Independent People
novel by Halldór Laxness (1934, 1935)
Independent People: An Epic (Icelandic: Sjálfstætt fólk) is a novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935. It deals with the struggle of poor Icelandic farmers in the early 20th century, only freed from debt bondage in the last generation, and surviving on isolated crofts in an inhospitable landscape.
The novel is considered among the foremost examples of social realism in Icelandic fiction in the 1930s. It is an indictment of materialism, the cost of the self-reliant spirit to relationships, and capitalism itself. This book, along with several other major novels, helped Halldór win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.
Plot summary
Independent People is the story of the sheep farmer Guðbjartur Jónsson, generally known in the novel as Bjartur of Summerhouses, and his struggle for independence. As the story begins, Bjartur ("bright" or "fair") has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm, after eighteen years working as a shepherd at Útirauðsmýri, the home of the well-to-do local bailiff, a man he detests. The land that he buys is said to be cursed by Saint Columba, referred to as "the fiend Kolumkilli", and haunted by an evil woman named Gunnvör, who made a pact with Kólumkilli. The novel charts the drudgery and the battle for survival of life in Summerhouses, the misery, dreams and rebellions of the inhabitants, and what appears to be the curse of Summerhouses taking effect.
Bjartur is newly married to a young woman called Rósa, a fellow worker at Rauðsmýri, and is determined that they should live as independent people.
The public source identifies “Independent People” as novel by Halldór Laxness (1934, 1935). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Independent, People and novel.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3449499. VIAF identifies the subject as 174240656. The Library of Congress control number is n88212348. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 1935 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Independent People” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.