Orð og tunga - 26.04.2018, Side 63

52 Orð og tunga
6 The atom poet in The Atom Station
Halldór Laxness’ Atómstöðin (1948) describes the experiences of a
country girl Ugla from “the north” who has gone to Reykjavík and is
working as a domestic helper for a member of parliament Búi Árland
while she learns to play the harmonium. It is set immediately after the
Second World War; the title refers to the decision on the part of the
leaders of the newly independent country to allow foreign powers
to build an “atom station” in Iceland, i.e. the NATO base in Keflavík.
Atóm in Halldór’s novel refers to the general context of the dawn of
the Cold War and Iceland’s entry into NATO.
Bizarre nicknames, epithets and titles, such as atómskáld, are a
central aspect of the narrative technique of Atómstöðin, associated
with the turmoil of a society in rapid transition. The sense of an alien
milieu is emphasized by continual renaming. Búi Árland’s children
are called Dídí, Dúdú, Bóbó and Bubu. Ugla has a diffi cult time con-
necting these nicknames to their baptismal names Guðný (Dúdú),
Þórður (Bóbó), Þórgunnur (Dídí), and Arngrímur (Bubu). Their fa-
ther explains, “Þau komast ekki af með minna en Afríka einsog hún
er svört ust: bu-bu, dú-dú, bó-bó, dí-dí” [But they cannot get by with
any less than Africa at its very darkest - bu-bu, du-du, bo-bo, di-di ...
(Halldór Laxness, transl. Magnús Magnússon 1961:4)]. These redu-
plicative nicknames are particularly associated with the time around
World War II in Iceland. Laxness, in a brief essay “Ónöfn” [Un-names]
(1942:285), condemns this innovation in similar terms.
Nýr gælunafnasiður hefur komist á í kaupstöðum á síð ustu
tímum, sérstaklega telpunafna. Fögrum íslenskum kven heit-
um, sem veita þeirri konu tign og virðuleik, sem ber þau, eins
og dýrir skartgripir fornir (nöfn einsog t.d. Ragnheiður, Ást-
hildur eða Guðrún), er snúið í hin herfilegustu orðskrípi, líkt
og fyrirmyndir væru sóttar í dreggjar útlends stórborgamáls
eða til villiþjóða: Dídí, Sísí, Fífí, Gígí, Dúdí, Gógó, Dódó. Af-
káraleg orðskrípi af þessu tæi fara senn í bág við íslenskt mál-
far og mentaðan smekk. (Halldór Laxness 1942:285)
[A new nickname practice has been introduced in towns in
recent times, especially for girls’ names. Beautiful Icelandic
feminine names which grant elegance and dignity to the
woman who bears them, like precious and ancient jewelry
tunga_20.indb 52 12.4.2018 11:50:36