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the editor of newspapers, first in America (Canada) and then in Ice- 
land. Kvaran, who is the greatest now living artist among Icelandic 
novelists, has written a number of long novels descriptive of fown life, 
and a series of brilliant short stories dealing chiefly with the strug- 
gles and miseries of the poor whom he depicts with keen understand- 
ing and profound sympathy. He has for years been the champion 
of psychic research and spiritualism in Iceland, and his view of life 
as well as his faith in the power of mercy, brotherhood, and forgive- 
ness are plainly apparent in his novels. Kvaran is also a fine lyric poet, 
and has published a small volume of verse. Jon Sfefinsson (pseudo- 
nym: Thorgils gjallandi, 1854—1915) who was a farmer, first published 
a small volume of short stories, written under the influence of foreign 
realism, and then brought out his best novel ‘Upp vid fossa‘ (By the 
Falls) dealing with country life. Later he published a volume of stories 
of animals displaying his close sympathy with, and thorough under- 
standing of, these dumb servants of man. Jdhann Magmis Bjarnason 
(1866—) went to America (Canada) in his ninth year, and was edu- 
cated there. He has written two long novels, and many short stories. 
Bjarnason has an exuberant imagination, and his sketches of the life 
and hardships of his countrymen during their first years in the New 
World are ably executed. Gudmundur Fridjénsson (1869 —), a farmer, 
is a versatile writer who has already published several volumes of 
short stories dealing almost exclusively with country life. His characters 
are perhaps confined within a limited range, but they are skilfully 
drawn, many of them with a master's hand, and his style, peculiarly 
his own, is both vigorous and full of metaphor. The author's view of 
life, his dislike to new-fangledness of any kind, and his faith in, and 
sturdy adherence to, those old virtues which have proved of lasting 
worth to the nation in past centuries, are plainly discernible in all his 
works. Fridjénsson has also published three volumes of vigorous and 
original poetry. Gudmundur Magmisson (pseudonym: Jon Trausti, 1873 
—1918), a printer, the most voluminous of all Icelandic novelists, has 
in a series of novels, long and short, painted Icelandic life past and 
present. He is a keen observer with a rare richness of imagination, 
and though some of his stories are loose and his style at times faulty, 
there can, on the whole, be no question of his high qualities as story- 
teller, and several of his short stories must be placed very high in 
the rank of Icelandic fiction. Trausti knows better than anyone else 
the life and struggle of the common people. Professor Sigurdur Nor- 
dal (1886—) has in a volume of short stories and prose-poems, some