{"id":525,"date":"2025-06-02T12:17:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/?page_id=525"},"modified":"2025-07-21T10:19:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:19:05","slug":"i-am-your-lover-eg-er-thinn-elskari","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/english-2\/i-am-your-lover-eg-er-thinn-elskari\/","title":{"rendered":"I am your lover - summary - \u00c9g er \u00feinn elskari"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY<\/p>\n

ERLA HULDA HALLD\u00d3RSD\u00d3TTIR<\/p>\n

I AM YOUR LOVER.<\/p>\n

BALDVIN EINARSSON\u2019S LETTERS TO KRISTR\u00daN J\u00d3NSD\u00d3TTIR, 1825\u20131832.<\/p>\n

This book revolves around the correspondence between Baldvin Einarsson (1801\u20131833) and Kristr\u00fan J\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir (1806\u20131881) from 1825\u20131832. It consists of an introduction and edited transcriptions of Baldvin\u2019s letters to Kristr\u00fan.<\/p>\n

Baldvin and Kristr\u00fan 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\u2019 discussions of political, literary, cultural, and nationalist issues reg\"\"arding their homeland. Baldv\u00edn 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 Kristr\u00fan, but despite his good intentions, he did not end the relationship with Johanne, who eventually became pregnant. Baldvin married her in 1828, \u201chalf-willing, half-compelled\u201d, to quote one of his friends. Living in Copenhagen, he kept the marriage a secret until 1831.<\/p>\n

In December 1832, Baldvin was severely injured when his bed hangings caught fire, and he died of his injuries in February 1833. Kristr\u00fan 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\u2019s betrayal.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding his betrayal and marriage, Baldvin continued to write love letters to Kristr\u00fan, in which he expressed his deep affection for her. However, only one side of this correspondence has survived. Kristr\u00fan\u2019s letters are lost, and her voice -- her feelings -- are only an echo in Baldvin\u2019s letters and in those of other family members, although some hints of how she felt can be found in the poems she wrote.<\/p>\n

In a detailed introduction, Erla Hulda Halld\u00f3rsd\u00f3ttir, professor of History, University of Iceland, narrates the love story of Baldvin and Kristr\u00fan 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.<\/p>\n

The performative elements of the correspondence and its relation to literature are pointed out and examined. \u201cMy life is like a tragic novel, I am sure many would cry while reading it\u201d, Baldvin wrote in 1830. Baldvin and Kristr\u00fan 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 \u201csignificant other\u201d.<\/p>\n

The love story of Kristr\u00fan and Baldvin raises classic questions about the interpretation and representation of sources, of women\u2019s (gendered) agency in Iceland in the 1820s and 1830s, and how myths about people and events of the past originate. Kristr\u00fan has usually been portrayed as a victim in this story. However, while it is Baldvin who is the \u201cwrongdoer\u201d (his words), Kristr\u00fan did forgive him after what seems to have been a period of silence and reflection, accepting her role as his \u201cone true fianc\u00e9e\u201d. The culmination of that role may perhaps have come in 1836 when his three-year-old son was sent (temporarily) to Iceland, and Kristr\u00fan expressed her wish to foster the child.<\/p>\n

Keywords:<\/strong> Correspondence, epistolary practices, love letters, emotions, gender, 19th<\/sup> century, Iceland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY ERLA HULDA HALLD\u00d3RSD\u00d3TTIR I AM YOUR LOVER. BALDVIN EINARSSON\u2019S LETTERS TO KRISTR\u00daN J\u00d3NSD\u00d3TTIR, 1825\u20131832. This book revolves around the correspondence between Baldvin Einarsson (1801\u20131833) and Kristr\u00fan J\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir (1806\u20131881) from 1825\u20131832. It consists of an introduction and edited transcriptions of Baldvin\u2019s letters to Kristr\u00fan. Baldvin and Kristr\u00fan were engaged to marry when he left Iceland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":0,"parent":230,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-525","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525\/revisions\/566"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uni.hi.is\/ehh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}