When asked where he is from, Guðbergur Bergsson tends to say he is from Grindavik, not that he is from Iceland. Grindavik is a small Icelandic fishing village with a population of a few thousand. Bergsson's father was a fisherman and carpenter and his mother struggled to make ends meet. The only thing that was discussed at Grindavik was work; nobody talked about books. Guðbergur started out in life by drying cod when he was seven and when he was nine he worked on the land and later in a textile factory. He soon decided he did not want to become a fisherman, and while at university in Reykjavik he made a living from working in a mental institution. He got his teacher's diploma in 1955, but it is not clear whether he ever taught. He wanted to leave Iceland, so he continued his education in Barcelona. He remained in Spain for the next eight years and learned the language so well that he became Iceland's most prominent translator from Spanish and Portuguese. Among his translations are works by Cervantes and Gabriel García Marquez.