótta is the westernmost tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula.

  p. 38 Hólmur: see note for page 5.

  p. 42 Egill Skallagrímsson is the eponymous hero of Egils saga. He is considered by many to have been the greatest Viking and poet to have lived in Iceland.

  p. 43 Parce nobis domine (Latin): Spare us, O Lord.

  p. 46 Bakkaship: A merchant ship that sailed to and from the trading station of Eyrarbakki in southern Iceland.

  p. 48 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was beheaded February 8, 1587.

  p. 56 Credo in unum Deum (Latin): I believe in one God.

  p. 56 I can conjugate “amo” in most modi and tempora: I can conjugate “to love” in most moods and tenses.

  p. 60 Hallgerður langbrók (“Long-breech”) was the wife of Gunnar of Hlíðarendi, and one of the main characters of Njáls saga. She was well-known for her independent-mindedness.

  p. 61 Drekkingarhylur: Drowning Pool, the name of the pool in Almannagjá where women were drowned (primarily for the crimes of adultery, incest, and infanticide).

  p. 62 Amo, etc. (Latin): I love, you love, he loves, we love, you (two) love, they love.

  p. 63 Brynjólfur Sveinsson (1605–1675) was bishop in Skálholt. His daughter Ragnheiður had a son by a man named Daði Halldórsson, but nine months earlier the bishop had made her swear an oath that she was a virgin.

  p. 65 Curae (Latin): Concerns.

  p. 65 Property in Iceland was for a long time taxed by “hundreds,” a term for the value of the land, and reckoned according to an old duodecimal hundred, that is 12 x 10 = 120.

  p. 71 Brennugjá: Burning Ravine, the ravine at Þingvellir where men were burned (for sorcery).

  p. 72 Skyr: A unique Icelandic milk product, curdled and fermented skimmed milk.

  p. 73 Illugi Gríðarfóstri (“Gríður’s Foster-son”) was a great champion who freed the troll-woman Gríður and her daughter Hildur from a spell (as told in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra, one of the fornaldarsögur; see note to page 20 above).

  p. 86 Welschland: Normandy.

  p. 100 Aus Ijsland buertig (Low German): from Iceland.

  p. 107 Doctus in Veteri Lingua Septentrionali (Latin): Doctor in Old Norse. Scientia mirabilium rerum (Latin): The study of marvels.

  p. 108 Assessor Consistorii, Professor Philosophiae et Antiquitatum Danicarum (Latin): Assessor at the Consistory (the Danish high court), Professor of Philosophy and Danish Antiquities.

  p. 108 The “mistress of the house,” Arnas Arnæus’s wife, although described in fairly grotesque terms, is based on the historical Mette Fischer, a rich widow ten years older than Árni Magnússon whom he married in 1709.

  p. 108 Famulus in antiquitates (Latin): Servant in the study of antiquities. Antiquitas, antiquitates, antiquitatum, antiquitatibus (Latin): Study of antiquities.

  p. 108 Spanish Jacket: A barrel-shaped device used for confining and humiliating prisoners.

  p. 109 Mirabilia (Latin): Marvels; the miraculous.

  p. 110 De Gigantibus Islandiae (Latin): Concerning Iceland’s Trolls.

  p. 110 Physica Islandica (Latin): Icelandic Natural History .

  p. 112 The men of Hrafnista were the descendants of Ketill hængur (“Trout”), a famous Icelandic settler; he is described in the thirteenth-century Landnámabók (Book of Settlements ) and Egils saga. Hálfdán Brönufóstri (“Brana’s Foster-son”), was a Danish prince who fled from Vikings and met the troll-woman Brana, who helped him regain his kingdom (as told in Hálfdánar saga Brönufóstra, another of the fornaldarsögur mentioned above).

  p. 112 Historia Literaria (Latin): History of Literature.

  p. 112 Bibliothèque (French): Library.

  p. 123 Grímur kögur (“Fringe”) lived during the Age of Settlements (ninth
to tenth centuries). The Landnámabók relates how his sons killed the chieftain Ljótur Þorgrímsson the Wise. (In the story, when Ljótur asks a man named Gestur Oddleifsson if the earth-lice, the sons of Grímur kögur, will cause his death, Gestur replies, “A hungry louse bites hard.”)

  p. 124 Gyldenløve is Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve (1678–1719), a son of Christian V of Denmark.

  p. 124 Wars fought by Sweden and Denmark at the time of this novel include the Scanian War of 1675–1679 and the Great Northern War of 1700–1721. In the latter, Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland were allied against Sweden in an attempt to break Swedish supremacy in the Baltic; in 1700 the Swedes landed in Sjaelland and forced Denmark out of the war until 1709.

  p. 128 Boot-Katrin: A joking reference to one of the king’s mistresses.

  p. 129 Special-dollar (Danish speciedaler): Danish silver currency worth two rixdollars.

  p. 133 Salvum conductum (Latin): Safe-conduct.

  p. 137 Sigurður, a figure from ancient Germanic legend, is one of the heroes of Völsunga saga (thirteenth century) and the Völsung cycle of heroic poems in the Poetic Edda (see note for page 24 above). Sigurður slew the dragon Fáfnir, who guarded the Rhinegold.

  p. 138 Bakki: Eyrarbakki.

  p. 139 Blanda: Watered-down sour whey.

  p. 140 The Book of Seven Words: A book of sermons, Sjö predikanir út af þeim sjö orðum drottins vors Jesú Kristi (Seven Sermons on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ), written by Bishop Jón Vídalín and printed at Hólar, 1716.

  p. 143 Grammatica (Latin): Grammar, linguistics, philology.

  p. 144 Tunga: Bræðratunga.

  p. 144 Skallagrímur: Skallagrímur Kveldúlfsson, the father of the famous poet and warrior Egill Skallagrímsson. Skallagrímur is described in Egils saga as being a great craftsman.