Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2009, Qupperneq 46

34
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2009
Poetry | Eiríkur Norðdahl Books | ReviewBooks | ReviewLo, the oogly woogly wiggly toes of my puffinous pinkster!
Lo, the perpetual whirlpool of his gung ho rainbows!
Lo, the sabre-dancing jiggifunk of his eyeyeyeyeyes!
Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize!

Lo, his oceanaut stereo-grip on the world, udderly unparalleled!
Lo, his unfathomable f loods – Earth never saw f loating like this!
Lo, his beautiful cutity, his cutiful beautity and all the King’s men bowing!
Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize!

Lo, all the frazzled futures, eating legal tender and excreting wisdom!
Lo, all the curly horizons and lock up your plutocrats, deadbolt the deadbeats!
Lo, all the puppyfied fates, don’t be sucky, and dodge thus his kitty-whiskers!
Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize!

Lo, his fuzzy snout, groggy inspectors and bitty digits of itty-bits!
Lo, his babbling baby fish mouth suckling – RE-LO, his fantastic suckling!
Lo, his turtly feet, feetly turtles, turftly ottles, inkly puddles!
Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize!
At 9.56 AM Wednesday, 02.09.2009, the columnist/poet had a baby and went bonkers.
While travelling around
Iceland, tourists will
often hear stories of Ice-
landic folk legends. In A
Traveler’s Guide To Ice-
land, Jón R. Hjálmars-
son attempts to provide
some insight into these tales. To that end,
he invites the reader on an imaginary
road trip around the island, retelling the
stories at the places where they are set.
Every folk tale starts with an intro-
duction of the landscape and the area,
as well as some historical facts. The first
one denotes how Hvalfjörður (“Whale
fjord”) got its name. Apparently, there
was a man who had denied fathering an
elf’s child. Not happy about it, the elf cast
a spell on that man: that he should not
only turn into a whale, but become the
most evil of all whales. The man turned
into a whale of great scourge and was said
to be responsible for 19 sunken ships in
the fjord. Since he had a red cap on his
head, he was called the “Redhead.” One
day, the evil whale killed the two sons of
an old and blind pastor on the shore of
Hvalfjörður. The old man was so over-
whelmed by the death of his sons that
he decided to kill the whale. And when
he met the whale, he tricked it into fol-
lowing him deeper and deeper into the
fjord to lake Hvalvatn (“Whale Lake”),
where the water became shallower. In
the end, the whale died of the strain and
even though the corpse was never found,
huge whale bones discovered in that area
are supposed to verify the story. Many
traditional stories follow this magical
entrance, amongst them the tale of “The
Woman and the seal skin,” one of Ice-
land’s most famous folk tales.
The author, who also penned “His-
tory of Iceland: From the Settlement to
the Present Day,” gives the tourist a per-
fect guideline through the Icelandic folk
tales by compiling some of the country’s
most beautiful legends. The idea of set-
ting the legends in the landscapes where
they take place does not only give the
reader a deeper understanding of the
tales but also of how the Icelandic nature
influenced the tradition of storytelling in
Iceland. Anny Yates’ translation is some-
times a tad stiff, but solid nevertheless
and Bernard Scudder, responsible for the
English verse translation, lives up to his
reputation as the dean translator of Ice-
landic literature. Eventually, this book is
an excellent read about trolls, elves, hid-
den people, ghosts, monsters and beasts
and everything that makes Iceland the
mystical place it has been since the age of
settlement.
- IRIna DOMuRaTH
In his 2003 novel, writ-
er/poet Sjón takes the
reader on to a journey
to provincial Iceland of
the 19th century and
the life of two men,
Pastor Baldur and the
farmer Friðrik Friðriksson. It is evident
from the beginning that the pastor and
the farmer share a history, one that un-
ravels as the story goes on.
Winter is in full bloom, it’s freezing
cold and avalanches happen regularly. In
these dangerous conditions, Pastor Bal-
dur decides to go hunting for fox in the
white, wide open after Friðrik tells him
of a rare black fox that lurks in the wild,
knowing the Pastor would be entrenched
by his passion for the fur.
And Pastor Baldur gets more and
more obsessively involved in a sort of
cat and mouse game with the fox. Is he
hunting the black fox, or is the fox chas-
ing him like a shadow? It dawns on the
reader that the Pastor is not the man he
seems. Out there in the harsh, unmerci-
ful nature, where it’s only him and the
fox, Baldur is thrown back to his mere
existence and shows his true and natural
self.
In his writings, the poet Sjón does
not use conventional prose language.
His words are scarce and therefore load-
ed with importance. Some pages consist
only of a few sentences with a lot of white
space, acknowledging the white open the
drama is set in. Through the course of
the story, the reader comes to pay more
and more attention to every carefully
chosen word, so as to look behind it. By
throwing the reader back and forth in
time, Sjón creates a mystical, harsh and
tense atmosphere. And after several
leaps, he tightens the knot of the story
together in a compelling finale that will
leave no one untouched, and will make
most readers start reading this short, but
fascinating, book from the beginning.
Sjón is one of Iceland’s most ac-
claimed writers. He was nominated for
an Oscar for his lyrics of Björk’s songs
in Lars von Trier’s “Dancer in the dark.”
This novel, which in Icelandic means
‘Shadow-Baldur,’ very rightfully won the
Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.
- IRIna DOMuRaTH
The Blue Fox (Skuggabaldur)
Sjón
English translation by
who?
Published by?
a Traveler’s Guide to
Icelandic Folk Tales
Jón R. Hjálmarsson
English translation by Anna Yates
English verse translation by
Bernhard Scudder
Published by Forlagið,
originally by Almenna bókafélagið
Babe, come
onto me
#100 - Issue 13 - 2009
#96 - Issue 9 - 2009 #97- Issue 10 - 2009
#98 - Issue 11 - 2009 #99 - Issue 12 - 2009
#95 - Issue 8 - 2009
Grapevine 101
Wherein we tried our darnedest to explain what that whole Icesave
debacle was all about. Journalists Paul Nikolov and Irina Domurath
did a great job of bringing the relevant facts together, but we’ll still
admit to not being quite sure what the Icesave mess is all about.
Perhaps the cover image explains it best. Poor girl-as-metaphor-
for-nation. Pity her. HSM
Yet another cover dedicated to Reykjavík’s Gay Pride festivities.
Those festivities really deserve every cover they get, as the bash
is one of the country’s greatest annual parties – and it’s dedicated
to civil rights, liberation and the abolition of prejudice! The cover
shot came courtesy of designer Björn Lárus’ father in law, and it is
pretty sweet. HSM
We love Reykjavík, man. It’s where we live, eat, drink, swim and take
trips to the petting zoo. So we thought we’d bring together a panel
of experts to compile a list of THE BEST OF REYKJAVÍK, at least
as far as we could remember at the time. While the results were
debatable, inciting debate is exactly what we want to do with this
rag. HSM
múm were coming out with a new album, and we felt we ought to do
the great band justice by depicting them on the cover – especially
since the múm-men gave a great interview wherein they reflected
upon their music and their disappointment with post-revolution Ice-
land. Spokesmen for a generation, they are. Our big regret is not
thinking of the tagline ‘Everyone Loves Their múm’ before we went
to print. That would have been funny. HSM
A HISTORICAL ISSUE OF THE GRAPEVINE! Well. Not really. But
still a pretty nice one. We had lots of travel themed articles, so we
represented that by all the crazy signs on the cover. Inside, you can
read one of our recurring Björk interviews, a tour diary by fellow
former-Sugarcube Sigtryggur Baldursson and various articles on
travel and destinations. HSM
This beautiful cover shot of Independence Party ideologue Hannes
Hólmsteinn Gissurarson was a real pleasure to run. Not only does
the picture look all sorts of cool, we also managed to surprise a
lot of readers with our choice of cover model. Hear that, readers,
you can’t pigeonhole us! Also, the interview we got was nothing
short of revelatory: “...the tycoons, aided by the President of Ice-
land, acquired ownership of all the media in Iceland—except for the
Grapevine...” HSM