Iceland's Bell (novel)

Like many of Laxness's works, the story paints a tragic and ironic picture of the terrible state of the Icelandic populace in the 18th century.

This character is based on an actual historical figure, Thordis Jónsdóttir, who was the daughter of the bishop of Hólar and was widely considered at the time to be the most beautiful woman in southern Iceland.

In the end, Arnas does not marry the woman of his heart, Snæfríður, but stays with his rich Danish wife who financed his life's work.

The character Arnas Arnæus is based on Árni Magnússon, an Icelandic scholar who collected and preserved a great deal of medieval manuscripts.

The Icelandic painter Jóhannes Kjarval depicts the "cutting down the bell" scene from Íslandsklukkan in a painting of the same title that currently hangs in the Kjarvalstadir museum, in Reykjavík.