Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Page 38

The American Soldier
Who Travelled To
The Year 900 In Iceland
Poul Anderson, who had Danish roots,
was one of the better-known writers
during the golden age of science fiction.
One of his recurring themes was the
deeply paradoxical questions surround-
ing time travel. For instance, if time travel
is possible, how would a modern man
fare in the past?
This was, obviously, not a new con-
cept. Writers like Mark Twain (‘A Con-
necticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court’)
and L. Sprague de Camp (‘Lest Dark-
ness Fall’) had both written stories about
modern time travellers in "primitive soci-
eties." But while these stories tell tales
of success for the modern person in the
past—Mark Twain's Yankee tricks and
fools the court of King Arthur—Poul An-
derson's story is in fact their antithesis:
his Yankee finds himself utterly helpless
in the Viking society of Iceland.
The story follows an engineering stu-
dent known as Gerald “Samsson,” who
was drafted to serve in Iceland during
the Cold War. During a violent thun-
derstorm in Reykjavík in the 1950s, the
American GI travels one thousand years
back in time. He wakes up to find himself
lying on a cold beach in a strange place,
seemingly far from the city, the last
place he remembers being. He walks
for a while until he sees a group of men,
armed with swords and spears, collect-
ing driftwood.
The story is presented in the first
person, told by a Viking Age Icelander
named Ospak Ulfsson. He is one of the
men Gerald meets at the beach.
The newcomer shook his head, as if
it had been struck. He got shakily to
his feet.
"What happened?" he said. "What
happened to the city?"
"What city?" I asked reasonably,
"Reykjavik!" he groaned. "Where is
it?"
"Five miles south, the way you came—
unless you mean the bay itself," I said.
"No! There was only a beach, and a
few wretched huts, and—"
"Best not let Hjalmar Broadnose hear
you call his thorp that," I counselled.
“Did the Soviets nuke Iceland?”
Ospak and his men are stunned by the
visitor, who they think must be a ma-
rooned sailor from a shipwreck. But the
time traveller, who is wearing a green
uniform from the 20th century and a
metal helmet engraved with the Roman
alphabet letters “MP,” thinks World War
III must have started. “Did the Soviets
nuke Iceland?” he asks.
Eventually the Viking chieftain
Ospak invites Gerald
to stay in his house.
The soldier had
learned Icelandic as
part of his training at
the army base and is
therefore able to ex-
change words with
the ancient Iceland-
ers. Ospak wants to
be kind to this strange
guest but is unsure
where he is from.
Gerald tells him about
the United States, the
land of free.
There is a great
panic among the Vi-
kings when Gerald
shows them his gun
and shoots a horse.
He drew his gun,
put the end behind
the horse's ear, and squeezed. There
was a crack, and the beast quivered
and dropped with a hole blown through
its skull, wasting the brains—a clumsy
weapon. I caught a whiff of smell,
sharp and bitter like that around a vol-
cano. We all jumped, one of the women
screamed, and Gerald looked proud. I
gathered my wits and finished the rest
of the sacrifice as usual.
Apart from this impressive weapon,
the US soldier is almost worthless in Vi-
king Iceland. He mentions that his fam-
ily owns no land and lives in a city. This
plunges his social status, as in any rural
society a landless man is a poor man.
Gerald thinks he can use his engi-
neering education to modernise the
Viking society. But as soon as he starts
trying he gives up. He doesn't know
how to use the tools and the materials.
Simple tasks like shaving and bathing
turn out to be very complicated.
Man from out of time
Gerald and Þórgunnur, the daughter of
Ospak, fall in love. This has disastrous
consequences as Ketill, a young Viking
from the next farm who is in love with
the girl, challenges the American to
“hólmganga,” a tra-
ditional Viking duel.
When Gerald finds
himself trapped in
the duel and about to
be cut down, he uses
his gun and kills his
opponent.
This makes the
American into an
outlaw. He flees
to the highlands
equipped only with
his gun and a few
bullets. The chieftain
Ospak feels for his
American friend and
is deeply saddened
by his demise.

Most men think Ger-
ald Samsson was
crazy, but I myself
believe he did come from out of
time, and that his doom was that no
man may ripen a field before harvest
season. Yet I look into the future, a
thousand years hence, when they
fly through the air and ride in horse-
less wagons and smash whole cities
with one blow. I think of this Iceland
then, and of the young United States
men there to help defend us in a year
when the end of the world hovers
close. Perhaps some of them, walk-
ing about on the heaths, will see that
barrow and wonder what ancient
warrior lies buried there, and they
may even wish they had lived long
ago in his time when men were free.
38 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2014LEMÚRINN
Lemúrinn is an Icelandic web magazine (Icelandic for the native primate of Mad-
agascar). A winner of the 2012 Web Awards, Lemúrinn.is covers all things strange
and interesting. Go check it out at www.lemurinn.is
What if a modern person travelled back to Viking
times? In 1956, the American science fiction author
Poul Anderson pondered exactly that in his short story
“The Man Who Came Early,” published in The Maga-
zine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Words
Helgi Hrafn Guðmundsson
ARTISAN BAKERY
& COFFEE HOUSE
OPEN EVERYDAY 6.30 - 21.00
LAUGAVEGUR 36 · 101 REYKJAVIK
“Gerald and Þórgun-
nur, the daughter of
Ospak, fall in love. This
has disastrous con-
sequences as Ketill, a
young Viking from the
next farm who is in love
with the girl, challenges
the American to “hólm-
ganga,” a traditional
Viking duel.”