Jóhann Sigurjónsson's Fjalla-Eyvindur: Source, Chronology, and Geography

Abstract

That Jóhann Sigurjónsson's Fjalla-Eyvindur (“Eyvindur of the Mountains”) is “one of the most powerful of modern dramas” and a great classic of modern Icelandic literature is scarcely open to question. In the face of what appears to have been an inadequate performance, an anonymous American critic wrote nearly a quarter of a century ago that the play had “something akin to Synge in the poetry of its naturalism, and something akin to Wagner in the huge scale of its simplified plot.” It has enjoyed popular success on the stage of Iceland, continental Scandinavia, and Germany; it has served as the subject of what one is given to understand was an exceptionally beautiful and impressive Swedish silent film. The play has been relatively neglected in the English-speaking world; whether it is “too stark, relentless and cold to have a popular success in the commercial theater of Broadway” is an interesting matter of speculation. In any event, this heroic pastoral tragedy, cherished classic of Icelanders, ranks high among examples of twentieth-century dramatic art and is a work worthy of much study and reflection.