LGBT literature in Iceland

[1][2] During the 20th century one of the most prominent queer authors was the bisexual writer Elías Mar, who published several novels in the 1940s with characters showing internal conflicts which some critics have interpreted as the result of their repressed homosexuality, particularly Man eg þig löngum (1949).

The saga also mentions Þorbjörn the weak, a man described as bad at work and fighting, but with whom Gudmundur is close and whom he hires with the sole charge of "bathing with his master".

[9][13][12] In 1927, the writer and future Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness published the novel Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír, in which he included one of the earliest references to homosexuality in modern Icelandic literature.

Laxness himself had written a letter two years earlier in which he had declared, in reference to the modernity the country's capital was reaching: "Reykjavík has suddenly obtained everything that suits a cosmopolitan city, not just a university and cinemas, but also soccer and homosexuality.

Eftir örstuttan leik (1946) tells the first-person story of Þórhall, a twenty-something student known as Bubba who lives in Reykjavík and who suffers an existential crisis for not being able to adapt to the social expectations of him.

[15] In August 1950 Mar wrote an article for the magazine Líf og list titled An episode from the London empire, in which he called for accepting the diversity of humanity, including transgender people and "love that does not dare to speak its name".

Does it make sense to have these thoughts?During the 1990s, three influential novels in local LGBT literature were published: Sú kvalda ást sem hugarfylgsnin geyma (1993) by Guðbergur Bergsson, Þriðja astin (1995) by Nína Björk Árnadóttir, and Z ástarsaga (1996) by Vigdís Grímsdóttir.

[8] In 2012 author and playwright Kristín Ómarsdóttir[6] published Milla, which follows a young lesbian of Asian descent who works as a librarian in Reykjavík, and begins a relationship with a woman named María.

[22] In 2013[23] the surrealist writer Sjón published the novel Mánasteinn, which at the time of its publication was described as "the gayest book in the history of Iceland" due to its explicit depiction of sexual relations between men.

[30] The play Góða ferð inn í gömul sár (2023), by Eva Rún Snorradóttir, deals with the HIV epidemic in Iceland during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly through the experiences of LGBT people at the time.