and was during the whole of his life anchored to his native region.
Jón Trausti, the son of a farm labourer and his wife, who had been
born on one of the northernmost farms in Iceland in a barren and
outlying district, was brought up in dire poverty. From an early age
he had had to fend for himself as a farmhand and fisherman, finally
settling in Reykjavík as a printer. Apart from his apprenticeship
with the printers, he never went to any sort of school (school
education was first made compulsory by law in Iceland in 1907); but
on two occasions he had travelled abroad.

These energetic persons became widely read, especially in Icelandic
literature, and wrote extensively under difficult circumstances:--in
fact all the modern authors represented in the present book may be
said to have been prolific as writers. Guðmundur Friðjónsson was
equally versatile as a writer of short stories and poems. He has a
rich command of imagery and diction, and his style, at times a
little pompous, is often powerful though slightly archaic in
flavour. The ancient heroic literature doubtless fostered his manly
ideas, which, however, sprang from his own experience in life. One
must, he felt, be hard on oneself, and on one's guard against the
vanity of newfangled ideas and against the enervating effect of
civilization. It is in the nature of things that with this farmer
and father of a family of twelve, assiduity, prudence, and self-
discipline should be among the highest virtues. This is notably
apparent in The Old Hay (Gamla heyið), which he wrote in 1909, and
which was published in Tólf sögur (Twelve stories) in 1915.

Jón Trausti (pseudonym of Guðmundur Magnússon) is best known as
the author of novels and short stories on contemporary and
historical themes, but he also wrote plays and poems. He was endowed