Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran

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This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Einar.
The last name Hjörleifsson is an Icelandic patronymic in this case. However, Kvaran, the ultimate last name of the subject of this entry, is not a patronymic but is instead a special family name, as noted below.
Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran

Einar Gísli Hjörleifsson Kvaran

editor, novelist, poet, playwright and prominent spiritualist
.

Life

Einar Kvaran was the son of Rev. Hjörleifur Einarsson and Guðlaug Eyjólfsdóttir. His name was originally Einar Hjorleifsson but he adopted the family name Kvaran in 1916 along with his brothers Sigurdur and Trygvi and the sons of his deceased brother Joseph. (The name is taken from

family names. Einar Hjörleifsson was on a committee that proposed to allow certain categories of names, including those with ancient origins.[2]
)

Einar graduated in 1881 from the College of Iceland, known as the Latin School.[3][4] As a student in economics at the University of Copenhagen in 1882, he was one of four students to publish the single issue of the literary periodical Verðandi, which introduced to Iceland the Modern Breakthrough expounded by Georg Brandes.[5] Einar was one of the pioneers of realism in Icelandic writing; his stories and novels represent a break with past admiration of the sagas: they are written in educated contemporary language and deal with ordinary people and problems.[6]

From 1885 to 1895 Einar emigrated to Icelandic Canada,[7] where he lived in Winnipeg and helped found two Icelandic-language weekly publications, Heimskringla ("Globe") and Lögberg ("Tribune").[3][8][9] On his return to Iceland he was a journalist and editor in both Reykjavík and Akureyri; he participated in the struggle for independence and also wrote about education, temperance and theatre.[3] He was co-editor of Ísafold, then Iceland's leading newspaper, and editor of Fjallkonan.[10] He edited Skírnir, the journal of the Icelandic Literary Society, from 1892 to 1895 and from 1908 to 1909.

Einar wrote numerous short stories, novels, plays, and a volume of early poems. His breakthrough work was the story "Vonir" ("Hopes"), which he wrote in 1890 while in Canada and which deals with the emigrant experience.[8] In 1906 the Government of Iceland granted him a stipend to enable him to devote himself entirely to writing.[11]

Einar was also a prominent Spiritualist, author of the first positive assessment of spiritualism in Icelandic[12] and co-founder and President of the Experimental Society which gave rise to the Icelandic Society for Psychical Research (Sálarrannsóknarfélag Íslands), of which he was the first president.[13] He played a major part in the investigation and publicising of many Icelandic mediums, notably Indriði Indriðason and Hafstein Björnsson.[14] His later writings were dominated by spiritualism,[15][16] particularly the novel Sögur Rannveigar ("Rannveig's Tales", parts I and II 1919 and 1922),[17] but also by Christian humanism.[18] He influenced Icelanders to be less rigidly orthodox and to be less harsh in rearing their children.[19]

In the 1920s, there was a rumour that Einar was considered for the

Nietzsche, he considered the blood feud a better ethical model.[20] In the 1930s Halldór Laxness criticised him more sharply yet for his spiritualism.[21]

Personal life

Einar was married twice. His first wife, Mathilde Petersen, was Danish; she died in Canada, and their two children both died in infancy. In 1888 he married Gíslína Gísladóttir. They had five children; the eldest, Sigurður, died of tuberculosis when he was 15.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Einar Gísli Hjörleifsson Kvaran". Worldcat.org. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  2. ISBN 1-56000-273-5, p. 77, note 23
    .
  3. ^ a b c Stefán Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature, New York: Johns Hopkins for the American Scandinavian Foundation, 1957, OCLC 264046441, p. 262.
  4. ^ Richard Beck, ed., Icelandic Lyrics: Originals and Translations, Thorhallur Bjarnarson, Reykjavík: Bjarnarson, 1930, OCLC 2067368, p. 137.
  5. ISBN 3110148765, 470-82, pp. 475–76
    .
  6. ^ Þorleifur Hauksson, p. 476.
  7. ISBN 0-231-03717-1, p. 454
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-8032-3346-9, p. 321
    .
  9. ^ Swatos, Loftur Gissurarson, p. 57.
  10. ^ a b Swatos, Loftur Gissurarson, p. 58.
  11. ^ Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, p. 454.
  12. ^ Swatos, Loftur Gissurarson, p. 82.
  13. ^ Swatos, Loftur Gissurarson, pp. 84–85, 223.
  14. ^ Swatos, Loftur Gissurarson, pp. 83–154, 219; p. 214: "Einar Kvaran had sittings in his home with [Miss Björg Hafsteen], as with other mediums in this period [the early 1930s]".
  15. ^ Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature p. 380.
  16. ^ According to Stefán Einarsson, p. 263, beginning with the novel Sálin vaknar ("The Soul Awakens," 1916).
  17. ^ Neijmann,p. 323.
  18. ^ Neijmann, p. 322.
  19. ^ Neijmann, p. 322, quoting Steingrímur J. Þorsteinsson.
  20. ^ Nijmann, pp. 366–67.
  21. ^ Stefán Einarsson, p. 264.

Sources

  • Richard Beck. Einar H. Kvaran, an Icelandic Novelist and Dramatist. OCLC 83281608
  • Gils Guðmundsson. Í Nærveru Sálar: Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran, Maðurinn og Skáldið. Reykjavík : Setberg, 1997.
    ISBN 997952202X
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