Jónasson Úr Kötlum, Jóhannes

Born Nov. 4, 1899, in Dalir. Icelandic poet. Member of the Communist Party of Iceland from 1932 and of the United Socialist Party of Iceland since 1938.

The son of a poor peasant, Jónasson úr Kötlum was a teacher for many years. In 1926 he published Lullaby and in 1929 The Swans Sing, collections of romantic and patriotic poems. The collections of poems I Feign Sleep (1932) and I Awoke Nevertheless (1935) are devoted to the workers’ struggle for their rights, and the collection The Sun Darkens (1945) is an antifascist work glorifying the heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). In the collection Seven-Day Journey (1955) the poet attempts to renew the poetic language. He also wrote the novels Guardian Angels (1943) and The Mountains Have Split (1943), depicting the Icelandic people during World War II (1939–45), and between 1949 and 1952 he published a trilogy about the emigration of Icelanders to America in the late 19th century. Notable among his later works are the collections Non-poems (1962) and The Son of Man (1966).