Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2008, Page 10

10 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 16—2008
Along with the previously Dagsson-ified tale of
the Deacon of Dark River (“Djákninn á Myrká” –
issue 10), the story of Miklabæjar-Solveig is prob-
ably as close to “Gothic romance” as Icelandic
folklore, with all its farmers and fishermen, gets.
It has been re-told countless times over the past
centuries, and has been used as the base for all
sorts of artistic and cultural output.
A young woman by the name of Solveig was
a resident of minister Oddur Gíslason’s manor
Miklibær in Blönduhlíð, Skagafjörður in 1778.
Solveig fell madly in love with the minister and
went insane when he spurned her advances. Af-
ter repeated attempts at her own life, Solveig was
promptly placed under suicide watch. One day
at dusk she managed to slip her captors grip and
ran to a bunch of jagged rocks, where she com-
menced to slit her throat. As a worker ran to stop
her, he saw her bleed to death and commented:
“Now she’s with the devil.” Solveig didn’t answer,
but begged him to tell the minister to bury her in
holy ground.
The minister sought permission from his su-
periors to bury Solveig in the churchyard. They
declined as Solveig had committed the deadly
sin of suicide. After receiving the answer, Gísla-
son dreamt Solveig came up to him with an angry
grin, saying that since he had declined her last
wish, he himself would never rest in hallowed
ground.
Soon after being buried outside of the
churchyard Solveig’s ghost started haunting Gís-
lason whenever he was alone, for instance as he
rode home from performing his services. To en-
sure his safety, he received an escort wherever he
went.
One evening when the minister was expect-
ed to return home from his duties, Miklibær’s in-
habitants heard a beating on the manor’s doors.
They felt the knocking had a sinister quality to it,
so they didn’t answer. They then heard something
stir by the window, but before they could draw
the curtains the sound of being dragged away
came through.
Later that night, as the housefolk went out,
they saw the minister’s horse stood in front of the
house. This spooked the people, as they realised
that the minister had rode home but was now no-
where to be found. After undergoing an intensive
search, they decided that Solveig had finally had
her revenge. The minister was never seen again,
but his escort that fateful night reported that he
had sent them off when his manor was in clear
sight, believing himself to be in the clear.
After the search had been called off, a work-
er of the minister’s named Þorsteinn declared that
he would not rest until he learned his employer’s
fate. One night, Þorsteinn gathered a mass of the
minister’s belongings and placed them under his
pillow, asking a clairvoyant woman he shared a
woman with to keep watch as he slept. As soon as
he fell asleep, the woman saw the ghost of Solveig
approach his bed and loom over his sleeping
body, fiddling with his neck. Þorsteinn started
thrashing in his bed, so the woman jumped and
woke him, driving the Solveig away in the pro-
cess. Þorsteinn woke up in a sweat, red marks
on his neck, and said that Solveig had screamed
at him that he would never learn the minister’s
fate before proceeding to slash his throat with a
mighty machete.
Solveig was not seen around after that, al-
though the minister’s son, Rev. Gísli Oddsson,
reported that she had ambushed him at his wed-
ding night. Thus ends the sad tale of Miklabæjar-
Solveig and her doomed love. Many believe it to
be true; in fact the remains of Solveig were dug up
in 1937 and placed in a proper cemetery.
More Monsters
and Mythical Beings
Miklabæjar-Sólveig: Unrequited love breeds unholy hatred
ESSAY BY vALuR gunnARSSon
ARTIClE BY JAMeS cRugnALe — pHoTo BY gAS
The times ahead will be interesting. Initially, the
catastrophe will bring out the best in people. We
will all band together as one to pull through. It will
be a good time for the arts. Artists will no longer
be vying to get support from a bank. People will
turn their backs on the froth that has consumed
the airwaves for so long, and go for a shot of good,
strong coffee. Those with something to say will be
listened to, and those with nothing to say will be-
come irrelevant. It is perhaps likely that a whole
generation of artists will be swept aside, as those
who relied on sponsorship from the banks will go
down with them.
The new generation, those who have had
their future swept away in front of their eyes
through no fault of their own, they will be angry.
And it is good for artists to be angry if the situa-
tion merits it. When we think of the Great Depres-
sion, we think of artists such as John Steinbeck
and Woody Guthrie, or in Iceland Halldór Laxness
and Þórbergur Þórðarson. But the entertainment
that people actually sought at the time was of a
different ilk, screwball comedies about nothing,
anything to forget. As the general public will start
to tire of hearing of the Depression that permeates
their lives on a daily basis, they will again look for
lighter materials to distract themselves.
The brain drain will be immense. Already, ev-
eryone with skills that can be utilised elsewhere is
leaving the country, along with many immigrants.
Those who remain will be those who have no-
where else to go. The population of Iceland will
no doubt drop below the 300.000 figure yet again.
On the other hand, there will, finally, be plenty of
cheap housing in Reykjavik. For those who can af-
ford it.
The gyms will be empty and the bars will
be full. On the upside, people will probably start
to have more sex. No more wining and dining,
people will move right on to the only entertain-
ment that they can have for free. A lot of people
will form relationships, something to cling onto
in the dark times ahead. At the same time, a lot
of older relationships will disintegrate due to the
stress caused by financial worries.
Hopefully, the next generation will learn from
the mistakes that have now been committed.
If not for Iceland, the largest online “hospitality
service” in the world would not be around today.
Couchsurfing.com operates as an international
network where people open their doors and trans-
form their sofas into replacement hostel beds for
random world travellers. The site operates in over
230 countries with approximately 700,000 mem-
bers, providing users with their own customiz-
able profiles. Today, many backpackers take it
for granted, using it as a tool for meeting locals in
far-off places.
Couchsurfing.com founder Casey Fenton,
chronicles how Iceland sparked the inspiration
for the social network: “I'd gotten a cheap web-
special from Boston to Iceland on a Monday and
would fly that Friday. I only had one problem
though. What would I do when I got there? Stick
it out in a hotel? A hostel? I thought about the idea
of contacting someone on the Internet and seeing
if I could hang out with them and maybe sleep at
their house.” The legend goes that Fenton con-
tacted hundreds of students at the University of
Iceland to ask them for a place to crash and after
The Angry
Young Men
of the 2010’s
Couchsurfing
Culture
“We’ve got this database of mon-
sters and creatures in our past.
A lot of their stories are fascinat-
ing, it’s a shame that they’re not
used more in modern culture,”
remarked comic artist Hugleikur
Dagsson in an interview this sum-
mer. This prompted the Grapevine
to draft Dagsson to illustrate a se-
ries of articles on these monsters
of yore. For the seventh instalment
in the series, Dagsson chose to
illustrate “Iceland’s most vicious
ghost”, the über-scary ghost
Miklabæjar-Sólveig.
getting many invites, the idea for a website was
born. Couchsurfer Hanna Larsdóttir takes great
pride in guiding travellers around her country and
meeting people with diverse international back-
grounds. “I open my door to almost anyone,” says
Larsdottir. “I always try to introduce my guests to
Icelandic culture. You need to be an open-minded
person and I think that’s the perfect recipe for be-
ing a couchsurfer.”
Þórgnýr Thoroddsen has hosted over 50
travellers since he began hosting couchsurfers
with his wife Vala, last July. “We put a lot of ef-
fort into our profile,” says Thoroddsen. “We took
in some surfers and the experience was amazing.
We’ve hosted couples from the States, people from
the Nordic countries… Quebecois seem to come
in the hundreds, we’ve hosted about 20 of them.
Also, people from France, Austria, Mexico, Italy,
and the Philippines. I’ve had grown up filmmak-
ers, 18 year old kids, a professor in ancient Nordic;
it’s a cool opportunity to mix and get to meet new
people and share culture.”
Larsdóttir feels the website offers her other
opportunities. "I’m saving the world, one person
at a time,” she says. “At the same time, I’m getting
to know the world. But I can tell you this, Your par-
ents won’t be thrilled if you say, ‘Hey Mom, I met
this guy, he’s staying at my house…but he’s got a
couchsurfing profile!’
ARTIClE BY HAuKuR S: MAgnÚSSon — ILLuSTRATIon BY HugLeIKuR DAgSSon