Tímarit Máls og menningar - 01.02.2004, Page 15
SOME OUTLINES OF A MOTION PlCTURE ...
Salka Valka the Orphan.
The only beautiful house in the village is that of an old harsh-look-
ing but kind-hearted fish merchant who comes every season,
sometimes accompanied by his wife and his young son, Angantyr,
and stays there for a few weeks on business. Having been informed
about the orphan, they make up their minds to take Salka Valka to
their house and adopt her. The lady buys her a nice dress and
promises to take her to the capital and make a fine lady out of her.
Everything in the house is like a beautiful dream to Salka Valka.
The queer conversation between Salka Valka and the well-bred son
of the fish merchant, Angantyr.
But, on her first evening in this house, she overhears by chance
a violent quarrel between the old couple, finishing by the husband
striking his wife with one of his slippers. The same night, when the
house is asleep, Salka Valka digs her old outfit out of the lumber-
box, lays off her beautiful gown and runs away in her ugly trousers.
The next morning she is seen on the pier, where the fishermen are
laying up their fish, working.
When she grows older, she gets a job with the fishermen, rowing
out with them as their equal. Because of her extraordinary courage
and energy, she is preferred by all the foremen in the place. In a few
years she gets a boat for herself and a crew. She soon gets the re-
putation of being the keenest foreman in the place and the luckiest
dare-devil of all the fishermen. She is respected or admired by
some, feared by others, as she is known to be able to knock down
every fellow in the place. Every time she is contradicted, she makes
use of her strong fists.
Arnold.
When Arnold grows up, he displays in a high degree the national
Icelandic weakness for horses, poetry and women. Trying his luck as
a foreman, everything goes wrong for him and he has to give it up.
He has three Icelandic ponies and a beautiful whip. To possess
an Icelandic whip of artistic make is a matter of pride to every Ice-
landic horseman. When other people are busy at work in the sum-
TMM 2004 • 1
13