The leaves are falling from the trees at Gljúfrasteinn, the former home of Halldór Laxness — just like the Nobel laureate’s books are falling off the curricula of Icelandic schools.
mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
Seventy years after Halldór Laxness received the Nobel Prize in Literature and ninety years after the publication of Independent People, the Icelandic author’s works appear to be rapidly vanishing from high school reading lists.
Fewer than one-third of Icelandic upper secondary students now read a novel by Laxness as part of their required Icelandic coursework, and Independent People is taught in only four out of twenty-nine schools. Teachers say the decline in reading his works stems from reduced reading comprehension, a shrinking vocabulary, and a changing cultural climate.
A similar trend is seen with the Icelandic sagas, which are also read less frequently. However, many schools that no longer include a full Laxness novel still make an effort to introduce students to his work through poems, excerpts, and short stories.