The 16th of November is the ‘Icelandic Language Day’. Each year, the Icelandic Government awards an individual the ‘Jonas Hallgrimsson Award’ for their outstanding contribution to the Icelandic language, through writing, research or education.
This year, the author Arnaldur Indridason received the award. The panel said that Arnaldur has woven together the old and the new is a masterful way in his books. The author has utilised the platform of the crime novel to explore the history of individuals and the Icelandic nation, as well as dissected issues in contemporary Icelandic society. His books have been wildly popular for decades, among people of all ages and all walks of life. His works have therefore been instrumental in maintaining and increasing literacy in Iceland.
Arnaldur himself said that he was particularly honored to receive this award because many of the most beautiful things in the Icelandic language have come from Jonas Hallgrimsson.
Arnaldur Indridason is one of Iceland’s most popular and widely translated author. He writes mainly crime novels, often with a historical element to them, and his 25th novel, The King and the Clockmaker is recently published in Iceland.
See here for an interview with Arnaldur (in Icelandic), and here for a news article in English.
Photo: Sigurjón Ragnar
