Orð og tunga - 26.04.2018, Page 65

54 Orð og tunga
portrait of a foreign genius, a postcard like the ones that hang
above the harmonium in the country and which can be bought
in the village of Krok – a mixture of Schiller, Schubert, and Lord
Byron, with a bright red tie and dirty shoes. He looked around
with the sudden strained expression of the sleepwalker, and
every object, whether animate or inanimate, affected him like
an overwhelming mystical vision. He offered me his long thin
hand, which was so limp that I felt I could crush it into pulp,
and said, “I am Benjamin”. (Halldór Laxness, transl. Magnús
Magnússon 1961:18)]
The title of atómskáld is bestowed on him later on the same page by the
organist whose home is a gathering place for artists, intellectuals and
other characters: “Gerðu svo vel og fáðu þér kaffi sopa atómskáld”
(Halldór Laxness 1948:31) [Have a cup of coff ee, atom poet. (Halldór
Laxness, transl. Magnús Magnússon 1961:19)]. Slightly earlier the or-
ganist asked the “god” Brilliantine, the atom poet’s companion, about
the whereabouts of the latt er (Halldór Laxness 1948:29; Halldór Lax-
ness, transl. Magnús Magnússon 1961:17). The casual introduction of
the atom poet contrasts with the overt presentation of another char-
acter slightly earlier: “Þett a er guðinn briljantín, sagði organistinn”
(1948:28) [“This is the god Brilliantine”, said the organist (Halldór
Laxness, transl. Magnús Magnússon 1961:17)], but the title is adopted
by the narrator in the following sentence: “Hvar er Kleópatra, sagði
Benjamín [svo] atómskáld” (1948:31) [“Where’s Cleopatra?” asked
Benjamin the atom poet (Halldór Laxness, transl. Magnús Magnús-
son 1961:19)].
The circle of characters surrounding the organist are all called by
more or less bizarre or exotic descriptive monikers, while the organ-
ist himself and the shy policeman by whom Ugla becomes pregnant
are never named. Self-invention – the power of words to defl ect from
facts or to persuade people of their own reality – is a theme in the
novel emphasized by its preoccupation with renaming. A central ex-
ample is the “selling” of the country (i.e., allowing a US military pres-
ence there aft er the war); others include the broad use of accusations
of “communism”.
In Atómstöðin, Brilliantine and the atom poet identify themselves
overtly with the atom bomb in introducing themselves to the pro-
tagonist’s father, a farmer in the rural north: “Og hverra manna eruð
þið dreingir? Þeir svöruðu: Við tilheyrum atómbombunni” (1948:228)
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