Þórbergur Þórðarson Books

The Stones Speak is Thórbergur Thórdarson's elegiac portrayal of his childhood and youth on the farm of Hali in Suðursveit, an isolated rural area of southeastern Iceland, in the late 19th century. It reveals his reverence for the beauty of the Suðursveit countryside and his enduring love of his family and neighbours and their language, history, and culture. It is a sometimes witty and funny, sometimes wry and sad, sometimes contemplative and mystical, but always affectionate portrait of a time, a place and a people, all of which have long since passed away. The Stones Speak is not only an enchanting work of art, but also a vitally important witness to the way of life on an Icelandic turf farmstead in the 1890s.

"And the longer I compared my logical thoughts on the annihilation of love to my memories of two snow-white, silky-soft hands ... the more palpable was the conviction in my heart that my hands would be totally incapable of caressing the neck of any other woman but hers." ICELANDIC NOBILITY relates how Thórdarson falls in love with a fellow lodger during the winter of 1911-12. Too shy and awkward to court her then, he gets a labouring job in her home fjord the following summer to pursue his suit with her there. After a comical and disastrous attempt to woo his beloved, however, he flees north to the herring wharfs of northern Iceland, where he meets an array of extraordinary, colourful characters from whom he learns a great deal about the realities of love, life, sex and poetry. In September he sets sail for home, but leaves the ship in the far north of the Westfjords and embarks on the most famous walk in Icelandic literature (over 300 km), in order to ‘drop in' on his beloved on his way south. Will she be at home? How will she receive him? Will he be more adept at courting her this time? And is he indeed, telling us the whole truth?

1912 Nordisland: Thórbergur ist eigentlich Dichter. Aber von Gedichten kann man nicht leben. Also schuftet er in einer stinkenden Heringsfabrik. Ist der Gestank von Tran alles, was das Leben zu bieten hat? Die wahre Erfüllung findet Thórbergur in seinen philosophischen Grübeleien über die Unendlichkeit des Universums, die Liebe und das Leben in absoluter Freiheit. Erfüllung sucht er auch bei der himmlischen Hulda. Einen ganzen Sommer reist er ihr hinterher, um sie dann im entscheidenden Moment zu verpassen. Dabei will der ewig scheiternde Thórbergur nur eins: dem Leben ein wenig Glanz verleihen.