Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.02.2000, Blaðsíða 11

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Millennium Edition • Friday 4 February 2000 • 11
Return of the Icelander —a millennium later!
Tlie following is an excerfit from an inter-
view with Captain Gunnar Marel
Eggertsson conducted by Jón Einars.
Gustafsson.
ONE OF THE MAIN EVENTS of the
millennium celebrations this year
will be the sailing of the viking
ship íslendingur (“Icelander”) from
Iceland via Greenland, Newfoundland,
and Canada to the United States to cele-
brate one thousand years since Leifur
Eriksson and his crew came to the “New
World”. The viking ship íslendingur was
built by master shipbuilder and captain
Gunnar Marel Eggertsson, whose ship is
said to be the most detailed replica of the
Gaukstadir longship that is preserved at a
museum in Norway.
It certainly requires resourcefulness
to build a viking ship, and Capt.
Eggertsson’s efforts have indeed proved
worthwhile. The magnificent longship
íslendingur can sail at a speed of 16
knots, a fact that sheds light upon some of
the descriptions in the sagas, previously
thought to be exaggerations.
Said Capt. Eggertsson: “When you
get favourable winds and reach this kind
of speed, air bubbles start building under
the ship, and eventually it lifts and glides
on a cushion of air like a hovercraft. The
rudder hardly touches the water, hence all
you can do is go forward, unless you use
the sails to guide the ship”.
Watching Capt. Eggertsson sail his
longship is quite an experience. It appears
as if he is riding a horse. With one hand
he holds two strong ropes that lead up to
each corner of the 135 square-metre sail.
With the other hand, he holds the rudder
and gently guides the ship along. A crew
of at least eight people is required to work
the sail during a voyage, whereas at least
thirty-six people are required to row the
25-tonne ship when close to land. It
should be pointed out, that lack of wind is
rarely an issue around the shores of
Iceland and out on the North Atlantic
Ocean.
When asked by a Life magazine
reporter about the risks of crossing the
Atlantic in a viking ship, Capt.
Eggertsson simply replied: “I know what
I am doing!” He certainly does. In 1991
he was one of the captains of the
Norwegian viking ship Gaia, that sailed
from Norway to New York and from there
to Rio de Janeiro.
Most of the crew members on
íslendingur are highly experienced fisher-
men from Eggertsson’s hometown on the
Westman Islands; however, there will be
one woman onboard, Ellen Ingvadóttir,
who is following in the footsteps of the
viking woman Gudrídur Thorbjarn-ardót-
tir. Guðríður is known in the sagas for her
great travels a thousand years ago and
also for being the mother of the first
European child bom in North America.
The longship íslendingur will set sail
from Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavík, on
Iceland’s National Day, June 17. After
calling at Greenland, Islendingur will
amive at L’Anse aux Meadows,
Newfoundland, on July 28. After calling
at several ports in Newfoundland, Capt.
Eggertsson and his crew will commence
the journey to Halifax, Canada, and from
there head towards New York via ports on
the east coast of the United States.
Right: íslendingur in Reykjavík harbour.
2
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The best of Icelandic theatre Partnership
Icelandic writer-director Brynja Benediktsdóttir (right) with Irish actress Tristan
Gribbin in Iceland.
The Saga of Gudridur is a one-
woman show which follows the
saga of the courageous and vision-
ary Icelandic heroine Gudridur
Thorbjarnardottir. Her story describes the
first settlement in North America by peo-
ple from Iceland and Greenland five cen-
turies before Columbus, around the yeai'
1005. This was a'pivotal time when
Icelanders and Greenianders converted to
Christianity fronr their heathen beliefs.
After returning to Iceland, Gudridur made
a pilgrimmage on foot through Europe to
Rome to meet the Pope. The play was
written and directed by Brynja
Benediktsdottir, a well-known actress and
director in Iceland. She wrote three ver-
sions of the play: Icelandic, English, and
Swedish. All of them premiered in a the-
atre that Brynja and her actor husband,
Erlingur Gíslason, built as an extension to
their home in downtown Reykjavík. The
music for the play was written by Margrét
Omolfsdóttir, a former member of the
Sugarcubes, the Icelandic band that
launched Björk’s intemational career. The
Saga of Gudridur has so far been per-
fornied in Dublin, Prince Edward Island,
Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, Sweden
,and Finland. The actress who plays all
the play’s characters in this English lan-
guage version, including humans, ani-
rnals, and forces of nature, is Tristan
Gribbin.
DA V 1 D
Gislason is
chairing the
Millennium 125
commission.
The commission
consists of rep-
resentati ves
from all over
Cahada. The
name of the
commission reflects very well what it is
doing: “Millennium” for the thousand
years since Leifur Eiriksson came to
L’Anse aux Meadows, and “125” for the
125 years since the Icelanders'came the
the coast of Lake Winnipeg to settle in
Gimli, Manitoba. Millennium 125 is
working in close cooperation with the
chapters of the Icelandic National
League, with the INL itself, with the
Millennium Bureau of Canada andthe
representatives of the Icelandic
Govemment in Iceland and in Canada.
The initiative of the Millennium 125 and
of David Gislason especially is highly
evaluated by the Icelandic authorities.
For more information, visit our website: www.iceland2000.org