Interesting Icelander for July 2025
- Sharron Arksey
- Jul 19
- 2 min read
By Sharron Arksey
Western Icelanders are familiar with many authors from the land of their ancestors, but there are still some they may not be aware of.
Take, for example, Þórdís Gísladóttir, who celebrates her birthday on July 14 and is Icelandic Root’s Important Icelander for the month.
The author is arguably best known for her children’s and Young Adult novels. The adventures of best friends Randalin and Mundi have delighted readers over the past decade. One of the books was made into a television series which aired in December 2022. Her first book in the series received the Icelandic Booksellers Prize and the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize, and subsequent Randalin and Mundi books have also been nominated.
The two Doddi books, a separate series about a 14-year-old boy, have also received award nominations. Doddi’s main interests are insects and girls. His best friend Pauwel is interested in the European Union and mathematics, and helping Doddi get a girlfriend.
The children’s and YA books have been praised for their humor, imagination, and the easy-going way they approach difficult and scary situations.
Þórdís’s poetry has also brought her acclaim. She won the Thomas Gudmansson Award in 2010 for her first poetry work Leyndarmál annarra (Secrets of Others). Her second book, Velúr (Velvet) (2014), was nominated for the Icelandic literature prize. A fourth book Óvissustig (2016), was nominated for The May Star (Maístjarnan), a poetry award given by The Icelandic Writers' Union and The National and University Library of Iceland for the best poetry book of the year and she won this award in 2023 for her sixth book Aðlögun (Adaptation).
Þórdís studied language and literature at the University of Iceland and earned a degree in bilingual studies from Uppsala University in Sweden.
Her proficiency in the Swedish language has enabled her to explore employment as a translator. Þórdís has translated seventeen books by Swedish authors, including Henning Mankell, Linda Boström Knausgård, Kristian Lundberg, Lena Andersson, and Ingmar Bergman.
She has worked as a project manager and university teacher at the University of Iceland and the Uppsala University in Sweden, been a web editor for the Nordic Council and she has translated a play for the Reykjavik City Theater, edited a journal about children's literature, written about literature for the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen and made radio programs for The Icelandic National Radio.
That is an impressive resume. Although her works have been translated into various European languages, it does not appear that English is one of them at this time. Hopefully, this will change.
Source
"Þórdís Gísladóttir." (16 June 2024.) Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9E%C3%B3rd%C3%ADs_G%C3%ADslad%C3%B3ttir : 28 May 2025.
