Giacomo Leopardi was an Italian poet and philosopher and he is highly considered and his life and works are teached in schools. Probably the first time i heard about Iceland was from one of his works a very pessimistic text about life and how nature doesn’t gives a F about humans
Now I visited Iceland, have friends there and might get a work there and it’s interesting to me to re-read that text after years! (there is a funny totally 100% accurate description about Icelandic summer)
The author never left his hometown (barely his home) and lived all his life reading books so I am amazed that he found a book about Iceland in the 1800s papal state and somehow the description of the Icelandic weather wasn’t even accurate.
It gives me some meme vibes his text tho lol
I leave the link to a translated version so if someone is interested in reading it!
[translation! ](https://digilander.libero.it/il_leopardi/translate_english/leopardi_dialogue_between_nature_and_a_icelander.html)
3 comments
Btw guys this author is known for Cosmic Pessimism.
So yaaa that’s his mood in every poem or text lol
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to recall the name of this work for months and it was driving me nuts! Thank you so much for bringing it up—I remember really enjoying reading this in my world literature class.
European travellers’ accounts of Iceland through the centuries tended to be extremely negative, deriding it as a bit of a shithole (not entirely wrong). Its place in the Christian cosmology was also questionable given the relationship between the devil and fiery volcanic places. I expect Mr Leopardi based his ideas of the country on some of those accounts.
It’s not until much later, 19th to 20th centuries, that there are more scientifically minded visitors going on expeditions and marvelling at its unique natural phenomena, where Iceland’s image becomes more romantic.