Studia Islandica - 01.06.1961, Blaðsíða 95

93
away from her fellow-countryfolk to the gay life of the city. Many
years elapse. The poet finds out on one of his journeys that Ragn-
heiður has gone astray and has been excluded from the company of
people who make pretensions to respectability. A striking event
reveals, however, that she is still the same at heart. She dies as a
heroine after having risked her life in an attempt to save a child
from death.
“I was trying to depict the modern counterpart of the girl to
whom Jesus is supposed to have said: “Woman, I won’t condemn you
either”.” These were the poet’s own words in a letter he wrote. The
purpose of the poem is to show that Ragnheiður was not in full
command of her destiny. There was a variety of forces at work
here. It was not enough, therefore, to describe Ragnheiður, the
individual. A clear picture of the environment which had formed
her character and determined her destiny had to be drawn. Conse-
quently, the poem as a whole is above all a description of local
conditions at a particular time. But the poet does not only show us
the frontier settlements and acquaint us with the struggle and the
humble conditions of the settlers, but delves below surfaces to ex-
plore the currents which stir the ordinary patterns of human life
and characterise the spirit of the age. Here the poet finds an
occasion for satire, attacking with equal force social trends and
the church which had undertaken the spiritual guidance of the
people. At the same time, we can trace his steadfast belief in the
inherent goodness of man together with optimistic hope of a better
and richer life, when everyone will reach some degree of spiritual
maturity.
In form “On the Move” is reminiscent of the ancient epics. The
same metre is employed from beginning to end, and the progress of
the narrative is fairly even and rather slow. The story, however,
is rather disjointed in places because of the varied description which
the poet gives of what passes before the traveller’s eyes and his ex-
pression of views and emotions. A large part of the poem is therefore
lyi'ical by nature. The poet has also mastered the method of drama-
tizing the style by putting words in the mouths of his characters.
But whatever method he uses, the narrative always assumes a great
sense of reality. There are few flashes of gaiety or humour, but
various digressions and references to contemporary society reveal
sarcasm. According to Stephansson himself, he deliberately chose
the loose form of the travel narrative where all digressions were
permissible.
The artistic quality of the poem is possibly at its best in de-
scriptive passages on nature and human character. The configura-
tion of the countryside looms in the background of every event. One
can even hear the sounds of the weather. To the poet, such de-
scriptive passages are an end in themselves. The same can be said
of his analyses of character, which show how successfully he has
managed to reveal human traits engendered by past experience.