Writer and Westfjords goði Eyvindur Eiríksson dies

Eyvindur Pétur Eiríksson, a writer, lecturer and Westfjords goði of the Ásatrúarfélagið association, has died at the age of 90, mbl.is reports. He died at Landspítalinn hospital on August 23.

Eyvindur was born in Hnífsdalur on December 13, 1935, to Eiríkur A. Guðjónsson and Gunnvör Rósa Samúelsdóttir, both of whom were born in Skjaldarbjarnarvík in the Strandir region.

He grew up in the Hornstrandir region and in Ísafjörður. He graduated from Menntaskólinn á Akureyri in 1955 and later worked at sea, in construction and in office jobs.

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

He taught at various educational levels in Ísafjörður, Reykjavík and Kópavogur. He hosted the Icelandic-language programme Daglegt mál on Icelandic State Radio and worked as its correspondent in Finland. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of Helsinki and at the Árni Magnússon Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

Eyvindur was a prolific writer and a prominent Icelandic-language scholar. He published numerous works of fiction and plays, several of which were broadcast on the radio. His works included Hvenær?, published in 1974, Hvaðan – Þaðan in 1978, Viltu in 1989 and Vertu in 1998, as well as the poetry collection Óreiðum augum: heiðin ljóð. His friend Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson composed music for the poems, and the book was published with a compact disc.

Eyvindur’s first published novel, Múkkinn, appeared in 1988 and won the Halldór Laxness Literary Award. He was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Awards in 1997 for his second novel, Landið handan fjarskans. The continuation novel Þar sem blómið vex og vatnið fellur was published in 1999.

Eyvindur was married to Margrét P. Guðmundsdóttir, and they had four children: Eiríkur Guðmundur, an operations economist and consultant; Gunnvör Rósa, a political scientist and upper-secondary school teacher; Eyjólfur Berg, a director and musician; and Erpur Þórólf, an artist.

He and Margrét divorced in 2000. His partner from 2005 was Gro-Tove Sandsmark of Norway, a former Norwegian visiting lecturer in Iceland. They lived together in Reykjavík and Norway until his death.

Eyvindur is survived by three great-grandchildren, Ari Eyvind, Lív Eyja and Katla Rún.