Halldór Laxness

Halldór Kiljan Laxness (born Halldór Guðjónsson) (April 23, 1902 - February 8, 1998) was a famous 20th century Icelandic author of such novels as Independent People, The Atom Station, Paradise Reclaimed, Iceland's Bell, The Fish Can Sing and World Light. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

Catholicism

In the end of 1922, Laxness joined an abbey in Clervaux, Luxembourg. The monks of the abbey, named Abbaye St. Maurice et St. Maur, followed the rules of Saint Benedict from Nursia. Laxness was baptised and confirmed in Catholicism early in 1923. It was at that occasion he adopted the family name Laxness and added Kiljan after his first name, Halldór. Killian was an Irish martyr and saint. (N.B. : Iceland is one of the few countries in the world which retains the "patronymic" tradition under which people do not usually bear "family surnames" but instead are called "X son of Y" or "X daughter of Y". Hence his original name, Halldór Guðjónsson, meant "Halldór son of Guðjón" just as his own parents' names meant, respectively, "Sigríður daugher of Halldór" and "Guðjón son of Helga".)

Related Topics:
1922 - Abbey - Clervaux - Luxembourg - Nursia - Catholicism - 1923 - Killian - Irish - Martyr - Saint

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Inside the walls of the abbey, he practised self-study, read books, studied French, Latin, theology and philosophy. It was also there that the story Undir Helgahnjúk, which was published in 1924, was written. Laxness published the book under his new name; Halldór Kiljan Laxness.

Related Topics:
French - Latin - Theology - Philosophy - 1924

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Inside the abbey Laxness became devout and even orthodox. Soon after his baptism, he even became a member of a group which prayed for reversion of the Nordic countries back to Catholicism.

Related Topics:
Orthodox - Nordic countries - Catholicism

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Laxness wrote of his Catholicism in the book Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír, published in 1927.

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