Lögberg-Heimskringla - 11.12.1992, Qupperneq 20

20 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 11. desember 1992
Chrístmas in an east coast village
By Oddný S. BJörgvins — Reykjavík
In few places around the globe is
Christmas more celebrated than
here on the top of the world, on this
ocean bound island close to the Arctic.
When the light begins to shorten and
the sun just peeps over the horizon,
sending a glow of pink rays over the
snow-clad mountains, we know
Christmas tide is near.
The mind is filled with certain regret;
a yeaming desire for Christmas of child-
hood.
The mind goes back to a dear
scenery, a picturesque, narrow fjord
enclosed by a steep mountain ring. In
the East fjords of Iceland Christmas was,
in the fífties, the event of the year for a
littlegirl.
In the shortest daylight, the sun was
hidden beyond the highest peaks for
three months. As Christmas got closer,
mysterious shadows, around the rocky
formations, hidden inside the snow-
packed valleys, began dancing down the
pink illuminated slopes. The moving
shades started taking forms of some liv-
ing beings. For a child, halfway inside
the adventure, it was easy to see
Jólasveinar (the Icelandic Santa Clauses)
creeping down the slopes towards the
village.
Now I wonder from where they are
coming, these mischievous sons of
Grýla? Are they products of the
Icelandic ghost stories or created out of
vivid shadows during Christmas? They
might also be related to the eccentric
wanderers, searching for food in the old
days, scaring people by peeping through
windows. Food is indeed very precious
for Jólasveinar who use various tricks to
get hold of it.
How different they are from the smil-
ing, white-bearded, red-uniformed Santa
Claus, always forwarding presents.
These foreign Santa Clauses take up
their pranky habits when playing with
Icelandic children, otherwise they
wouldn’t be accepted in Icelandic soci-
ety.
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Their mother, Grýla, is so old that her
name comes up in the Sagas from the
13th century. She might even have fol-
lowed the Vikings to Iceland. She is
related to the trolls that walk out of
rocky wildemess. Grýla played a big part
in the Icelandic upbringing during
Christmas time and her shadow is still
vivid.
The village houses clung to a steep
slope and the only thoroughfare was too
precipitous for a little girl with a mind
full of Christmas magic, with the eyes
focused on the mountains or the sky
(she didn’t want to miss the bright
Christmas star) so she frequently walked
off the trodden road and fell into the
deep snow heaps undemeath.
The northern lights were blinking
above. The stars were so bright that each
one could be the true Christmas star.
The face of the moon was as bright on
the surface of the sea as above. What
glorious days there were. The girl
inhaled the familiar surroundings, that
all of a sudden had become so magic
with all the Icelandic Christmas folklore
reflecting out of the landscape.
There was the stone bound troll in
the rift across the fjord, that had been
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