A diary of monastic life and spiritual reflection from Iceland’s Nobel laureate
What the Work Is
Dagar hjá múnkum (Days with Monks) is a diary by Halldór Laxness, the Icelandic author who received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. First published in 1987, the work belongs to the diary genre and represents a late addition to Laxness’s extensive literary output, which spanned novels, poetry, essays, plays, travelogues, and short stories. The book appeared near the end of the author’s long career, which had already established him as one of the most significant figures in Icelandic literature.
What the Book Is About
The diary records Laxness’s experiences during a period of religious exploration in the 1920s, when he lived among Benedictine monks at the Abbaye Saint-Maurice et Saint-Maur in Clervaux, Luxembourg. During this time, the young writer was drawn to Catholicism, a spiritual phase that would prove brief but formative. The book revisits this monastic sojourn from the perspective of the elderly author, offering a retrospective account of a pivotal moment in his intellectual and spiritual development. The work reflects on the encounter between a young Icelandic writer and the contemplative traditions of European monasticism, a meeting that would influence his subsequent literary trajectory even as he eventually moved away from religious commitment toward socialism.
Key Ideas and Themes
The diary engages with the tension between spiritual seeking and artistic vocation, a theme that runs through much of Laxness’s early life and work. His time at the monastery in Clervaux was part of a broader period of religious intensity that included his baptism and confirmation in the Catholic Church in 1923, his adoption of the name Kiljan after the Irish martyr Saint Killian, and his involvement with a group that prayed for the reversion of the Nordic countries to Catholicism. During this period, Laxness immersed himself in self-study, reading theology and philosophy and learning French and Latin.
The book also touches on the relationship between religious faith and the development of a literary identity. Laxness’s monastic experience came at a time when he was grappling with questions of personal identity and artistic purpose, questions that would later find expression in his novel Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great Weaver from Kashmir), published in 1927, which deals with a young man’s conflicts with religion and identity. The diary thus offers insight into the biographical roots of concerns that would occupy Laxness throughout his career.
Another theme implicit in the work is the contrast between the contemplative life and the active engagement with the world that would come to define Laxness’s later years. His religious period did not last long; by the late 1920s, he had moved to the United States and become attracted to socialism, a shift that would shape his major novels of the 1930s and 1940s. Dagar hjá múnkum can be read as an older writer’s reflection on a path not taken, a meditation on the alternative course his life might have followed had he remained within the monastic tradition.
Structure and Approach
As a diary, the book is organized around the author’s personal observations and reflections rather than a continuous narrative argument. This form allows Laxness to move freely between description of the monastic environment, recollection of his younger self, and the wisdom of hindsight. The diary format suits the retrospective nature of the work, enabling the author to revisit his youthful spiritual enthusiasm with the perspective of a long and varied life.
The work stands within Laxness’s later output, a period when he increasingly turned to memoirs and essays. In the 1970s, he had published what he called “essay novels,” and into the 1980s he continued to write essays and memoirs. Dagar hjá múnkum belongs to this final phase of his career, when the great novelist of Icelandic society and history had turned his attention to the examination of his own past.
Significance and Influence
The book holds significance as a document of a crucial period in the development of one of Iceland’s most important literary figures. Laxness’s monastic interlude in Luxembourg was a formative experience that fed directly into his early religious writings, including the essay Kaþólsk viðhorf (Catholic Outlook, 1925) and the fragmentary novel Undir Helgahnúk (1924, revised 1967). By returning to this material in his old age, Laxness provided readers with a fuller picture of a phase of his life that he had previously treated only in partial or indirect ways.
The work also contributes to the broader understanding of Laxness’s intellectual journey, illuminating the religious foundations that preceded his conversion to socialism. His later commitment to social and political causes, which became central to his major novels, is thrown into sharper relief by this account of his earlier spiritual seeking. The diary thus offers valuable context for readers seeking to understand the full arc of Laxness’s development as a writer and thinker.
Within the context of Laxness’s late work, Dagar hjá múnkum represents the continued vitality of an author who, even in his final decade of writing, remained engaged with the questions that had animated his earliest literary efforts. The book stands as a testament to the enduring significance of the monastic episode in his life, a brief encounter that continued to resonate across more than sixty years of literary achievement.
The diary also reflects the broader arc of Laxness’s life, which the source material documents in detail. His early literary career began with the publication of Barn náttúrunnar (Child of Nature) in 1919, and his travels on the European continent had already begun by that time. The monastic episode in Clervaux occurred in 1922, a year that also saw him meet Málfríður Jónsdóttir, who gave birth to his first daughter, María, in 1923. These personal details situate the diary within a period of significant biographical change, as the young writer was simultaneously establishing his literary identity and beginning a family.
The source material also notes that Laxness’s religious period was followed by a shift toward socialism, which he embraced after living in the United States from 1927 to 1929. During that time, he gave lectures on Iceland and attempted to write screenplays for Hollywood films. His attraction to socialism came not from studying manuals but from observing the starving unemployed in the parks. This transition is relevant to the diary’s retrospective perspective, as the elderly author looks back on a spiritual phase that preceded his later political commitments.
The Monastic Context
The source material specifies that the monks at the Abbaye Saint-Maurice et Saint-Maur in Clervaux followed the rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia. This detail provides a concrete historical and religious framework for the diary’s setting. The Benedictine tradition, with its emphasis on prayer, work, and communal life, forms the backdrop against which Laxness’s youthful spiritual seeking took place. The diary’s account of daily life among these monks is grounded in this specific monastic order, which the source material identifies as the context for his stay.
The Diary’s Place in Laxness’s Career
The source material indicates that Laxness continued to write essays and memoirs into the 1980s, the decade in which Dagar hjá múnkum was published. This places the diary within a sustained period of late-career reflection, following his earlier “essay novels” of the 1970s, including Innansveitarkronika (A Parish Chronicle, 1970) and Guðsgjafaþula (A Narration of God’s Gifts, 1972). The diary thus belongs to a body of work in which the author turned his attention to personal history and memory, a shift that the source material documents as characteristic of his later output.
Biographical Details Surrounding the Work
The source material provides additional biographical context that bears on the diary’s composition. Laxness’s second wife, Auður Sveinsdóttir, whom he married in 1945, served as his personal secretary and business manager in addition to her domestic duties. The couple moved into Gljúfrasteinn, a new house built in the countryside near Mosfellsbær, where they started a family. This domestic stability in his later years contrasts with the itinerant spiritual seeking of his youth, a contrast that the diary implicitly explores. The source material also notes that Laxness suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his old age and eventually moved into a nursing home, where he died on 8 February 1998, at the age of 95.
The Diary’s Subject Matter in Relation to Other Works
The source material confirms that Laxness wrote of his monastic experiences in the essay Kaþólsk viðhorf (Catholic Outlook, 1925) and published the fragmentary novel Undir Helgahnúk (1924, revised 1967). These earlier treatments of the same material provide a comparative context for the diary. While those works were written closer to the events themselves, Dagar hjá múnkum returns to the subject from the vantage point of old age, offering a different perspective on the same formative period. The diary thus joins a small cluster of works in Laxness’s oeuvre that directly address his Catholic phase, each approaching it from a distinct moment in his career.
The Broader Literary Context
The source material identifies a range of writers who influenced Laxness, including August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, and Ernest Hemingway. This list situates the diary’s author within a broad international literary tradition, even as the work itself focuses on a narrowly personal subject. The diary’s reflective, introspective quality can be understood in light of these influences, which shaped Laxness’s approach to narrative and self-examination throughout his career.
The Diary’s Historical Setting
The source material places Laxness’s monastic sojourn in the early 1920s, a period when he was also becoming involved with a group that prayed for the reversion of the Nordic countries to Catholicism. This detail situates the diary’s subject matter within a specific religious movement of the time, one that sought to revive Catholic influence in the Nordic region. The diary’s account of monastic life is thus connected to a broader historical current, even as it remains focused on the author’s personal experience.
The Author’s Later Life and Legacy
The source material documents that Laxness’s later years were marked by continued literary activity, including plays, novels, and essays. His most successful play, The Pigeon Banquet (Dúfnaveislan, 1966), was written and produced in the 1960s, and he published the “visionary novel” Kristnihald undir Jökli (Under the Glacier) in 1968. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in 1969 and published an influential ecological essay, Hernaðurinn gegn landinu (The War Against the Land), in 1970. These later accomplishments provide a backdrop for understanding the diary as the work of an author who remained productive and engaged well into his final decades.
The Diary’s Personal Dimension
The source material notes that Laxness was brought up and enormously influenced by his grandmother, Guðný Klængsdóttir, who sang him ancient songs, told him stories from heathen times, and sang him cradle songs from the Catholic era. This early exposure to both pre-Christian and Catholic traditions is relevant to the diary’s subject matter, as it suggests that Laxness’s interest in Catholicism had deep roots in his childhood. The diary’s account of his monastic experience can be read against this formative background, which the source material identifies as a powerful influence on his development.
