Unnameable dao and unnamed de

On Halldor Laxness’s Interpretation of the Daodejing

Abstract

The spellbinding Daoist classic, the Daodejing, exerted considerable influence on the Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, apparently since his very early years. Traces of the philosophy found in this text can be found in many of his literary works, especially in relation to his most memorable characters, and some such examples are mentioned in this article. Its main focus, however, are the few and short writings in which he explicitly sought to explain and interpret this ancient Chinese text. In the context of his interpretations, the existing five Icelandic translations of the Daodejing are discussed and some comparison made between them. The main argument of this article rests upon my attempt to provide a philosophical interpretation of its two main notions, dao and de, from which I proceed to show that while Laxness was mainly interested in the former of the two, it is actually the latter that mainly resounds in his literary works, even though he never mentioned it explicitly.