Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.10.2014, Síða 34

Written in 1608 by the German astronomer
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), the novel
‘Somnium’ (“Dream”) is by many—includ-
ing such luminaries as Carl Sagan, Isaac
Asimov and Jorge Luis Borges—thought
to be one of the first examples of science
fiction.
Although ‘Somnium’ was not pub-
lished until 1634, after Kepler passed, he
wrote the story as a student at the Univer-
sity of Tübingen, after being inspired by an
essay topic he was assigned: What does
the earth look like to a man standing on
the moon, observing it from above?
Kepler presents ‘Somnium’ as an ac-
count of a dream, narrated by a 14-year-
old Icelandic peasant boy, Duracotus. The
boy’s elderly mother Fiolxhild (these are
somewhat unusual Icelandic names, to
say the least—but Kepler had never been
to Iceland, and probably never met an Ice-
lander), is skilled in magic, and ekes out
a living selling magical trinkets to foreign
sailors.
After Duracotus ruins one such trinket,
she sells him to a sailor who takes the boy
to the then-Danish island of Hven, where
he meets the famed astronomer Tycho
Brahe. Brahe and Kepler were familiar
with each other and it is likely that it was
through Brahe that Kepler became inter-
ested in Iceland.
After five years of learning about the
cosmos with Brahe, Duracotus returns
to Iceland, and asks his mother what she
knows about the world above:
“Duracotus, my son, knowledge is avail-
able not only in other provinces to which
you traveled but also in our own home-
land. [...] We have among us very gifted
spirits who shunned the greater light of
other regions and the chattering of men
and they sought our shaded areas to con-
verse familiarly with us. [...] One of these,
by far the gentlest and most innocent, was
particularly known to me.
Often, in a split second, I was trans-
ported by its power to other shores which
I selected for myself. If I were kept away
from certain places on account of their
distance, I gained ground by questioning
about those places just as if we were pres-
ent there. He reviewed for me very many
facts about those objects that you had
examined with your eyes, accepted from
report, taken out of books.
I would especially like you to become
a spectator, my companion, of that region
concerning which he told me. How won-
derful were those things which he told me
about it. He conjured up Levania.”
Duracotus is eager to learn more about
this “Levania,” so he has his mother con-
jure up the spirit, which describes the
mystical region and the way to reach it:
“The island of Levania is located fifty thou-
sand German miles high up in the air. The
journey to and from this island from our
Earth is very seldom open; but when it is
accessible, it’s easy for our people. How-
ever, the transportation of men, joined as
it is to the greatest danger of life, is most
difficult. We do not admit sedentary, cor-
pulent or fastidious men into this retinue.
We choose rather those who spend
their time persistently riding swift horses
or who frequently sail to the Indies, accus-
tomed to subsist on twice-baked bread,
garlic, dried fish, and other unsavory dish-
es.
There are dried up old women espe-
cially suited for our purpose. The reason
for this is well known. From early child-
hood they are accustomed to riding goats,
or on mantles, and to travel through nar-
row passes and through the immense
expanse of the Earth. Although Germans
are not suitable, we do not reject the dry
bodies of Spaniards.”
According to the spirit, the trip to Levania
only takes about four hours, although the
distance is vast—50,000 German miles are
around 375,000 kilometres. For compari-
son, the average distance between Earth
and the moon is 384,000 kilometres. It is
thus clear that the island of Levania actu-
ally refers to the surface of the moon.
“The initial shock is the worst part of it for
him, for he is spun upward as if by an ex-
plosion of gunpowder and he flies above
mountains and seas.
On that account he
must be drugged with
narcotics and opiates
prior to his flight. His
limbs must be care-
fully protected so that
they are not torn from
him, body from legs,
head from body and so
that the recoil may not
spread over into every
member of his body.
Then he will face
new difficulties: in-
tense cold and im-
paired respiration.
These circumstances
which are natural to
spirits are applied
force to man. We go on our way placing
moistened sponges to our nostrils.
With first section of the voyage com-
plete, our conveyance becomes easier.
Then we expose our bodies freely to the air
and withdraw our hands. All these persons
are gathered into a ball within themselves,
by reason of pressure, a condition which
we ourselves produce almost by a mere
sign of the head. Finally, on arrival at the
moon, the body is directed into its intend-
ed place by its own accord. This critical
point is of little use to us spirits because it
is excessively slow.
Therefore, as I said, we accelerate by
gravity and go in front of the man's body,
lest by a very strong impact into the Moon
he might suffer any harm. When the man
awakes, he usually complains that all his
members suffer from an ineffable lassi-
tude, from which, however, he completely
recovers when the effect of the drugs
wears off, so that he can walk.”
‘Somnium’ is re-
ally only a short story,
about twenty pages in
print, but Kepler also
wrote very detailed
footnotes, that elabo-
rate on his theories
about the surface of
the moon—these in
total are three times as
long as the text of the
story itself.
The rest of the story
goes on to describe
Levania, or the Moon,
in more detail—it is a
place both intolerably
cold and unbearably
hot—and the Icelandic
setting with Duracotus
and Fiolxhild fades into the background.
Duracotus never actually travels to the
moon. He only listens while the spirit his
mother conjures describes the journey, so
the headline of this article is admittedly a
bit of an overstatement. Nonetheless, it
can be said that an Icelander is at the cen-
tre of literature’s first science-fiction story.
34 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 16 — 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
"My name is Duracotus and my fatherland Iceland called
Thule by the ancients. My mother, Fiolxhilde who died re-
cently left me at leisure to write something which I already
ardently desired to do.
While she lived she diligently saw to it that I did not write,
for she said that there were many malicious usurpers of
the arts, who, because they did not understand anything,
on account of the ignorance of their mind, misrepresented
them and made laws detrimental to the human race.
Under these laws, many men would assuredly have been
condemned and swallowed up in the abysses of Hekla."
Words
Vera Illugadóttir
www.listvinafelag.is / hallgrimskirkja.is
The Hallgrimskirkja Friends of the Arts Society 32. season
HALLGRÍMUR PÉTURSSON 400th ANNIVERSARY
FESTIVAL IN HALLGRIMSKIRKJA OCTOBER 24 - 31 2014
Friday Oct 24th 8 pm
Old hymns by Hallgrímur Pétursson
in new settings.
Kirstin Erna Blöndal soprano,
Gunnar Gunnarsson organ,
Sigtryggur Baldursson percussion
and G. Vignir Karlsson electrics.
Admission ISK 3000.
Saturday Oct 25th 12 noon
“Celebration”
Organ piece by Wayne Siegel, professor
at the Aarhus Conservatory for robot-
controlled pipe organ and weather satellite
(2014), composed on this occation. The piece
is composed and performed by a computer
connected directly to the large Klais organ
in the church without human intervention.
Admission: ISK 2000
Sunday Oct 26th 5 pm
Michael Jón Clarcke: Passion hymns by
Hallgrímur Pétursson for voice and organ
Michael Jón Clarcke baritone and
Eyþór Ingi Jónsson organ
Admission: ISK 3000
Concerts, art exhibition, lectures, panel discussions, festive services, new poetry to celebrate the memory
of the renowned poet Hallgrímur Pétursson. Amongst other events:
“The island of Levania
is located fifty thousand
German miles high up
in the air.”
Was Literature’s First
Man On The Moon An
Icelandic Peasant?
Kepler’s dream of Iceland