Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.03.1999, Side 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 26. mars 1999 • 5
Thuríður Formann
RlNG OF SEASONS
IŒLAND —
(ts Culture
Hístory
TfrryG. Lacy
i
Ring of Seasons: Iceland—Its Culture
and History is the title ofa book written
by Terry G. Lacy, published by the
University of Michigan Press. Terry G.
Lacy is a professor in Sociology at the
University of Iceland; born and educat-
ed in the United States, her “deep inter-
est in cultural differences and in Iceland
in particular led her to accept a
Fullbright Senior Lectureship in 1973
and subsequently to make her home in
Reykjavík. ”
Terry G. Lacy brings the perspec-
tive of an outsider as well as the famil-
iar eye of a long-term resident to her
delightful book where the reader is
given an insight into most every area of
life in Iceland. In Ring of Seasons Terry
G. Lacy conveys her story with interlac-
ing ofhistory, religion, politics and cul-
ture, painting a vivid picture of the way
Icelanders live today as members of a
wealthy society still dependent upon
nature.
Terry G. Lacy is a scholar with
training in sociology, anthropology,
and psychology, which makes her a
keeti observer. She mentions that little
or no difference is made in the upbring-
ing of boys and girls in Iceland. Thefol-
lowing story is an example ofan inde-
pendent woman who lived in the eigh-
teenth century.
WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN fished
the high seas, probably from
the beginning of coloniza-
tion. Records from the seventeenth
through the nineteenth centuries show
that it was fairly common for women to
fish. The most famous of these, in fact
the most famous of all Iceland’s fore-
men, was Thuríður Einarsdóttir, who
became known as Thuríður Formann.
Bom in Stokkseyri in the south of
Iceland in 1777, she first went “rowing”
with her father when she was only
eleven. After his death she rowed for
her brother for six years.
Thuríður was slight but strong, with
rather broad shoulders, an able sailor
but also a fast walker. One visiting for-
eigner had to spur her horse to keep up
with her. She was alert, observant, and
determined. She tried working for a
farmer once, but she wasn’t good at tak-
ing orders from others. She had a hard
gaze and was given to quick retorts, evi-
dence of her drive and intelligence, but
even when she was slandered she never
swore. The men were comfortable row-
ing with her and enjoyed her company
on land as well.
Since women’s clothes did not fit
well under a fisherman’s oilskins,
Thuríður, like the other women who
fished, leamed young to dress like a
man. In time she took to wearing men’s
clothes at home for comfort but, since it
was against the law in Iceland, as else-
where at the time, for anyone to appear
publicly dressed like the opposite sex,
she wore women’s clothes outside her
home. One day, after one of Iceland’s
most famous robberies, Kambsrán, she
was called to appear before the magis-
trate without having time to change her
clothes.
“I would not have come dressed
like this,” she excused herself, “only the
men insisted.”
“Never mind,” the magistrate
replied. “If you can identify who owns
these objects, I’ll give you legal permis-
sion to wear men’s clothes all the time.”
So saying, he produced the things
the robbers had left behind in their care-
lessness. By identifying the stitching on
a pair of fishskin shoes Thuríður was
able to name the woman who had sewn
them, thereby leading to the robbers.
For a while after giving this informam-
tion she was worried for her own safety,
but eventually the four men guilty of
the robbery were brought to justice,
punished by whipping and imprison-
ment, and made to repay the stolen
money.
Three times Thuríður was maligned
because she wore men’s clothes. She
sued the offenders for slander and won
the lawsuit each time.
Thuríður was engaged more than
once and later married, but none of the
unions lasted for long. A man named
Erlendur proposed to her. However, like
everyone else, she was superstitious
and, since they lived on a farm that was
also “inhabited” by the fetch Sels-Móri,
she refused to marry him. In 1808 she
was pregnant with Erlendur’s child but
continued to fish all winter. After the
couple left the farm, sure enough, the
fetch was seen.
Thuríður bore a daughter and sup-
ported them both by fishing, but the lit-
tle girl sickened during the third winter
and died the following summer, a loss
that Thuríður felt deeply. Two years
later her brother Bjami went rowing,
taking his axe with him. When the boat
capsized he managed to sink the head of
the axe into the bottom of the boat and
hang on, but though he shouted for
help, the wind was too strong and the
seas too high for anyone to be able to
save him. They could only watch while
he drowned.
In time Thuríður was made fore-
man, and people began to call her
Thuríður ur Formann in imitation of the
Danish custom of taking a person’s
occupation as the last name. In good
fishing years she did well and at one
time even had as many as three ser-
vants. In poorer years she helped feed
others when she did not have to struggle
to keep herself fed. Finally, in 1843, at
the age of 66 she retired after 25 years
of being foreman. She died in 1848.
Reprinted with permission of the
University of Michigan Press.
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