Árni Bergmann


Árni Jóhannsson Bergmann is an Icelandic writer, newspaper editor, literary critic, and translator of Russian literary works.

Career

Bergmann studied Russian at Moscow State University and received his Master of Arts from the institution in 1962. Shortly thereafter, he joined the staff of the Socialist-leaning Icelandic newspaper Þjóðviljinn as a journalist and columnist. He became the paper’s foremost literary critic and served as editor-in-chief during 1978 to 1992.
In addition to his work with Þjóðviljinn, Bergmann taught classes in literature, literary history, and various topics in Russian literature and language at the University of Iceland from 1973 until 2004.
He is best known for his third novel, Þorvaldur víðförli: Skáldsaga, a fictionalized account of the life of tenth century Icelandic skald and missionary Þorvaldur víðförli, which was published in 1994. The novel earned him nomination for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1994 and the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1998. In 2015, he published a Russian translation of Þorvaldur víðförli
One of Iceland’s most prolific literary translators, he has translated a broad variety of works from Russian to Icelandic. Most of his translations are focused on works from the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century and include, for example, novels by Nina Berberova and Valentin Katayev; short stories by Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Daniil Kharms, and Mikhail Sholokhov; poems by Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Boris Pasternak; and essays by Ilya Ehrenburg and Viktor Shklovsky, among many others.

Personal life

Bergmann was born in Keflavík, an Icelandic town southwest of Reykjavík, on 22 August 1935 to Jóhann Stefánsson Bergmann, a fisherman and driver, and Halldóra Árnadóttir, a housewife. He is the second eldest of four brothers, the others being Hörður, born in 1933; Stefán, born in 1942; and Jóhann, born in 1946.
His wife was Lena Bergmann, born Elena Rytsjardovna Túvína in Ryazan, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, the eldest child of Soffía, a dentist, and Ryszard Tuwim, an engineer. Lena and Árni met while both were studying Russian at the Moscow State University and were married in the fall of 1958. Their first child, Snorri, was born in 1961, when they were still living in Moscow. The young family moved to Iceland in 1962. Their second child, Olga Soffía, was born in 1967. Together, Árni and Lena wrote Blátt og rautt: bernska og unglingsár í tveim heimum, contrasting their experiences growing up in Iceland and the Soviet Union, respectively.
Bergmann has never taken a drivers test and bicycling has been his primary means of transportation since returning to Iceland form Russia in 1962.

Fiction

Bergman has written four novels and two children’s books.

Novels

Geirfuglarnir – 1982Með kveðju frá Dublin – 1984Þorvaldur víðförli – 1994Sægreifi deyr – 1999

Children’s books

Stelpan sem var hrædd við dýr – 1994, with illustrations by Olga BergmannÓskastundir: saga handa börnum – 1997, with illustrations by Margrét Laxness

Non-fiction

  • – 2010

Memoirs

Miðvikudagar í Moskvu – 1979Blátt og rautt: bernska og unglingsár í tveim heimum – 1986, with Lena Bergmann
  • – 2015

Scholarly works

Listin að lesa – 2005
  • Glíman við Guð – 2008

Translations to Icelandic

Novels

Plays

Short stories

Other