Obituary: Eyvindur P. Eiríksson, chieftain of the Westfjords

Eyvindur Pétur Eiríksson, a writer, lecturer and chieftain of Iceland’s Ásatrúarfélagið in the Westfjords, has died at Landspítali hospital at the age of 90. He died on Aug. 23.

Born in Hnífsdal on Dec. 13, 1935, Eiríksson grew up in Hornstrandir and Ísafjörður. He graduated from Menntaskólinn á Akureyri in 1955, then worked at sea, in construction and in office jobs.

He completed a double BA at the University of Iceland in 1964, studying Danish, English, education and teaching, general linguistics and Finnish. He later studied Icelandic and earned a cand. mag. degree in Icelandic grammar, language history and comparative linguistics in 1977.

Eiríksson taught at schools in Ísafjörður, Reykjavík and Kópavogur. He hosted the Icelandic State Broadcasting programme Daglegt mál and worked as its correspondent in Finland. He also served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Helsinki and at the Árni Magnússon Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

He published numerous works of poetry, fiction and drama, some of which were broadcast on radio. His works included Hvenær? (1974), Hvaðan, Þaðan (1978), Viltu (1989), Vertu (1998) and the poetry collection Óreiðum augum: heiðin ljóð. His first novel, Múkkinn, appeared in 1988 and won the Halldór Laxness Literary Award. His later novel Landið handan fjarskans was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Awards in 1997, followed by the novel Þar sem blómið vex og vatnið fellur in 1999.

Eiríksson was married to Margrét P. Guðmundsdóttir, and they had four children. They divorced in 2000. From 2005, he lived with Gro-Tove Sandsmark, a Norwegian former visiting lecturer in Iceland, between Reykjavík and Norway.