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that he, as it were, broke new ground in the realm of Icelandic 
poetry. In vigorous Icelandic he depicts American life and scenery, 
His poems contain meditations on many of the deepest questions of 
modern life, — his latest achievement being a long poem on the Great 
War —, and show an inexhaustible wealth of generous thought and 
acute observation. His poems have now been published in five big 
volumes. There is luxuriance and force in his style, and though his 
diction may sometimes lack clearness and ease, yet the majority of 
his works bears the hall-mark of a great poetical genius. In 1917 he 
was invited to Iceland, and everywhere received with the greatest en- 
thusiasm. 
Thorsteinn Erlingsson (1858 —1914), studied at the university of 
Copenhagen, which, however, he left without taking his degree. He 
was for a time the editor of a newspaper, and then went in for teach- 
ing English. Erlingsson first attracted attention with a few poems sa- 
vouring of freethinking and socialism. He combines an almost un- 
equalled mastery of words and ryithms, is witty, telling, and at times 
bitter in his satire. But his lyre has also tender strings, and his simple 
and heartfelt pieces in the old rimur-metre are the finest of their 
kind in our literature. 
Hannes Hafstein (1861 —1922), a lawyer and Minister of Iceland for 
a number of years, began to write verse at a comparatively early age, 
and most of his poetical work had been done before he was past his 
prime. His poems are refreshing like the sea breeze, some giving 
expression to his pleasure in rural scenery; others are full of the vi- 
gour of youth, its fun and frolic; there are love-voems and verses on 
conviviality; patriotic poems where he strikes a serious note; noble 
commemorative pieces, and touching elegies. 
Einar Benediktsson (1864—) a lawyer, was for a time the editor of 
a newspaper; practised at the bar for a few years and then obtained 
the post of a district judge. But for the last fwenty two years he has 
mostly lived abroad. Benediktsson has published four volumes of 
soetry besides a masterly translation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. He now 
ranks first among living Icelandic poets, and has extended the realm 
of Icelandic. poetry more than any one else. He is the Viking who 
on his raids and expeditions in many lands has boldly captured 
tew and grand themes to sing. In his poems on such world-cities 
as Rome and London, his descriptions are so vivid that the rea- 
der sees these gigantic towns rise before his mind's eye in all 
their majestic beauty and grandeur, with glimpses into their past and