Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 22

Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 22
22 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 12 — 2011 1. This is a pretty good spot to start. If it is a nice day there will be some people feeding the ducks and if you have some bread you could do that too. The ducks sure seem to appreciate it. Afterwards head on up Fríkirkjuvegur alongside the pond. 2. At our first stop we find Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson. Jónas was a prolific writer with a keen interest in Icelandic nature, on which he wrote many studies. He passed away at the young age of 37 due to blood poisoning caused by a broken leg he sustained af- ter slipping on the stairs at his home in Copenhagen. This depiction by Einar Jónsson was the first statue by an Ice- landic artist to be erected in a public place. It was supposed to stand in front of where the Culture House (Þjóðmen- ningarhúsið) now stands, but because it was not finished at that time the statue was ‘temporarily’ placed at the corner of Amtmannstígur and Lækjargata in 1907. There it stood until 1947, when it was moved to this spot. Einar was never happy with this statue, because he was forced to make a ‘lifelike’ depiction of Jónas by the men who were paying for it. He thought he could just as well be making the man’s shoes as making him a monu- ment in this manner. He wanted to do something that would symbolise the admired man and his work, and much later on, in 1948, he made another statue of Jónas Hallgrímsson called ‘In the memory of the poet’, which can be viewed at his museum. It is worth mentioning that further into the garden stands the self-portrait of famed Danish sculptor Bertel Thor- valdsen. Even though he never set foot on Icelandic soil, he is often regarded an Icelander as he had an Icelandic fa- ther. This statue was a gift from the city of Copenhagen in 1874 to commemo- rate Iceland’s settlement one thousand years earlier. It stood in the middle of Austurvöllur before being moved here, where almost no one sees it. 3. Overlooking the pond is ‘The Spell Broken’. Many connect it to the legend of St. George and the dragon, where St. George slew the dragon so he could save the princess from being eaten by it. In fact it is a mixture of a few old legends. Einar sometimes took pieces from dif- ferent folk tales and religious fables and pieced them together to fit what he wanted to say. It depicts the victory of good over evil, and the rewards that follow when you choose the right path. Here the young woman is freed from an evil spell when the dragon is slain. She sheds the skin of the old crone she was cursed to look like and revealed is her beautiful true form. The statue was unveiled here in 1987. 4. ‘Outlaws’ is one of Einar Jónsson's most famous works and one that many Icelanders identify with: the free spirit who does not walk the beaten path. Einar here draws inspiration from the old folktales of ‘the outlaw’ condemned to a hard life of solitude and isolation. Here he may be seen carrying his dead wife down from the highland so that he can bury her in hallowed ground. There is a quiet sadness in the strong look on his face as he does what has to be done, while carrying his only child in his oth- er arm. This was the first piece Einar showed publicly, and was unveiled in Copenhagen in 1901. It got mixed re- views from the Danes but the Icelandic people were thrilled and thought Einar had captured the spirit of the Icelandic people. Once this statue of the outlaw looked mournfully to the mountains— now he just watches the national library and is partially hidden by trees. 5. Hólavalla cemetery was ready for its first occupants in the summer of 1837 but the first person was not laid to rest there until the winter of 1838. There were two main reasons for the delay. There is an old folktale that says that the first person buried in a cemetery becomes its watcher. This person does not rot and its purpose is to watch over the garden and welcome everyone that will be buried there. People in general want their relatives to rest in peace, so very few wanted to nominate their loved one to become the watcher. In the Einar Jónsson museum, you can find a statue named ‘The Watcher’ which is inspired by this folktale. 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Most of the time we don’t no- tice them, blinded by the familiar sur- roundings of our day to day. We should stop and look every now and again. A lot of them are beautiful, and almost every one of them has an interesting story that goes with it. To encourage this, we made you up a short walk which should take about 40–50 minutes of your time. In the walk, we focus exclusively on the work of fabled sculptor Einar Jónsson (1874–1954), who is one of Iceland’s most celebrated artists and is respon- sible for some groundbreaking sculp- tures. Do read on, and get to know some of the stern- faced green figures dotting our urban landscape, and why they are there.
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