The Sound of Divine Revelation. A Diary, Autobiography, Letters and Poems of Magnus Hj. Magnusson

The Sound of Divine Revelation. A Diary, Autobiography, Letters and Poems of Magnus Hj. Magnusson. Anthology from Icelandic Popular Culture 2. Published by the Icelandic University Press, 1998. 423 pages. – (Kraftbirtingarhljómur Guðdómsins. Dagbók, sjálfsævisaga, bréf og kvæði Magnúsar Hj. Magnússonar, skáldsins á Þröm. Sýnisbók íslenskrar alþýðumenningar 2 (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998)).

This volume publishes for the first time specimens from the personal papers of Magnús Hj. Magnússon – his diary, autobiography and letters. Magnús was the model for Ólafur Kárason Ljósvíkingur, the central character in Halldór Kiljan Laxness’s novel Heimsljós (World Light). Laxness made extensive use of these papers when writing Heimsljós and it is highly instructive to have access to the original sources for his book at first hand. Magnús himself was a singular man who had to contend with hardship and difficulty throughout his life. His life history provides a vivid insight into the thought processes of people in the years around the turn of the 20th century. Magnús struggled with the injustices of the world on all fronts and fought against them in his own distinctive way – by recording his story as it happened in his diary in the hope that people of later times would be able to better understand the position of the weak and the downtrodden. The Sound of Divine Revelation may with justice be called Magnús’s apologia and self-defence.

The author provides a detailed introduction to the book under the heading “Magnús og mýtan” (Magnús and the myth), in which he relates the details of Magnús’s life in broad outline, discusses the value of these particular sources for historical research and considers the position of history, for instance in the light of postmodernist influences.