Read "Under the Glacier" by Halldór Laxness online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A little more than half an hour before I am due to board the long-distance bus, I catch sight of the district officer of the Langavatn people, farmer Helgi of Torfhvalastaðir, shuffling his feet on the paving in front of the house, holding a red horse by the reins. Eventually he decides to knock on the door of the parsonage, but the hammering cannot be heard in the "old house," at least it doesn't reach the leathern ears of Miss Hnallþóra. So the pastor's overnight guest goes to the door and greets the district officer of the Langavatn people.
Langvetningur: Greetings and blessings, vice-bishop! What luck for me that all the ecclesiastical authorities haven't gone with the wind! Though you're all apathetic, I'm still counting on you. I come back to the trifling matter I was mentioning to old pastor Jón yesterday morning.