Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.07.2004, Blaðsíða 8

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by Erna Kaaber
THE MIDGARD SERPENT LIVES
For thousands of years the giant serpent has surfaced in mythol-
ogy. Past cultures have described him as, among other things, the
swirling protector of the earth and the destroyer of the gods. The
creature is thought to dwell in the oceans, swimming his course in
the period of a thousand years and girdles the world holding his tail
in his mouth. Recently, our new myth-makers, the scientists, have
rediscovered the beast, giving him a brand new name - the Con-
veyor belt.
by Paul Fontaine-Nikolov
Happy Birthday to Freedom
Iceland is no longer the isolated nation it once was and as the
world gets smaller, some of the harder facts of life for many in this
world have made it to our fair shores. In response to this, many
Icelanders have been active in charities, volunteer work, and human
rights issues. It was this growing spirit of “we have to do something”
which lead to the formation of the Icelandic division of Amnesty
International thirty years ago.
While the history of Amnesty
International in Iceland is a modest
one, what they’ve been able to
accomplish in this short time
is nothing short of remarkable.
Formally established on September
15, 1974 at the Nordic House,
the initial membership - brought
together through the efforts of
Sigrún Sigurjónsdóttir - numbered
a scant ninety-five. Since then,
membership has multiplied and
they’ve employed their tried-and-
true methods to free many political
prisoners, including a man held in
Syria for fifteen years before the
government finally agreed to release
him.
Since 9/11, Amnesty International
has been very busy trying to ensure
that human rights are not sacrificed
in the name of security, putting
particular focus on the prisoners
being held in Guantánamo Bay,
in Iraq, and in Afghanistan. Their
tactics are simple: the release of
one major report every year, several
smaller reports throughout the year,
and the well known letter-writing
campaign. By sending personal and
diplomatically-worded letters from
all over the world to authorities
detaining prisoners of conscience,
they convey the clear message, “We
know what you’re doing and we
want you to stop.” Surprisingly,
even ruthless dictators are concerned
about public relations, and Amnesty
International’s efforts have generally
been successful.
Amnesty International also employs
what’s known as an “own country
rule”; for reasons of safety and
objectivity, a division of Amnesty
International cannot act in the
country to which it belongs.
Although there are exceptions to
this rule - such as in the United
States, where members there can
urge their own government to end
capital punishment - Iceland has
never appeared in an Amnesty
International report, so it remains
solidly focused on the world around
it and its numbers are growing.
There is no typical Amnesty
International volunteer; they
represent many different races,
religions and political points of view
- but they all share a deep concern
for human rights.
This summer, you might notice
young people walking the streets
in Amnesty International t-shirts.
These are members of Amnesty
International who are part of a new
“fact-to-face” method, wherein they
will personally encourage people to
take part in Amnesty International.
For you musicians out there who
are concerned about human rights,
Amnesty International is planning
on holding a 30th anniversary
concert in mid-September. All
interested bands should get in touch
with them now, as bookings are
filling up quickly.
Anyone interested in learning more
about Amnesty International can
visit either www.amnesty.org or
www.amnesty.is
Not long ago men discovered how
the ocean currents flow in counter
directions, on the surface and
beneath. All the world´s oceans are
connected by this mechanism of
nature. The weather and our well-
being are derived from this ‘great
serpent’. The warm water flows to
the North Atlantic, ensuring a mild
climate which cools and sinks north
of Iceland. In currents in the sea
depths the water travels and will
not surface again until it reaches the
Indian Ocean or the Pacific. From
there it travels back in a seemingly
endless circle. Or is it indeed
endless?
The end of our civilisation
“Conveyor belt” is not a fancy name,
at least not as fancy as earlier cultures
gave this luring serpent that encircles
the earth. It had elegant names as
Nü-Kua, Tiamat and Aido-Hwedo
but here in Iceland those phenomena
were called Jörmundgandur or the
Midgard-serpent. The old myths tell
his tale. He was a tiny little creature
in the beginning, born of a giant
called Angur-boða, fathered by the
trickster Loki. He was thrown into
the oceans by Odin, the high god of
the old Scandinavian religion, where
it seems as though the mighty one
sealed his own fate.
Nobody knows for sure how
fragile the Conveyor belt is or how
any change in the flow of these
magnificent ocean rivers will reflect
upon the stability of tomorrow´s
climate. Those who fear the worst
see a new Ice Age and the end of
our civilisation as a result of any
disturbance of the Midgard serpent.
The disturbances of Jörmungandur,
the Midgard Serpent, is a part of the
doomsday scenario described in the
old sayings of the “völvas”. Edda, the
collected sayings of the Scandinavian
myths, informs us that a giant winter,
Fimbulvetur, will come at the end
of times. It is supposed to last for
three years causing devastation to the
inhabitants of the world, changing
the climate dramatically. As the old
Prophecy has it:
It gorges upon the flesh of death-
promised men,
It bloodies the Gods seat;
Black will shine the sun
During next summers,
Awful all the storms.
Do you still need more?
Thor battles the Serpent
More is Ragnarök, the end of the
world as we know it (and I feel fine
-ed.). Men will be at each others
throats, the innocent will suffer and
dreadful giants will roam the earth
fighting the old Æsir-gods (I wonder
how REM feel about that -ed).
From the East drives Hrymur, lifts
up his shield;
Jörmungandur squirms with rage
Taken by the giants’ frenzy.
The great worm whips the waves
the pale-beaked eagle Niðfölur pecks
at the dead,
The ship of death Naglfari is free.
Odin himself is swallowed by the
Fenris-wolf and other gods drop
dead in as different ways as they
are many. The world-serpent,
Jörmungandur, twists and turns in
the ocean, causing a tidal wave and
engages in the final battle with
Thor, the great warrior-son of the
earth, Fjörgyn. That great warrior
gives Jörmundgandur his final blow,
but Thor only manages to take nine
steps away from the grand serpent
corpse and there he drops dead
himself, unable to bear the venom
from the serpents mouth.
The next Ice Age
The weak spot in the ocean’s
conveyor belt is north of Iceland.
Scientists worry that rapidly melting
arctic ice will result in a huge
increase in the flow of fresh and cold
currents from the north. This in
turn could disrupt the conveyor belt
or possibly push south the northern
sink. That could again lead to the
next Ice Age, with permafrost in
most parts of Northern America
and Europe. The worst thing is that
scientists have a hard time settling
their differences on whether this will
be a gradual change, taking decades,
or whether this will not materialise
in hundreds or thousands of years.
Then again, there is evidence, for
example from the core drilling to the
bottom of Greenland Glacier, that
climate changes can be sudden.
If there is any consolation, the
Old Norse mythologies promised a
fair afterlife, although very few made
it as almost the entire population was
wiped out of existence.
It is only a little more than a decade
ago that wise men of our time
discovered the interconnectedness
of the world oceans and how life
on earth draws its life from this
magnificent mechanism. Honest
scientists will admit that the
elements of this ocean serpent are
still hidden from them. Most will
admit as well that even a slight
disturbance of Jörmungand could
have a tremendous impact on
our lives. If man by his actions is
disturbing the peace of the serpent,
he might have sacrificed too much.
Odin, possibly thinking as a true
environmentalist might have, had
this in mind when he says in his
poem: “Better not to pray at all, than
to sacrifice too much. A gift requires
a gift in return”.
Or do we still need more?
Elderly American mobbed by
Icelandic women
62 year old Har-
rison Ford went
out for a drink
at Thorvaldsen
one Friday night.
He was there
mobbed by a
group of elderly women who tried
to kiss and touch him and had to
be escorted out by doormen. He
then fled to Dillon, where the
younger patrons allowed him to
drink in peace.
Oddsson and Bush discuss
future of the NATO base
In a meeting
on July 6th in
Washington,
D.C. Prime
Minister Davíð
Oddsson and President George
W. Bush discussed the as-yet un-
determined future of the NATO
base in Iceland. Bush said that his
administration still needs to gather
more information before making
any formal decisions, but that Ice-
land will continue to play in active
role in US foreign policy.
Hringbraut re-construction
quakes neighborhood
Hringbraut,
which will
be moved off
its current
location to join
Miklabraut,
has involved the use of explosives,
much to the dismay of residents
in the area where the blasting is
being done, who have compared
the tremours to earthquakes. The
blasting, according to planners,
is supposed to end in a few days,
although no date has been set.
Þingvellir becomes part of
UNESCO world heritage list
Þingvellir,
the site of
the world´s
first parlia-
ment in the
year 930, was formally added to
UNESCO´s list of world heritage
sites on 3 July at an international
meeting held in Suzhou, China.
Minister of Justice Björn Bjar-
narson, who was in attendance,
described the meeting as “more
dramatic” then he´d expected.
Whither the F-15s?
While Prime Minister Davíð
Oddsson was able last May to
persuade the US to keep F-15
fighter planes that they planned to
withdraw from the NATO base,
he added that if air force personel
were to leave, navy personel would
have to leave, too, citing the need
for a clear committment from
the United States regarding their
presence in Iceland. The Bush ad-
ministration has maintained that
the F-15s are needed elsewhere.
H
.S
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