¹ Sigfús Blöndal in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed.), xii, 55d (“Icelandic Literature”). For early favorable criticism outside of Scandinavia see Léon Pineau, French Nordist, “Un poète islandais: Jóhann Sigurjónsson,” La Revue (formerly Revue des Revues), cix (1914), 52-67, 188-201. See also Georg Brandes (without further reference) in Modern Icelandic Plays, etc. (American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1916, and later printings), pp. xi-xii; Louis Levy, “Islandsk Teater,” Tilskueren, xxxv, i (1918), 283-285; Carl Gad, “Jóhann Sigurjónsson,” Litteraturen: Nordens kritiske Revue, ii (1919), 359-371; W. W. Worster, “Four Icelandic Writers,” Edinburgh Review, ccxxxviii (1923), 306-309; and finally Gunnar Gunnarsson in the Preface (Formáli) to Rit eftir Jóhann Sigurjónsson (ed. K. E. Andrésson in the series “Mál og menning”), i (Rvík, 1940), xxxiv-xxxix, on Fjalla-Eyvindur.

² The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Mass.), 14 March 1917, p. 6, col. 5-6.

³ The Icelandic première was at Reykjavik, Christmas Day, 1912.

⁴ The world première of the first, subsequently considerably revised Danish version, Bjœrg Ejvind og hans Hustru, took place at the Dagmar Theater in Copenhagen in December 1911. This Danish version was translated into Swedish and played in Stockholm in 1913. According to the theater program of a distinguished festival performance at Reykjavik, 24 June 1930, it has also been played at Gothenburg, Oslo, Riga, and Helsingki. Anders Thuborg, “Ved Jóhan Sigurjónssons D⊘d,” Tilskueren, xxxvi, 2 (1919), 331, reports that Fjalla-Eyvindur has been translated into nine languages.

⁵ It was early played at the Hoftheater in Munich (Pineau, art. cit., p. 53) and has been played in Hamburg (Rvík theater program, cit. supra). According to Pineau, performances projected for a number of other German cities were interrupted, apparently, by the war of 1914-18.

⁶ Cp. also Gunnarsson, op. cit., p. xxxix.

⁷ I know of only three professional or semi-professional performances: at the Queen's Theatre, London, 14 June 1915, by the London (or Incorporated) Stage Society from a translation (unpublished?) by Sir Sydney Olivier (perhaps from the Danish?); at Jordan Hall, Boston (Mass.), 13 March 1917, by the “47 Workshop” of Harvard University from the American-Scandinavian Foundation translation (cit. supra), on which see The Christian Science Monitor (cit. supra); at the Greenwich Village Theatre, New York City, 1 February 1921, on which see The New York Times, 2 Feb. 1921, p. 14, col. 1, for a notice by Alexander Woolcott, who condemned the performance roundly but recommended the rôle of Halla to the great actress Julia Arthur. Professor Richard Beck of the University of North Dakota reports an amateur performance at Fargo (N.D.), on January 22, 1941; one suspects that there may have been other such.

⁸ The opinion of a distinguished American actress, communicated to me in a letter of rather recent date.

⁹ The head-word is in turn taken from Eyvindar s., §16, below. In the first, one-act Danish draft Sigurjónsson entitled the piece Sult (Hunger); see Gunnarsson, op. cit., p. xxxiv. Though particularly applicable only to the fourth act, this title might on the foreign stage be more suitable or more significant that “Eyvindur of the Mountains” or the like; it was, one might think, perhaps suggested by the title of Knut Hamsun's Sult (1888), translated into English as “Hunger.” Pineau (art. cit., p. 193) adopts a title “Halla, la femme du bandit,” which he says was accepted by the author—be that as it may. In Icelandic, to be sure, a name thus compounded with fjalla- “of the mountains” (cp. fjallaþjófur) immediately suggests an outlaw or more exactly an útilegumaÐur or bandit (see next note), but scarcely outside of Iceland. A more significant English title might be simply “The Outlaw.”

¹⁰ Not útlagasögur “outlaw-sagas,” applicable to the stories of Grettir and Gísli. An úlilegumaÐur is a person whose life is spent in útilega, i.e., life in the open, specifically in the wilds of the interior of Iceland, with the implication of banditry and brigandage. For many compounds with úlilegu- see S. Blöndal, Íslensk-dönsk orÐabók, also a few in Cleasby-Vigfússon. As a practical matter útilegumaÐur might be rendered “outlaw,” though technically this is not the same as skógarmaÐur or the (al)sekr of the older language. In English, at any rate, it seems desirable to draw this verbal distinction (“bandit” vs. “outlaw”) in discussing the literary genres and types of character (of very different legal status) in question.

¹¹ See Árnason, op. cit., ii, 160-162. In Fjalla-Eyvindur, Act i (11-12/107), útilegumenn, as frightening, half-legendary creatures, come in for brief mention; for a rather good account of these, dating from nearly a century ago, see Chas. S. Forbes, Iceland (London, 1860), pp. 164-177, also Fred. Metcalfe, The Oxonian in Iceland (London, 1861, later ed. 1867), pp. 99-103.

There have been other dramatic treatments of this material by Sigurjónsson's predecessors, none comparable to his: Matthias Jochumsson, Útilegumennirnir (1864), later entitled Skugga-Sveinn (1898); Ari Jónsson, SigfíÐur EyjafjarÐarsól (1879), based on Árnason, op. cit., ii, 204-212; IndriÐi Einarsson, Hellismenn (1897).

¹² In Gísli KonráÐsson, Söguþættir, iv (Rvík, 1915-20), 56-96 (“þattur frá Fjalla-Eyvindi, Höllu, Arnes, Abraham og Hirti Útileguþjófum”); idem, p. 56, head-note, for other Ms. biographies; further, Árnason, op. cit., ii, 250, n. 1 (also p. 285, §19, below).

¹³ So and rightly S. Blöndal, Islandske Kulturbilleder (Copenhagen, 1924), p. 141, n. 1.

¹⁴ Who himself studied the deserts, mountains and glaciers; see §9, p. 279, below.

¹⁵ For a vivid description of the utter desolation the Sprengisandur, mentioned below passim, see Geo. S. Mackenzie, Travels in the Island of Iceland, during the year 1810 (2d ed., Edinburgh, 1812), p. 242.

¹⁶ In Icelandic “parish” is sókn (or kirkjusókn); hreppur is the smallest administrative unit, usually, but not always, of the same extent as sókn.

¹⁷ In the USA an almost complete set of these maps is available in the Map Room of the New York Public Library; a full set may be consulted at the Consulate General of Iceland in New York City.

¹⁸ I think particularly of the often exceedingly useful maps of the individual sýslur in Kr. Kålund, Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af Island, 2 vols., Copenhagen, 1877-82.

¹⁹ This sketch-map was drawn by my son, F. P. Magoun, iii, 52c. (Y), USNR, to whom I express my grateful appreciation. Compared with most current maps of Iceland the size of Hofsjökull appears considerably reduced; this is in accordance with the most recent survey as shown, e.g., in the excellent tourist map of Iceland (1:750000) recently published by John Bartholomew and Son Ltd., Edinburgh.

²⁰ Apart from Kålund, op. cit., I have made use of porvaldur Thoroddsen's classic Lýsing Islands, 4 vols., Copenhagen, 1908-22, also of a most practical little handbook: Stefán Stefánsson, Iceland: Handbook for Tourists, with Illustrations and Maps, 2d ed., Rvík, 1930. Occasional references to other books on Iceland, mainly listed in Stefánsson's bibliography (op. cit., pp. 130-131), are given in full.

²¹ Cp. Eyv. þ., §1.

²² Here and below I give Icelandic personal names in their nominative form. This I have come to regard as the only proper procedure in translation, with the exception of a handful of mythological and legendary names not at issue here. Among such exceptions I should, for example, reckon Odin vs. OÐinn, Sigurd (the Völsung) vs. SigurÐur, as having acquired for themselves a standard English form. The situation is, generally speaking, precisely that of Classical names, of which a few, too, have been Anglicized; so Horace, Ovid, but Propertius, Statius, Tacitus—with full nominative ending.

²³ In Eyv. þ., §1, Eyvindur is said to have been brought up at Lækur, a farm in HraungerÐishr. (Árness.); in ed. cit., p. 56, n. 1, he is said to have been born in 1714. Cp. n. 58, below.

²⁴ Eyv. þ. . §3.

²⁵ This description of Halla Jónsdóttir, as well as that of Eyvindur Jónsson in §4, below, is quoted with modernization in orthography from L⊘g-þijnges Booken. Innehalldande þad er Gj⊘rdest og Frammfoor Fyrer L⊘g-þijnges-Rettenum vid Øxaraa. Anno 1765 (Hólar, 1765), Num. xxiii (no page-no.). They were published in the Lögrétta or Legislative of the Alþing as of 9 July 1765 at the instance of the Prefect of Strandasýsla in the north-west and apropos of an escape made by the couple from the custody of Prefect the Rev. Halldór Jakobsson in 1764 (perhaps with reference to the events of §12, below?). I quote the preamble of the item:

“Efterfilgiande Oskilamanna [with reference to other dishonest persons than just Eyvindur and Halla] Liisingar voru ad Forlage Constituerads Syslumanns i Stranda-Sysla Jons Jonssonar upplesnar i L⊘grettu Anno 1765.

1. Lijsest hier med Saka Persoonunum Eivinde Jonssyne og hanns konu H⊘llu Jonsdootur, er Vored 1764. Burtstruku fraa Syslumanne Sr. Halldore Jacobssyne. Hans Audkienne eru þesse: hann er grannvaxenn … afbakad. Halla er laag … grannhendt, olesande, bruukar eckert Tobak“

These concluding words of the description of Halla which I have italicized are misquoted by Árnason, who reads: “grannhent, brúkaÐi mikiÐ tóbak.”

It is of further interest to note that the description of Eyvindur published by the Prefect of Strandasýsla in 1765 is by no means original with him but in considerable measure looks back to one published some twenty years earlier in L⊘g-þijnges Booken. Anno 1746 (Hólar, 1746), item 20 (no page-no.). On account of the great rarity of these older Lögþingisbækur I quote this passage in full, together with an English translation.

“Af Syslumannenum Brinjoolfe Sigurdssyne var lijst Oskilamannenum Eivinde Jonssyne, sem i Firra i Julio [i.e., July 1745] burtstroked hafde fraa Tradarholte i Stoxeirar Hrepp og Arness Syslu. Fyrer utann nokra Kinning og Skudsmaal; Eirnenn (for Einnig?) sie med stoorum Lykindum rigtadur af þioofnade i Arness Syslu; og ero hanns Audkienne þesse, Grannvaxenn med staerre M⊘nnum, nser Gloo-Biartur aa Haar, sem er med Lidum ad Nedann, Togennleitur og Einleitur, nockud þickvare Nedre enn efne V⊘r, Footagrannur, Miuukmaal og Giedgoodur, Hirtenn og Hreinlaatur, reiker lijted Tobak þa bijdst, Hagtækare aa Tre enn Jam, goodur Vinnu-Madur og Lidugur til Smaa-Vika, Lijtt Lesande enn Oskrifande, raular giarnann fyrer Munne sier Kvæda edur Rijmu-Erende, þo afbakad; Begiærer Syslumadurenn Brinjolfur þienustusamlega, ad Kongel. Majest. Vallds-Menn hier aa Lande vildu Tilhlutast, þad þesse Eivindur til sinna Atthaga aa Hsel apturfærdest, bar sem hann Nockurs-Stadar kynne Stadnæmast edur hittast.”

“Department prefect Brynjólfur SigurÐsson issued a description of Eyvindur Jónsson, who last July [1745] had run away from TraÐarholt, Stokkseiri parish, ÁArnessýsla. Apart from any testimonial and character he is also reputed (charged?) with great probability of theft in Árnessýsla. And his distinctive features are these: of slender build compared to biggish men, almost golden hair with curly ends, long-faced and sallow (?), upper lip somewhat thicker than the lower, thin-legged, soft-spoken and affable, neat and clean, smokes little tobacco when offered, more skilful in wood than in iron, a good workman and obliging about small jobs, can read a little but not write, likes to hum a stanza of a poem or ballad to himself though wrong. Prefect Brynjólfur kindly requests that His Royal Majesty's [Christian VI] magistrates here in Iceland have this Eyvindur brought back home as soon as he may be stopped or encountered anywhere.”

In conclusion I would take this opportunity heartily to thank Professor Halldór Hermannsson, Curator of the great Fiske Icelandic Collection at Cornell University, for photostats of the material quoted and otherwise used above; also Consul General Helgi P. Briem for one or two suggested emendations and interpretations.

²⁶ Cp. §§6, 9, 12, 16, below; cp. also Eyv. þ., §§2, 41.

²⁷ See n. 25, above.

²⁸ On the wastelands (öræfi) and unsettled regions (óbygÐir) north and south of the midland glaciers see Thoroddsen, op. cit., i, 167-202.

²⁹ There is much about these mountain bandits in Eyv. þ., passim.

³⁰ Brought out in the following narrative; see also map, p. 275.

³¹ On these see Thoroddsen, op. cit., i, 191-202; iii, 175-197.

³² Cp. Eyv. þ., §7.

³³ See Eyv. þ., §7.

³⁴ Eyv. þ., §20.

³⁵ Cp. Eyv. þ., §21.

³⁶ Eyv. þ., §30.

³⁷ I.e., on Eyvindarkvísl, tributary of the þj6rsá.

³⁸ In the SW corner of Langjökull; cp. Eyv. þ., §3.

^39x Once when the couple was caught and Arnes with them, they are all said to have been condemned to prison in Reykjavik, but that Eyvindur and Halla got away, however. Arnes was taken south [to Reykjavik] and for a while was in jail where he was held in great esteem by the other criminals and even by the jailers themselves. Arnes was mysterious and secretive and used to say in jest that the barnacle geese left Iceland in the winter, but wouldn't say, however, where they lived. Later Arnes got out of jail and became a pauper and so died on Engey island [off Reykjavik] on September 7th, 1805; he was then ninety-one years old. [On Arnes see further Eyv. þ., §§45, 50.] But we are unable to relate anything about when Eyvindur and Arnes parted company, or how that happened.

⁴⁰ Jón Espólín, Íslands árbækur í sögu-formi, Pt. xi (Copenhagen 1854), pp. 10-11. Here Björn is said to have been big and strong, and to have come originally at least from BöÐvarsdalur in VopnafjörÐur (NorÐurmúlas.).

⁴¹ Cp. Eyv. þ., §23.

⁴² I.e., Jón þorkelsson Vídalín, Húss-postilla eÐa Jónsbók, of which Pt. i (13th ed., Copenhagen, 1838), pp. 238 ff., contains the selection for Easter Day. Cp. §§7, 13, 14, on Eyvindur's piety.

⁴³ See Eyv. þ., §25.

⁴⁴ See Kålund, op. cit., ii, 170, on the devastating eruptions of 1724-29 that partly laid waste this region.

⁴⁵ Alternate names for the same locality. See Stefánsson, op. cit., p. 124, also Thorodssen, op. cit., i, 174.

⁴⁶ According to Eyv. þ., 26, they only got her west to Flugumýri (SkagafjarÐars.) when she eluded her escort and escaped.

^47x This is not true, however, according to what Múlasýsla men who know have said; for these mountains are named for the Eyvindur (Bjarnason) whom Hrafnkell FreysgoÐi killed in the gap between the mountains [cp. Hrafnkels s., ch. 8, ad fin. For more on this and a related group of names in Hrafnkels s., see SigurÐur Nordal, Hrafnkatla (Rvík, 1940), esp. pp. 24-25].

⁴⁸ See n. 9, above.

⁴⁹ This would be the Oxamýrr of Hrafnkels s., ch. 8.

⁵⁰ Cp. Eyv. þ., §24.

⁵¹ Cp. Eyv. þ., §46.

⁵² It may be noted in passing that Eyvindur was not an “outlaw” but a suspect wanted for trial. Nor could his supposed outlawry have terminated by any sort of statute of limitations. This notion, obviously entertained by the dramatist (see n. 57 below), would seem in the last analysis to look back to some popular misunderstanding of certain passages in Grettis s., esp. ch. 78, ad init., on which see GuÐni Jónsson ed., Grettis s. (Rvík, 1936), p. 245, n. 2.

^53x It is safer to believe what Íslendingur [No. 22, 16 Feb. 1861, col. 339, at bottom of p. 170] says about the burial place of Eyvindur and Halla in the church-yard at StaÐur in Grunnavík. And that I may also give some account of the sources of Eyvindar saga, mention is to be made that this winter (1860) I collected all the reports I could then get about. Eyvindur: first and foremost from the priest Skúli Gíslason, from the Rev. Benedikt at Brjánslækur [BarÐarstrandars.], and according to four Mss. which the District-Prefect Páll MelsteÐ lent me for the purpose. To this Mr. MelsteÐ subsequently added certain accounts that he knew and printed the whole in Íslendingur, Nos. 20-22 [1861, cols. 312-319, at bottom of pp. 156-170]. So many variant reports about Eyvindur have circulated that nearly everybody has related many incidents in his own Way. Thereafter nothing has been added to any extent to Eyvindar s. except the accounts of the þingeyjarsýsla people after he was brought to ReykjahlíÐ (§14). Almost no variants have been included here, but I have followed: the statements of Skúli the priest who knows both the north and the east and the Sprengisandur Route; the report of the Rev. Torfi Magnússon, now at Kirkjuból (ÍsafjarÐars.), in a Ms. of the Rev. Benedikt of Brjánslækur; and a Ms. of Jón SigurÐsson, parliamentary delegate from Gautlönd (SuÐur þingeyjars.) [evidently “basic Ms. b,” mentioned in Eyv. þ., ed. cit. p. 56, headnote], as far as these accounts go. But concerning the burial place of Eyvindur and Halla I felt obliged to follow oral tradition rather than sober history, and likewise to include the variant story of Halla's fate as it is told in the south, since this is a matter of oral tradition.

⁵⁴ On the páll and rekuvar here in question see Jónasson, op. cit., 60, for picture.

⁵⁵ To Mr. þorvaldur þórarinsson of Reykjavík I am more than grateful for a reference to a recent study mainly devoted to Eyvindur's descendants; I have not yet had an opportunity to examine this but cite it as a matter of record: þorsteinn Bjarnarson of Háholt, “Fjalla-Eyvindur og niÐjar hans,” Blanda, vii, 1 (Rvík, 1940), 91-96.

⁵⁶ With §iii of the present paper it becomes necessary to refer frequently to the text of Fjalla-Eyvindur. Here I have adopted the only practical procedure, namely, of making page-reference to the two editions of the Icelandic text: (1) the single volume (princeps) edition of Reykjavik 1912, until quite recently the only edition and still probably the most current, especially in North America, and (2) the new, now standard edition of 1940 (Vol. i, pp. 105-198), ed. by Andrésson and cited n. 1 above. These references are given in the form of fractional numbers, in which the numerator refers to the 1912 ed., the denominator to that of 1940. In a few references only a single number appears, this will refer to the so-called “Original Ending” of Act iv, published in the 1940 ed., but not in that of 1912.

It is with regret that I cannot refer to, or otherwise make use of, the existing English translation “Eyvind of the Hills” done over a quarter of a century ago by one Mrs. Henninge Krohn Schanche, recommended as a Norwegian lady long resident in Philadelphia, and published in Modern Icelandic Plays … by Jóhann Sigurjónsson (cit. n. 1, supra), reprinted in T. H. Dickinson, Chief Contemporary Dramatists, 3d ser. (Boston, 1930), pp. 639-673 (see also pp. 686, 689, 695, for some bio-bibliographical varia). Planned under the ingenious and expert direction of Dr. Henry Goddard Leach, Mrs. Schache produced an interesting and quite unique combination of the 1911 and 1913 Danish versions of the play (see op. cit., p. x, n. 1). This curious mélange differs in gross (cp. end of Act iii) and in detail, as far as I know, from anything that Sigurjónsson ever contemplated.

With incredibly generous help from Professor Stefán Einarsson of the Johns Hopkins University, the present writer has prepared a translation from the 1940 Icelandic edition, which he hopes one day to be able to publish.

⁵⁷ See n. 52, above.

⁵⁸ According to one tradition (note 23, above) Eyvindur was born in 1714; he would thus be thirty-six in 1750. GuÐfinna is thoroughly middle-aged (17/110, 113/160).

⁵⁹ Jónas Jónasson of Hrafnagil, Íslenzkir þjóþhœttir (Ísafold Press: Rvík, 1934), p. 87.

⁶⁰ Ibid., p. 89.

⁶¹ See n. 52, above.

⁶² Inasmuch as Easter 1766 fell rather early (March 30) and since there is a certain implication that the catastrophal blizzard was unusual for the season, either Easter 1765 (April 7) or 1767 (April 19) would be theoretically better dates. In this case one would want to imagine Act i as taking place in 1749 or 1751 rather than in 1750.

⁶³ The baÐslofa is described in a good deal of detail. For an illustration of such a room see Jónasson, op. cit., p. 459 (also p. 9), where, however, certain details, notably the crossbeam, mentioned in the play are lacking. On the sky-light (skjágluggi) see ibid., pp. 462-464, and on various other properties, passim, using “Index of Catchwords,” pp. 474-482.

⁶⁴ Stefánsson, op. cit., p. 120, allows two days (his “Seventh and Eighth Days”) to ride from Hveravellir to Mælifell (SkagafjarÐars.), about a seventy-five km. stretch to the north. But this is for tourists, not desperate people fleeing from justice.

⁶⁵ Epithet used in Eyv.s., §§1 (head-word), 16 ad init.

⁶⁶ It may here be noted that Eyvindur's remark to Halla that he would know about her doings and reach her, were she one hundred Icelandic miles away (89/148) is merely symbolic; the distance mentioned is about the maximum distance (ca. 500 km.) from any point in Iceland to another, say from the NW tip of ÍsafjarÐars. to SeyÐisfjörÐur in the east.

⁶⁷ See Gunnarsson, op. cit., i, xxii.

⁶⁸ See Kålund, op. cit., ii, 161-164, and map facing p. 133.

⁶⁹ So called from Arnarfell (Eagle Hill) on the southern edge of the glacier, an eminence evidently referred to in a dramatic and fateful connection in Act iii, below.

⁷⁰ See Thoroddsen, op. cit., ii, 229-231, with a sketch-map and identification of Eyvindarhver; also Wm. Bisiker, Across Iceland (London, 1902), pp. 57-60, with photographs and a map facing p. 61.

⁷¹ Thoroddsen, op. cit., ii, 89-91.

⁷² Their hut is said to be beside a dead hornito (gömul hraunborg, 115/162). Hornito is perhaps more usually rendered in Icelandic by hraunketill, on which see Thoroddsen, op. cit., ii, 93-94; on use of hornitos as cattle-shelters see ibid., iii, 179, n. 1.

⁷³ See idem, i, 309, at bottom.

⁷⁴ See Thoroddsen, op. cit., i, 195.

⁷⁵ Standing almost exactly in the middle of the island and thus marking the meeting point of the four main regions or quarters of the country: NorÐlendinga-, Sunnlendinga-AustfirÐinga-, and VestfirÐingafjórÐungur.