A generational shift occurred in Icelandic literature around the year 1920. Iceland had just achieved full sovereignty under the Danish Crown at the close of 1918, and in many fields--the social sciences, culture, and the arts--young, trailblazing minds and talents emerged. Among them were poets and novelists who shaped Icelandic literature for the next several decades.

New poetic voices--turning away from the heavy, philosophical style that the most prominent poets at the turn of the century, such as Einar Benediktsson, had epitomized--made themselves heard even in the early years of the twentieth century in Iceland. A light, simple, emotional style in the spirit of Scandinavian Neo-Romantic poetry at the beginning of the twentieth century became popular among a wide audience of Icelandic readers. No poet at this time attained greater popularity than Davíd Stefánsson frá Fagraskógi. Combining a poetic foundation in the national...