Lögberg-Heimskringla - 19.09.1963, Blaðsíða 3

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 19. SEPTEMBER 1963
3
— Business and Professional Cards —
not very popular, but those
few who have ventured into
this field have on the whole
been less restricted by tradi-
tion than the novelists. As a
consequence, a considerable
number of fine and original
pieces have been produced in
this limited field.
POETRY—MOST LIVELY
Icelandic poetry is by far
the most lively and prolific of
t'he literary arts. This is partly
due to the fact that there was
never any one continuous tra-
dition prevalent in Icelandic
poetry, but rather a numbér
of parallel and successive cur-
rents. Also, Icelandic poets
have been less wary of foreign
influences, with the result
that the poetry reflects a good
deal more of what has been
going on in Europe and Am-
erica in this century, without
therefore sacrificing what is
specifically Icelnadic in out-
look, sensibility and language.
Traditional Icelandic poetry
has some highly distinctive
features, the most notable of
which is alliteration, a poetic
device dating back to the
dawn of Icelandic history and
even further back, as is indi-
oated by Old English poetry,
e.g. “Beowulf” and “The An-
cient Mariner”. This device is
such a natural part of the
poetic heritage that it is still
widely used by modern poets,
even some of those who have
abandoned rhyme and metre.
There were two main par-
allel currents in Medieval
Icelandic poetry, the Eddic
and the Skaldic one; the for-
mer simple in diction, direct
and dramatic; the latter elab-
orate, artificial and factual.
The Eddic tradition has had
a more lasting influence on
later poetry, which on the
whole is simple and epic in
style, while Skaldic poetry has
to some degree survived in
the peculiar and p o p u la r
rimur, verses composed of al-
literative four-line stanzas,
whose rhyme-schemes have
become so elaborate that over
two thousand varieties have
been recorded. The most elab-
orate varieties are those called
hringhenda and sléttuhond.
The latter variety can be read
both backwards and forwards
with full sense — sometimes
they have the opposite mean-
ing when read backwards. In-
deed there are stanzas of this
kind which can be read in
ninety-six different ways —
making sense all the time and
observing all the rules of al-
literation and rhyme.
This popular art has been
a favourite pastime among
the general public for cen-
turies and still is very popu-
lar, as may be seen in the
newspapers of Reykjavik al-
most every day.
A FERTILE PERIOD
Modern Icelandic poetry of
the last thirty years or so has
moved away from the tradi-
tional outward excellence of
metre and high-sounding dic-
tion, and endeavours to look
inward to capture the more
evasive qualities of intuition,
sensibility and feeling which
is the main business of all
real poetry. This has in many
cases resulted in a loosening-
up of strict metric forms,
freer modes of expression, but
at fche same time more pre-
cision in diction and in the
use of imagery which has be-
come much more daring, rich
and variegated.
Icelandic poetry has had an
extremely fertile period dur-
ing the past twenty years. A
fairly large number of young
and very dissimilar poets is
now writing good p o e t r y ,
which has found its way to
the world at large and is be-
ing translated into many lan-
guages.
The Grand Old Man of the
modern trend in Icelandic po-
etry was Steinn Steinarr
(1908-58), a very skillful
verse-maker but above all a
man of exquisite artistic sen-
sibility and great courage. He
established modern poetry in
Iceland, against heavy odds,
especially with his last collec-
tion of poems, a cycle called
“Time and the Water” (1948).
Iceland Review.
SMOKED EEL
This delicacy is now being
exported by Samband
isl. samvinnufelaga, Reykja-
vik. As Iceland’s leading ex-
porter of various fish prod-
ucts, Samband opened a Prod-
ucts Development Plant at
Hafnarfjordur in June, 1962.
This plant has modern smok-
ing facilities, which were or-
iginally mainly intended for
eel smoking. It has been
known for a long time that
eel was to be found in the
clear Icelandic lakes and la-
goons. Still the Icelanders
have never known how to
utilize this delicious fish, not
even at times when the popu-
lation was threatened by star-
vation.
Last year about 100 farmers
all over the country were giv-
en the opportunity of cateh-
ing eels with eel traps sup-
plied by Samband, and smok-
ed eel was exported for the
first time. Experiments have
also been made with the
smoking of various kinds of
other fish, such as salmon,
trout and haddock for the
home market and herring for
export.
Iceland Review.
"SIGLO" FOR QUALITY
Icelanders are a great her-
ring-fishing nation, and the
main base in the north of Ice-
land for the herring fleet in
summer is at Siglufjordur.
This is a small port, quiet and
bleak in winter, which sud-
denly is transformed in early
summer with the coming of
the herring into a centre of
bustling activity. The little
town then assumes the ap-
pearance of a gold-rush. Peo-
ple do in fact call the unpleas-
ant odour from fche herring
processing factories the
“money smell”. And for all
the workers who flock to Sig-
lufjordur from all over Ice-
land this really is a smell of
money. It is here, too, that the
“SIGLO” herring-canning fac-
tory is situated. “SIGLO” is
a newrtadmekahtrsj„a ffl —
a new trademark that has
rapidly acquired popularity
on the domestic market, and
its sale is now being promoted
abroad.
Iceland Review.
Mjór er mikils vísir.
* * *
Mikið skal til mikils vinna.
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