Tyrannos" finest and fullest. While at Reykjavik I wrote
"Nyarsnottin" (New Year's Night) and got it acted at the college, with
the greatest possible success. That drama formed a turning point in my
life--as the author of it I went to Copenhagen to pursue my studies as
graduate student. I left college made to half of what I am.

'While studying Political Science at Copenhagen I wrote the drama,
"Hellismenn" (The Cave-dwellers). I had come south with two other dramas
in my mind. But the atmosphere in Copenhagen was strongly realistic
at that time; my Romanticism was not able to withstand it. Without
my knowledge I turned to Realism, and when I began to think about my
intended dramas I could not write on them because all my thoughts had
taken another direction. After completing my examinations I returned,
Copenhagen having made the other half of what I am. In 1880 I was
appointed auditor of the Official Accounts of Iceland, and got married.
During the ten ensuing years I was buried under an avalanche of accounts
and official documents and could hardly hold my head up above the
waters. The wings of my soul drooped with exhaustion. My dramatic muse
awakened several times, but I could not receive her visits. At last,
in 1890, I began to write "Skipit sekkur" [The Ship is Sinking,--a
naturalistic drama], parts of which I rewrote seven times; so badly had
I treated my muse that she began to work so slowly....'

To this I shall only add that the poet has modestly omitted to state
that in his capacity of Chief of the Department of Statistics he is the
compiler of an excellent year-book on the trade relations and industries
of his native isle; that he is the author of several dramas not
mentioned by him; and that 'Sword and Crozier,' his latest drama (1899),
has already been translated into German and Danish.

I subjoin a synopsis of this play, in order to facilitate an
appreciation of it at the first reading.

Act I.--The chieftain of the North Quarter of Iceland, Kolbein the
Young, lies sick unto death from the after-effects of an old wound and
sends for his kinsmen and other nobles of the Quarter. While delivering
his message to them, Thorolf, his favorite (secretly the lover of the
chieftain's wife, Helga), and long a thorn in the flesh of these
proud men as an upstart, infuriates them anew by his insolent bearing.
Obedient to the call of their chief, they assemble about him to
determine on measures for the defence of the