Bergsveinn Birgisson: Then and Now
–Iceland
Born 1971 in Reykjavík, he studied Old Norse philology at the University of Iceland, an expert in folklore and lyric poetry. He writes fiction, fairy tales, historical non-fiction. His book The Black Viking was published in Czech [Hledání černého Vikinga] (2019), in which he follows in the footsteps of his own ancestor, who belonged to Iceland's leading colonizers eleven centuries ago. In 2012, he was nominated for the Nordic Council Award for his novel Svar við bréfi Helga [Reply to a letter from Helga], in which an aging sheep farmer, years later, decides to answer his ex-mistress, with whom he once was to start a new life in the city. In his work, he combines the present with the long-past, discusses the clash of old and new mythologies, describes escapes from civilization and returns home.