Bio
Stefán Hörður Grímsson was born in Hafnarfjörður, March 31, 1919. He studied at Laugarvatnsskóli and the Reykjavík Municipal Centre for Adult Education. He worked in the field of agriculture and as a sailor, tought swimming and worked as a night watchman.
Stefán Hörður’s first book of poetry, Glugginn snýr í norður (The Window Faces North), appeared in 1946, and is viewed as a typical beginners work. The author follows well trodden paths in form and expression, and is under clear influence from older poets. Already in his second book of poetry, Svartálfadans (Goblindance), published in 1951, another tone is apparent. The collection gained immediate attention and was much admired, and critics claimed that with these new poems Stefán Hörður emerged as a mature modernist poet. Not a prolific poet, Stefán Hörður waited nineteen years, untill 1970, to publish his third book of poetry, Hliðin á sléttunni (Gates to the Prairy). Again, he made his readers wait and Farvegir (Courses) appeared eleven years later, in 1981. In 1987 he published Tengsl (Connections), which was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 1989. That same year, Stefáns sixth book of poetry, Yfir heiðan morgun (Over the Clear Morning), came out and was awarded the Icelandic Literature Prize. Yfir heiðann morgun was the first book to receive this award. Stefán Hörður’s poetry has been translated to numerous languages and published in collections in Iceland and abroad.
Stefán Hörður Grímsson passed away on September 18, 2002. He was 83 years old.
Publisher: Mál og menning.
Frá höfundi
Játning
Ég strika yfir þetta ljóð sem ég hef skrifað á
þessa hvítu örk. Ég strika yfir þetta ljóð sem
er af orðum gert, orðum sem áttu að vera um
þig eins og þetta ljóð. En hefði svo verið mundi
þessi hvíta örk hafa breytzt í gullinn söng.
Úr Hliðin á Sléttunni
About the Author
The Restless Calm. On the Poetry of Stefán Hörður Grímsson
Stefán Hörður Grímsson was eleven years old when he first saw a book with song lyrics. The book was Íslensk söngbók (An Icelandic Songbook), which was reprinted a few times during the first half of the 20th century. By that time he had begun to write poetry himself, he said in an interview in the magazine Birtingur in 1959. There he also said that he acquired his first poetry book, Fagra veröld (Beautiful World) by Tómas Guðmundsson, when he was 14 years old. “Fagra veröld lit such a fire in me that I burned in its flames for many years.” Early on, Stefán was also introduced to the poetry of Steinn Steinarr and began himself to experiment with un-metered poetry. From a young age, he also wrote short stories and magazine stories, and those had appeared in magazines before his first book of poetry was published.
Stefán Hörður grew up in poverty; orphaned at a young age. Hard labour in farming and fishing is not likely to stimulate an urge for writing, but apparently it cannot stem it either. This much is certain: the seaman Stefán Hörður Grímsson was one of the pioneers of modern Icelandic poetry in the 20th century; one of the “atomic poets”, the oldest of a group of young men who concluded the so-called form revolution in the mid-twentieth century.
In his early twenties, during the winter fishing season of 1943, Stefán Hörður was in the Westman Islands. He sent a poem, “Gamall fiskimaður” (“An Old Fisherman”), to the magazine Helgafell and it was published in the summer issue that year. This was his first printed poem, a traditional narrative poem about the life and horizon of a fisherman; the style is eloquent and different from the style of his later poems.
Hardly a common preoccupation at sea, the writing of lyrical poetry was one of Stefán Hörður’s activities in the fishing season, in the midst of the fishing frenzy. A few of the poems in his earlier books are set directly in that environment, “Síldarminning” (“Herring Remembered”) for instance, which he wrote when he was eighteen years old aboard a trawler, returning from a herring fishing expedition. In Stefán’s poems the sea is not flat and blue as a land-dweller sees it. It is perceived as violent and threatening by the seaman writing about it, caught in the whirlwind of his job. The poem “Lóðabátur” (“Trawler Boat”) is peculiar in its form and approach, with breathtaking images of the deck, bow, winch, sea foam and the deep seas, and in this bubbling environment the ship’s crew is rather unsightly and powerless:
Þilfar: roðgul lík á dökkum fjölum
Stafn: sem heggur í sundur báruhryggi
Spil: sem tekur undir við norðanvindinn
Háseti: sá sem togar í spotta af snæri
Formaður: bátsins ljótasti maður í glugga.
Löðrið yfir og rifinn skýjaflóki.
Undir er djúpið og þess bleiku skógar.(Deck: red-yellow bodies on dark boards
Bow: that which chops the spine of waves in two
Winch: that which sings along with the northern wind
Deckhand: the one who pulls a string of a chord
Foreman: the ugliest man of the boat in a window.
The foam above and a torn tangle of clouds.
Beneath is the deep and its pale woods.)(From the book Svartálfadans (Dance of the Goblins))
Stefán Hörður did not write solely about seafaring when he was fishing; one of his best known nature poems, “Vetrardagur” (“Winter Day”), was for instance written on a fishing boat from Grindavík while the line was being pulled in.
Stefán Hörður’s first book of poems, Glugginn snýr í norður (The Window Faces North), came out in 1946. Most of these early poems are metered. Some of them show a neo-romantic influence but others are reminiscent of the attitude and expression of the poems of Steinn Steinarr. There are also a few free-verse poems in the book, and many of these were written by Stefán in his late teens. The poems show that they were written at a crossroads by a young poet trying to find his way on the poetic plains.
Stefán Hörður’s second book of poetry, Svartálfadans (Dance of the Goblins), came out in 1951, and in the five years since his first book came out, his poetry had been transformed. Here the poems are without alliteration and rhyme but many of them have a steady rhythm. “Kvöldvísur um sumarmál” (“Evening songs at the Beginning of Summer”) is one; it appeared in a magazine as early as 1948 and finishes with this stanza:
Rökkur fellur á augu
kvöldsins og önnur blárri
handan við glötuð vor
verður að einu og rennur
saman kvöldið og mynd þín
hljóð og fögur sem minning
hrein og hvít eins og bæn.(Twilight falls on the eyes
of the evening and other bluer
beyond lost spring-times
becomes one and merges
the evening and your image
quiet and beautiful as a memory
pure and white as a prayer.)
In Svartálfadans Stefán Hörður has adopted a modernist style of expression with a rich visual sense and a personal, low-key style which generally is rather cool and quiet on the surface but turns out to be hot and bubbling underneath. The poet has developed and polished this style of poetry in the four books he has published since. The title poem of the book begins:
Lifrauð sólkringlan viðrar dreglana
út um syngjandi hafflötinn
og nóttin kemur í sínum gamla vagni
yfir blátt fjall.
Við blöndum kvöldskininu í fölgult vínið
og bíðum eftir nóttinni sem er að koma.(The dark-red sun disc airs out the runners
across the singing ocean plane
and night comes in her old carriage
over a blue mountain.
We mix the evening glow into the pale yellow wine
and wait for the night which is coming.)
One of the poems in Svartálfadans (Dance of the Goblins), entitled “Bifreiðin sem hemlar hjá rjóðrinu” (“The Car that Brakes by the Clearing”), had appeared before in the literary magazine Tímarit Máls og menningar in 1949, only three years after the publication of Stefán’s first book. This is one of the poems which show how quickly Stefán Hörður adopted a modernist, thematically unified style coupled with a rich visual sense. The poem also shows a simultaneous view to the present and the past, a sense of time which would come to characterize most of his poems.
Stefán Hörður’s third book of poetry, Hliðin á sléttunni (The Gates on the Plain, 1970), did not come out until 19 years later. It only contains 16 poems; six of them prose. The visual language in many of these poems is more obscure than before, while world political themes and criticism are more prominent here than in the earlier books. The language is restrained but direct, and the imagery is strong and at times unexpected. 1970 also saw the publication of a revised edition of Svartálfadans. In 1979 Stefán Hörður published an anthology of his three first poetry books in one book, Ljóð (Poems), featuring a revised and shortened version of his first.
Again, more than a decade went by before Stefán Hörður published another poetry book. The ninth decade of the 20th century saw the beginning of the most fertile period in his poetry; as he published three books which greatly elevated his status as a poet and which were all very well received. These were Farvegir (Channels, 1981), Tengsl (Connections, 1987) og Yfir heiðan morgun (Over a Clear Morning, 1989).
Poetic style
Stefán Hörður’s poetry comes in a variety of forms, but most of the poems are succinct. The shortest one is only four words (“Þróun” (“Evolution”) in Farvegir), and thematic unity or precision is one of his main stylistic traits. He has also written some prose poems which can be found in his last four books. In those books he has also for the most part abandoned the rhythm which characterized many of the poems in the first two books, although it still appears occasionally, as does traditional verse.
Stefán Hörður developed his own unique style early on. The language is sophisticated and precise, but unpretentious. A close reading often reveals that the simple language and modest attitude of the poems amplifies the fiery temperament and emotional turmoil underneath. An inventiveness in creating new words is another of Stefán’s stylistic traits. His compound neologisms fit well into the Icelandic language, as does their universal and descriptive sense, for instance Þögnuðuholt (Silenced-hills), hvirfilvængur (skullwing), hugðarsegl (fancysail), fjallasólbrá (mountainsunglitter), meinguðir (maldeities), kvöldroðastúlka (eveningglowgirl, ungskógur (youngwood). This original word construction is of course closely related to Stefán Hörður’s visual sense, and his poems are construed with strange metaphors. The images are often painted in few, clear lines and are polished and restrained when it comes to words and colours. Also, they are sometimes obscure and the obscurity may at first sight seem to counteract the clarity. Yet this can make them all the more haunting for the reader until s/he has come to some understanding or suspicion – which may lack any logical definition but be nonetheless an acceptable conclusion. When one reads deeper beneath the stoic surface, one often finds strong passions, emotions and sometimes a radical critique. No big words are used here; everything that needs to be said is expressed through clear images and a tempered language which never calls attention to itself. Yet nothing is simple, raw or taken for granted.
Nature
Nature in all her glory and all her denigration is a subject matter close to Stefán Hörður’s heart. He could be considered the first and only influential environmentalist poet in Iceland. In his poems there is an emphasis on respecting nature’s ecosystem and he is a fearless campaigner for the preservation of original natural treasures but at the same time it is impossible not to criticize the main saboteur, man himself. He is an animal of arrogance, an animal of weapons, as Stefán writes in the poem “Mögn” (“Powers”) from Yfir heiðan morgun. He is the “most invasive pest of the earth” because of his tendency to “destroy everything, dead and living”, it says in the poem “Eindagar” (“Due Dates”) from Hliðin á sléttunni. Other poems in this vein which count among the most memorable are “Þögnuðuholt” (from Tengsl) and “Árablöð” (“Oarleaves”) (from Yfir heiðan morgun). Silenced-hills is a desolate place, a wind-torn country, the forest, with its fragrance and colour, is gone, the bird song silenced. In this land, one hikes across naked bluffs, a rocky terrain and windswept plains; we are reminded that man is “[…] well on his way / to burn down everything on the horizon / and all bridges behind him”. “Árablöð” contains a similar warning. When the forest lived:
Þá sungu merkur;
sungu -
sagt er
í skjölum.(Then the fields sang;
sang -
according to
manuscripts.)
But now we find that “there is a rustling / of documents. // A rustling / akin to wilted flowers / when springs go dry.” This is how the “forest henchmen” have treated nature’s treasures.
Stefán’s nature poems are by no means all “preservation poems”. Just as memorable are his poems which convey a perception of the beauty and magic of nature and paint an unusual picture of life in its kingdom. Thus, “we mix the evening glow into the pale yellow wine” or “Girl on a blue horse / waves by the narrow footpath”. Those who drove the “bright arch of Hringbraut road […] one beautiful January day […] when the frosts raged with adventures”. And the men who hike “across the frozen snowfield / with mountains on their shoulders”. Man always has his place in this nature lyricism, as it is the connection between man and nature which is crucial to the welfare of both. The experience of nature can have an air of romanticism in some of the poems, although it arouses strong passions and not peacefulness in the poetic “I”, as in “Næturgrið” (“Night Shelter”):
Jarðneska kyrrð vertu mér náðug um stund.
Og vektu blóð minni leyndaræð
og láttu dropa hníga sem vesæla þakkarfórn
í mjúkan svörð.
Skógarhvíld veittu mér friðlausa ró
er ég vakna
og fylltu brjóst mitt útþrá sem löngum:
Minni gjöfulu heimþrá!(Earthly calm give me respite for a while.
And open up my secret vein
and let the drops fall as a small offering
into soft ground.
Forest retreat bestow on me a restless calm
when I awake
and fill my breast with an urge to be outward bound as before:
My fertile homesickness!)(From the book Yfir heiðan morgun)
Stefán Hörður often pitches peaceful and colourful earthly beauty against the destruction of nature. His poems are inhabited by flowers, birds, butterflies – the small, buzzing life; the far-flying sparrow, whose survival and joy we depend on entirely, is greeted here by the poet:
Steindepill steindepill
á þessari stundu
þolir bringa mín engan söng
nema þinn.(Wheatear wheatear
in this moment
my breast cannot stand any song
but yours.)(From the book Tengsl)
Love
Human relations, and love in particular, have always been a vital element of Stefán Hörður’s poetry. The love poems are written in such a way that they are at once quiet and emotional. They do not describe an eternal, steadfast love, or shouted declarations. This is love which is marked by fickleness, and yet is both precious and desirable:
Ó, nornamáttur haltu fram á haust
hverflyndum börnum tveim á þessum stað(Oh witchcraft please keep until Autumn
two fickle children in this place)
is a metered stanza from the poem “Sumar enn” (“Summer Yet”) from Yfir heiðan morgun. Nothing is steadfast, the fire of love will turn to ashes before you know it, because “Adventures / are flammable / both dead and alive” as it says in the poem “Að farga minningu” (“To Kill a Memory”) from Tengsl; even a memory can turn to ashes when lovers are reunited. Man and love in nature’s symbolism, the couple holding hands over a clear morning are haunting motifs from Stefán Hörður’s poems: “They walked together along the pavement / holding hands against a rising sun” says in the poem “Þau” (“They”) from Yfir heiðan morgun.
I mentioned before the poem “Eindagar” (“Due Dates”), which presents a sharp criticism on the destructive dominance of the beast of man. The final words of the poem are an appeal and a challenge, where values diametrically opposed to this destruction are put forward:
Lofið varir ljóðið og ástina
fram á yztu nöf.(Praise lips poetry and love
all the way to the edge.)
Attitude
Stefán Hörður is a sceptic with a broad horizon. In his existential poems and commentaries he looks at the world as a whole, analysing modern man and his behaviour. Sometimes the poems are close-ups of reality and they are always thematically unified, revolving around one main image with an ambiguous meaning. The poems ask, ponder and make claims about some understanding of life, the human condition, man’s emotions and fate. One always feels that the poet means what he says and the poems clearly show that he has a lot to say. His poems carry a message for us all, reminding us that it is necessary to be respectful of the ecosystem as a whole. A very brief poem, entitled “Fyrirbæn” (“Prayer”) gives a example of this:
Regn ungskógi
sólskin ungskógi
sól og regn ungviði(Rainfall to the young wood
sunshine to the young wood
sun and rain to the young ones)(From the book Farvegir (Channels))
A critical person inevitably becomes convinced that many dangers lurk, both far and near, ad s/he does not trust in simple solutions. Such people are often branded as pessimists, often unfairly so. It is the gullible one whose narrow-mindedness makes him complacent and who sleepwalks into a disaster. A critical person looks for solutions and finds them. An example of Stefán’s scepticism and love of life can be found in the poem “Á tímum vor bjölludýra” (“In the Time of Us Beetles”),:
Smæðir og stærðir . . .
allt nær harla skammt.
Vísast að hið sanna
reynist hvergi satt
og sönnun engin sönn
né nokkur merking,
en forsendur liðist
hægt í andstæð tákn.
Njótum þess morgunglöð
að villast rétta leið!
Næsta fótmál skín í undrafirð.(Smallnesses and Sizes...
all goes quite a short way.
Presumably the true
proves nowhere to be true
and no proof true
nor any meaning,
but premises glide
slowly into opposing symbols.
Morning fresh let us enjoy
straying onto the right track!
The next footstep shines in a wondrous distance.)(From the book Yfir heiðan morgun)
Only six poetry collections by Stefán Hörður Grímsson have been published in his more than half a century long writing career. They were republished in an excellent collection of his complete works in 2000. Stefán Hörður is extremely meticulous and very demanding towards himself and his poetry and has only published a strictly chosen selection of his poems. He is an introvert who has avoided the limelight of the media, but his poems have been universally acclaimed by critics. He has not taken part in any media discussions; he lets his poems speak for him and say what is on his mind. Stefán Hörður has published one literary review, from which one can gain some insight into his views on poetry; it is a review of Kvæðabók (Book of Verse) by Hannes Pétursson (published in the magazine Birtingur, volume 4, 1955).
Stefán Hörður Grímsson received the Icelandic Literature Prize the first time it was awarded in 1990 [although awarded in 1990 it is the prize of 1989, ed.] for his poetry collection Yfir heiðan morgun. This acknowledgement turned over a new leaf in the history of Icelandic poetry. It was a confirmation of the cultural importance of a regeneration of Icelandic poetry which modernist poets had brought about. Stefán Hörður was furthermore acknowledged on an international level when seven poems by him were selected for a prestigious international anthology of modern poetry, Atlas der neuen Poesie (1995); this choice selection by the German Rowohlt publishing company contains poems by 65 poets, who write in 21 languages.
The poems of Stefán Hörður have been translated into many languages and appeared in anthologies, the French Choix de Poémes – selected and translated by Régis Boyer, the German Geahnter Flügelschlag – selected and translated by Wolfgang Schiffer and Franz Gíslason and the Danish Når det bliver morgen – selected by Erik Skyum-Nielsen. In the French and German anthologies the poems also appear in their original language.
© Eysteinn Þorvaldsson, 2002.
Translated by Vera Júlíusdóttir.
Awards
1989 - The Icelandic Literature Prize: Yfir heiðan morgun (Over a Clear Morning)
1966 - The Icelandic Broadcasting Service Writer´s Fund
Nominations
1989 - The Nordic Council´s Literature Prize: Tengsl (Connections)
Poems in Poésie islandaise contemporaine
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