A Parish Chronicle - Halldór Laxness

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A Parish Chronicle

by
Halldór Laxness

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	A Parish Chronicle
Author:	Halldór Laxness
Genre:	Novel
Written:	1970 (Eng. 2026)
Length:	133 pages
Original in:	Icelandic
Availability:	A Parish Chronicle - US
	A Parish Chronicle - UK
	A Parish Chronicle - Canada
	Kirchspielchronik - Deutschland

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

Icelandic title: Innansveitarkrónika
Translated by Philip Roughton
With an Introduction by Salvatore Scibona

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Our Assessment:

B : charming if somewhat loosely assembled little work

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
Publishers Weekly	.	1/12/2025	.

From the Reviews:

"Laxness (...) exhibits his interests in myth and the natural world in this humble tale of villagers defending their church from demolition. (...) Readers will be transported." - Publishers Weekly

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

A Parish Chronicle is a slim novel of the Mosfellsdalur Valley, near Reykjavík, -- where no one less than "Iceland's national hero and chief poet Egill Skallagrímsson" is buried. While the chronicle offers some sweep of history it pivots around near the turn of the twentieth century -- though there is certainly (and Laxness makes much of) a sense of timelessness to the story, and to life there. The crux of the story is the dismantling of the local church -- not for the first time --, finally seen through some 120 years after: "the Danish king ordered its removal in 1774" (as: "the people of Iceland were instructed to consolidate churches throughout the country for reasons of economy"). The most significant of the various colorful characters are the last two to defend the church, "a certain aged farmer at Hrísbrú named Ólafur Magnússon, and an indigent girl, a maid of the priest at Mosfell, named Guðrún Jónsdóttir", as well as then the one responsible for a new church being built decades later, consecrated in 1965, Stefán Þorláksson.
A Parish Chronicle is an affectionate portrait of people and country, Laxness amusingly presenting this world where:

It has been argued that Icelanders are swayed little by rational arguments, and hardly economic ones, either, yet even less by religious rationale, but solve their problems by splitting hairs and arguing over irrelevant trifles, and become terrified and dumbstruck when it comes to the heart of the matter.

Repeatedly, Laxness describes a passivity that is deceptive in its seemingly complete calm -- as when the locals make hay ("those bearded men toiling there at three o'clock in the morning, almost motionless in the grass, hunched over their scythes, perhaps asleep") or in describing how the sheep-herders control their flocks:

It’s a wonder that men so unadept at walking should spend their lives competing in a long-distance race with swiftly bounding sheep. But incredible as it may seem, those stiff-legged men, only moderately sharp-sighted and prone to congestion, always had it better in the race against those lightning-fast creatures, which was, I think, because they always moved so slowly that the sheep lost interest in the game; partly also because although the sheep is stubborn, these men were a sight stubborner.

So also Stefán's father, Shorty-Láki (also known as Ash-Láki), who takes him in when his mother dies but doesn't provide much more than a roof over the boy's head and food, lives a very humble, simple life -- yet eventually leaves his son a stunning legacy. Long before it comes to that, Stefán runs away from his father -- and is taken in by Ólafur (the boy is invited: "to stay the night. He stayed for twenty years").
The routines of slow-paced life have basically been unchanged in all these parts for a very long time, but the modern world begins to make itself felt here as well:

At that time, the first automobiles were being imported into the country, introducing new marvels to this nation of farmers who had worked with the same implements since the year 900 [...]. Soon, surrounded by these new, uncanny inventions, no farmer recognized himself any longer, and the poets began lamenting their loss of identity in print.

       Stefán is at the vanguard -- while forging a path of typical Laxnessian quirkiness, remaining true to himself and his home(land).
       Laxness' protagonists are independent-minded and strong-willed -- if also, to varying degrees odd-ball. A Parish Chronicle is, like many of his novels, a loving portrait of Iceland and Icelander (complete with and taking particular note of their foibles and eccentricities).
       The church-story makes for some of the connections -- and the pieces, down to the missing chalice, do come together in the conclusion --, but mostly this is a rather loosely assembled, meandering novella. So also, typically, in recounting Guðrún Jónsdóttir's story:

     I, the undersigned, felt that the story of these two women of our district, who spoke to each other only once and never since, needed something more by way of closure. They were truly in a world of their own, these women. I waited and waited, but nothing more came.
     “You forgot to end your story,” I finally say. “How did it go?”
     “Go? It didn’t go anywhere. It went as it went.

It's all quite charming, with some very nicely presented episodes, but all in a somewhat loose assemblage. It's a nice little work, but, as its size might suggest, relatively minor, compared to Laxness' sturdier novels.

- M.A.Orthofer, 21 February 2026

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Links:

A Parish Chronicle:

Archipelago Books publicity page
Vintage Classics publicity page
Forlagið publicity page
Excerpt
Introduction by Salvatore Scibona

Reviews:

Halldór Laxness:

Other books by Halldór Laxness under review:

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Scandinavian literature
See Index of Books by Nobel laureates under review
Other books from Archipelago Books under review

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About the Author:

Icelandic author Halldór Laxness (actually: Halldór Guðjónsson) lived 1902 to 1998. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.

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