Elínborg Lárusdóttir was born in northern Iceland, but moved to Reykjavík in 1912, where she had to discontinue her studies due to tuberculosis. She was one of the most widely read writers in post-war Iceland. She married a clergyman, had two children, and made her debut in 1935 with the collection of short stories Sögur.
Like her ambitious historical novel Förumenn I-III, 1939-1940, which portrays the conflicts between traditional, family-based society and the young generation’s ideas about marriage, Strandakirkja, 1943, is also about conflicts between the old and the new, this time with a theme from history of religion. Her works, which as a whole are attracted by religious elements, from popular belief to spiritualism, are characterised by is a continuous search for fundamental values.
