Gunnarsson, Gunnar

Related Category: Scandinavian Literature: Biographies

(gü´när gü´närsôn), 1889–1975, Icelandic novelist. Gunnarsson lived abroad until 1939, when he returned to Iceland. Through his early works, written in Danish, he helped interest Europeans in Icelandic culture. Guest the One-eyed (4 vol., 1912–14; tr. 1920) is an Icelandic family saga; Seven Days' Darkness (1920, tr. 1930) concerns the problem of war. The Heath Laments (1940) and Sonata on the Sea (1954) are written in Icelandic. His masterpiece, the semiautobiographical Church on the Mountain (5 vol., 1923–28), illustrates his rich imagination and poetic skill. It was partly translated as Ships in the Sky (1938) and The Night and the Dream (1938). Among his later works that have been translated into English is Black Cliffs (1967).