SUMMARY

ERLA HULDA HALLDÓRSDÓTTIR

I AM YOUR LOVER.

BALDVIN EINARSSON’S LETTERS TO KRISTRÚN JÓNSDÓTTIR, 1825–1832.

This book revolves around the correspondence between Baldvin Einarsson (1801–1833) and Kristrún Jónsdóttir (1806–1881) from 1825–1832. It consists of an introduction and edited transcriptions of Baldvin’s letters to Kristrún.

Baldvin and Kristrún were engaged to marry when he left Iceland in 1826 to study at the University of Copenhagen. They had tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain permission for her to accompany him. Baldvin, who was both ambitious and patriotic, soon became involved in Icelandic nationalist circles in Denmark, taking an active part in the expatriates’ discussions of political, literary, cultural, and nationalist issues regarding their homeland. Baldvín is thus a well-known figure in Icelandic history. Being sensitive and influenced by romanticism, Baldvin was enchanted by the city, nature, and the beauty of women. He soon became intimate with a Danish woman, Johanne Hansen. In 1827, he confessed his infidelity to Kristrún, but despite his good intentions, he did not end the relationship with Johanne, who eventually became pregnant. Baldvin married her in 1828, “half-willing, half-compelled”, to quote one of his friends. Living in Copenhagen, he kept the marriage a secret until 1831.

In December 1832, Baldvin was severely injured when his bed hangings caught fire, and he died of his injuries in February 1833. Kristrún married in 1840 and had four children. According to family legend, Baldvin's letters, which she kept, were her most precious possession, and her chronic illness was said to be the result of Baldvin’s betrayal.

Notwithstanding his betrayal and marriage, Baldvin continued to write love letters to Kristrún, in which he expressed his deep affection for her. However, only one side of this correspondence has survived. Kristrún’s letters are lost, and her voice -- her feelings -- are only an echo in Baldvin’s letters and in those of other family members, although some hints of how she felt can be found in the poems she wrote.

In a detailed introduction, Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir, professor of History, University of Iceland, narrates the love story of Baldvin and Kristrún against the background of social and cultural circumstances in early nineteenth-century Iceland. Drawing on her extensive studies of letters and correspondence, she discusses this correspondence in the light of international research on epistolary practice: the gaps and silences, deception, and discourse in love letters.

The performative elements of the correspondence and its relation to literature are pointed out and examined. “My life is like a tragic novel, I am sure many would cry while reading it”, Baldvin wrote in 1830. Baldvin and Kristrún apparently agreed to maintain their relationship through letters, constructing a kind of epistolary world of love and longing, acknowledging that they would never be united in this life, but in eternity. She was his “significant other”.

The love story of Kristrún and Baldvin raises classic questions about the interpretation and representation of sources, of women’s (gendered) agency in Iceland in the 1820s and 1830s, and how myths about people and events of the past originate. Kristrún has usually been portrayed as a victim in this story. However, while it is Baldvin who is the “wrongdoer” (his words), Kristrún did forgive him after what seems to have been a period of silence and reflection, accepting her role as his “one true fiancée”. The culmination of that role may perhaps have come in 1836 when his three-year-old son was sent (temporarily) to Iceland, and Kristrún expressed her wish to foster the child.

Keywords: Correspondence, epistolary practices, love letters, emotions, gender, 19^th century, Iceland