Tímarit Máls og menningar - 01.02.2004, Blaðsíða 17
SOME OUTLINES OF A MOTION PlCTURE ...
The unknown gentleman enters. As she does not remember him
from earlier time, he reminds her of a conversation they had, over
ten years ago. He is Angantyr.
(Quite a number of secondary incidents are left out here.)
Following winter.
Arnold has almost nothing to feed his horses on. And the clergy-
man has sent his daughter away to the capital, so he has nobody to
read his poetry to. Arnold goes along the seashore collecting sea-
weed and happens to meet Salka Valka, who teases him.
Every winter the fishermen go with their outfits to an isle far
away from the mainland, where they stay for a couple of months
and lay up their fish. The last day before leaving, Arnold goes to the
shore, where the men are busy getting things in order. He asks one
of the foremen for a job. The reply is that every seat is occupied. He
goes from one to another and gets the same reply everywhere: „If
you had only mentioned it some weeks before.“
Finally he comes to Salka Valka and asks her to give him a job.
She asks him sarcastically about his horses and his girls. At last she
permits him to take a greenhorn’s place in her boat. The fleet goes
out of the small harbor.
The interesting psychology of these males piled up in a small
spot far away from civilization, where no law rules except that of
the strongest fist. Salka Valka the only woman among them and the
subject of all their cupidity. Their jealousy against each other. She
knocks every one to the ground who ventures to approach her in
an unseemly way.
Every crew has a separate shanty at the seaside. The sea is always
rough. It rains or snows constantly. Weeks go without anybody
daring to row out. The fishermen’s pastime. The famous Icelandic
glima. In „krok“ Salka Valka beats everybody except Arnold, whom
she publicly humiliates by declaring that she does not want to play
games with her greenhorns.
The crew of Salka Valka’s boat has a secret meeting, to which
Arnold is invited. He is expected to take part in a conspiracy with
the aim to rape her, as it has been proved that there is no single
TMM 2004 • 1
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