Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.07.2013, Síða 12

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An Unfamiliar Home
Losing your home to a spewing volcano
by Ingibjörg Rósa Björnsdóttir
After four decades of resistance, one of the most iconic houses from the eruption of Vestmannaeyjar re-
cently collapsed under the burden of pumice and lava. It stood by a street called Heimagata and was built
over 70 years ago. Its occupants, like the rest of the islanders, were forced to leave their home on a cold
January night in 1973. Despite efforts to save buildings from the weight of pumice piling up and piping
hot lava slowly creeping closer, the house—called Blátindur—was swallowed by Mother Nature in late
March that year.
Iceland | History
For a long while the only remains of the house sticking
out of the cooled lava were its living room walls, with a
big window frame inviting curious visitors to have a look
inside at the destruction when lava engulfed the eastern
part of the town. But now Blátindur is forever gone; it’s a
reminder of time passing, the past vanishing and memo-
ries in danger of becoming forgotten. That’s partially
why two islanders, born after the eruption, wanted to
capture the survivors and their stories in a film, preserv-
ing first-hand accounts of what really happened in 1973.
“What we’re doing with this documentary is to get
people to talk about the trauma of these events, for the
very first time,” says Jóhanna Ýr Jónsdóttir, the historian
who made the documentary with her childhood friend,
broadcast journalist Sighvatur Jónsson. “The survivors
didn’t receive much counselling at the time and since
then they’ve concentrated on talking about the positive
things. As one of the elderly ladies says in the film, they
didn’t allow themselves to talk about the difficulties. It
was simply a matter of survival.”
Jóhanna Ýr was driven both by personal interest in
the town she grew up in and her passion for history. “Peo-
ple don’t realise how long it’s actually been—forty years.
Those who were 30 then are now 70-years-old,” she says.
“I thought it was important to make this documentary
now as their stories are an important record of historical
events. But I was curious to find out what it was like for
people forced to leave their home because of a spewing
volcano, becoming a refugee for some time, and perhaps
never returning to the island but as a visitor.”
She recalls growing up in Heimaey, the only inhab-
ited island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, always
hearing about how successfully the islanders rebuilt their
town and reconstructed the society of their beloved is-
land. The change in the landscape following the eruption
had its benefits; the town is now better sheltered from the
stern easterly wind and the lava that flowed into the sea
created a much better channel into the harbour.
Whispers in the aftermath
But amongst all the heroic stories of the hard working
islanders who claimed their island back were the whis-
pers about those who didn’t return, or things that were
sorely missed.
“For my generation, it was a little strange growing up
here. We heard so much about how the town looked like
before the eruption that we felt as if we’d been there,”
Jóhanna Ýr says. “And you’d only hear positive things
about the eruption and its aftermath. But every now and
again, people would say something that made me realise
that there had been a world there that I would never know,
a vanished world. For instance, the time I was a little girl,
walking with my mother past the area where Blátindur
stood and her saying ‘Somewhere there underneath lies
my wedding band.’”
It dawned on Jóhanna Ýr that she might not know
her hometown all that well. “The title, ‘My Unfamiliar
Home—Accepting the Volcano’ refers to the people who
grew up here after the eruption and heard so much about
what this town was like before, to those who returned to
an unfamiliar island and also to those who didn’t return
and felt out of place on the mainland.”
One of the interviewees in the film, Kristinn, had
That’s what surprised
me the most, all this
hidden heartache, es-
pecially amongst those
who never moved back
to Vestmannaeyjar.
“
„
Continues over
Sigmar Pálmason Jóhanna Ýr Jónsdóttir
with your transportation habits by
pumping 600 million ISK into road,
sidewalk, and bike path mainte-
nance, with another 155 million ISK
designated for open spaces like
parks.
Despite the heart breaking June
weather, it seems like there's no
better time to be outside, especially
while it is still free of charge. The
era of access to the outdoors for
all is slowly coming to a close with
the implementation of entry fees
to popular natural attractions. The
tolling commenced with the crater
Kerið, the first natural tourist at-
traction to charge an entry fee in
Iceland. The fee stands at a whop-
ping 350 ISK (about 3 USD).
It may not sound like a lot, but with
an overall rise in living expenses,
every króna counts. The Icelandic
Confederation of Labour found that
the price of groceries has increased
since January. The largest increase
(4.9%) has been at Nettó, with Bó-
nus coming in a hot second at 4.2%.
Coupled with an overall rise in
rental prices around Reykjavík, life
is looking a little less platinum and
a little more 'plastic.' Maybe it's just
an illusion, as credit card usage has
increased by 7.5% in the past year.
The high cost of living may also ex-
plain why more citizens are choos-
ing a night in over a trip to the coun-
tryside for their weekend plans, with
a reported 14.4% increase in alcohol
sales during the same period and
5.9% decrease in gasoline sales.
While you may have been too hun-
gover to care, strange things have
been occurring in the meantime.
Halldór Laxness made it to Mercu-
ry, when the International Astrono-
mers Union agreed to name a crater
after the Nobel Prize winning Icelan-
dic author. Edward Snowden may
as well be on Mercury, having never
boarded his plane leaving Moscow.
His whereabouts are uncertain.
Friðrik Helgason took his seventeen
year old mare to the government
office to bring on-going post-crash
financial struggles to the govern-
ment’s attention. And how did that
falcon get on the bus? Oh, rangers
at Skaftafell asked a visiting British
couple to take care of the bird on its
voyage to Reykjavík. Naturally.
NEWS IN BRIEF
JULY
12The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 9 — 2013 Facebook page: “Protect Icelandic Nature”