Sögueyjan Ísland - Video of the Month

Impressions – Frankfurt Book Fair 2011

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:16:00 +0000

Impressions from five eventful days as the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011.

8 ancient manuscripts arrive at the Schirn

Tue, 4 Oct 2011 15:48:00 +0000

Gabríela Friðriksdóttir's “Crepusculum” opened at the Schirn Kunsthalle on September 28, and features eight ancient manuscripts from Iceland in an entirely new context.

Home libraries in Frankfurt

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:27:00 +0000

The Guest of Honour Pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011 will feature a video installation, showing Icelanders reading from their favourite books in their homes. Here is a short preview of what to expect.

New translations of The Sagas of Icelanders

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:00:00 +0000

“This edition is intended for readers,” says Kristof Magnusson of a new German translation of The Sagas of Icelanders, due out this fall with the publishing house S. Fischer Verlag.

Soul capsules

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:07:00 +0000

“Working with the Icelandic manuscripts is like handling mummies from the British Museum,” says the artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir.

Halldór Laxness

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:45:00 +0000

“On this occasion, I think of my book-loving country, Iceland, which has kept its watchful eye on me ever since I took my first steps as an author,” said Halldór Laxness when he returned to Iceland with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.

Literature that lasts

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:01:00 +0000

“I believe that we need poetry, if we want to come through the storm,” said the author Thor Vilhjálmsson in an interview with Sagenhaftes Island, shortly before his death.

In the poet's house

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:04:00 +0000

Gljúfrasteinn, formerly the residence of Halldór Laxness, now a museum and cultural center, often houses readings during the darkest winter months. Sagenhaftes Island dropped in on one such reading.

Where the Christmas books come from

Thu, 9 Dec 2010 09:36:00 +0000

Roughly 70-80% of Iceland's annual book output is probably printed around this time of year,” says Jón Ómar Erlingsson, manager of the print company Oddi.

Last Days of the Arctic

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:14:00 +0000

“The old woman's face in the window contained a millennium of Greenland's history,” says the photographer Ragnar Axelsson. His newest book, Last Days of the Arctic, is a collection of photographs taken in Greenland.

Small island, big stories

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:23:00 +0000

“My mother was a poor woman, who had nothing to give me but poetry – that was all she owned, all she had,” begins a passage by the poet Þorsteinn frá Hamri, included in Iceland's introductory film to the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair.

The moment before the fight

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:32:00 +0000

“Much blood was spilled here on Haugsnes,” says farmer and former policeman Sigurður Hansen, who – using 450-pound boulders – has reconstructed the most monumental battle in Icelandic history.

The Saga-Steads of Collingwood & Ingólfsson

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:36:00 +0000

In 1897, antiquarian and artist W. G. Collingwood set out on a journey of western Iceland. A century later, photographer Einar Falur Ingólfsson retraces the Victorian's footsteps.

Journey to the center of the sagas

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 12:59:00 +0000

Last June, a bi-national troupe of six writers, spoken-word artists and performers traveled around Iceland, seeking to be inspired by the country's landscapes and literary heritage.

It's a search for a story

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 08:58:00 +0000

Author Auður Jónsdóttir reads from an unpublished work, Kæra Auður Drauma, at her home in Reykjavík.

The beautiful game

Thu, 20 May 2010 12:18:00 +0000

“If people sense that you respect them and their culture, the possibilities are endless,” says photographer Páll Stefánsson of his newest book, Africa – The Future of Football.

I'm just a shepherd

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:25:00 +0000

"I'm just a shepherd who has lost his flock" says writer Jón Kalman Stefánsson. Although he has released two major novels in recent years – Himnaríki og Helvíti / Heaven and Hell and Harmur englanna / Sorrow of Angels – he remains adamantly silent on his current work-in-progress.

Kristín & the Women

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:32:00 +0000

“I was a bit shaky when I was embroidering the first picture,” says artist Kristín Gunnlaugsdóttir, who recently showed new pictures in Reykjavík: not painted, but embroidered on coarse canvas.

Medieval manuscripts to Frankfurt?

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Some of Iceland's priceless medieval manuscripts, stored in the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavík, may be included in the Icelandic exhibition at the Frankfurt Book Fair next year.

Artist Eggert Pétursson

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 13:35:00 +0000

Small delicate flowers in full size. The artitist's glorious flower pictures have recently been re-published.

Books for Christmas!

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:07:00 +0000

Christmas doesn’t just mean pretty lights, cake and feasting – but Christmas books!

The translator Karl-Ludwig Wetzig

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Gunnar Gunnarsson is by no means a forgotten writer. Karl-Ludwig Wetzig has just completed his German translation of Gunnar’s Svartfugl/The Black Cliffs/Schwarze Vögel, a novel based partly on the author’s own complicated person life.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:01:00 +0000

"It would be best to get reviews by E-mail." Crime novelist Yrsa Sigurðardóttir sits with silver-varnished fingernails at home on her sofa, writing up Chapter 25 of her latest crime story.

Þórarinn Eldjárn

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:01:00 +0000

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Einar Már Guðmundsson - 2

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:14:00 +0000

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Einar Már Guðmundsson

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:06:00 +0000

"WHERE NOW IS THE RAIN SHOWER OF LIBERATION?"

Novelist and poet Einar Már Guðmundsson reads from his new book, Hvíta Bókin/The White Book, at Café Rosenberg in Reykjavík.

Gusgus

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In September the band GusGus will be issuing its latest CD, 24/7.

Birgir, Daníel and President Bongo talk to Þorsteinn J. about their new CD, and the five tracks, all much longer than the average pop song.

Elín Hansdóttir

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

"Modernity arrived quite rapidly in Iceland, which called for a new facade," Says artist Elín Hansdóttir. Her exhibition casts a new, historical light on the current financial crisis in Iceland.

Einar Kárason

Mon, 11 May 2009 13:55:00 +0000

“It is the specialty of novelists to see the unique in every person”
Einar Kárason, author of Ofsi/Rage, winner of the Icelandic Literary Award 2008.

Gljúfrasteinn

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:44:00 +0000

The Laxness Museum