Paradise Reclaimed by Halldor Laxness

Now the snow lay deep over the land; and a great darkness; and no entertainments for the last hundred and fifty years, as was said before; scarcely a light indoors, let alone love or money. But most people understood God, and many could understand sheep (more or less); none the heart. People mumbled old verses to themselves or muttered proverbs, and youth drank life from the sagas. It should be recorded, however, that a certain young lad had become a little smaller than Egill Skallagrímsson since the previous year; but farming sense had not ousted his viking temperament to the extent of making him put the ewes to the ram. At the end of the rutting season some good neighbours bestirred themselves and made arrangements to provide for the sheep that were still in season at Hlíðar in Steinahlíðar. But unfortunately the cows were completely overlooked. There was no one with enough intelligence left on the farm, said the woman.

Late in January, while most of the darkness still lay over the land and the world was lost beneath the snow, it so happened that a magnificent outburst of barking roused echoes in the hearts of the family at Hlíðar. It was a long time since Snati had taken the trouble to go up on the roof, they said; and this was certainly not a matter of baying at the moon-there was a kind of silver edge to his bark.