Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2021, Side 7

Upon receiving the task of writing
about one of the many gods of Iceland,
I was tempted to be as basic as basic
can be in selecting my deity. "ór would
have been an easy one, same with
someone like Loki.
But no, that’s not how I roll
In all of my wisdom (of which there is
little), I went out of my way to pick a
God that doesn’t have its own movie
or upcoming TV show. So I bring to
you Mímir, the god of wisdom and
Ásgar!ur’s true 200IQ Reddit user.
u/MímirKnowsBest
Mímir was a water spirit who resided
by a well at the bottom of the Yggdra-
sil, better known as the Tree of Life.
He was known as the wisest of all the
Æsir, so it was here that many of the
gods would turn up for advice on which
realm to screw over next, and which
random mortal needed knocking up.
It was during the war between Æsir
and Vanir—which would make a great
movie or TV show—that Mimir’s fate
was revealed. Tiring of endless war, the
two races of Gods decided to establish
a truce and hostages were exchanged
between the two sides; Njör!r and his
son Freyr were given to the Æsir, while
the Vanir received Mímir and Hœnir.
Upon their arrival in the Vanir
homeworld of Vanaheimr, Mímir was
appointed to give counsel due to the
fact that Ó!inn told the Vanir that
he was the smartest of all the Gods.
However, Mimir didn’t fancy giving
lots of advice to the Vanir and often,
when asked for his advice, would
respond with “Let others decide.”
This spelled certain doom for our
man Mímir, as the Vanir thought that
Ó!inn had duped them by not sending
the smartest man in all the realms, but
merely giving them a careless old dude
with seemingly nothing left to live for.
And who could blame them? They were
dealing with Ó!inn, notorious master
of betrayal, after all.
The Vanir subsequently took it upon
themselves to seize Mímir, cut off his
head and send it to Ó!inn. So you could
say that Mímir would not beheading
back to Vanaheimr any time soon.
Well ackshually…
For most people, this would be where
the story ends. However, we are dealing
with immortal gods who are capable of
using black magic to bend the universe
to their will. So upon receiving Mímir’s
head, Ó!inn used some magical herbs
and sang to Mímir to bring him (or
rather, his head) back from the dead.
Wonder what song he sang… “Staying
Alive” perhaps? “Get’Cha Head In The
Game”?
Over the next aeons, Ó!inn kept
Mímir’s head close by, seeking coun-
sel from him as he used to back when
Mimir had two legs to stand on. The
great and mighty Ó!inn would even
go on to put his own eye in Mímir’s
aforementioned well-home, believing
that the waters would give him divine
knowledge. That’s one way to keep an
eye on all of Ásgar!ur.
Well, here’s a heads up now because
I’m afraid we are heading to the end of
Mímir’s story, as very little is known
about what happened to him after
he became Odin’s magic eight-ball of
sorts. So perhaps it’s best if I stop writ-
ing here before I get… ahead of myself.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
7 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03— 2021
Krummi - Naglar
og salt
The moment this
song began playing in
the Grapevine o#ce,
our journalists looked
down and found their
hands covered in
well-worked calluses
and arms in that
ropey sort of muscle
you only get from
doing a hard day’s
work. At the same
time, our wives le%
us for oil barons, the
newspaper factory
called to say they
were closing down,
and there was naught
to do but sit on our
distribution tractors
and think about what
must be done on the
morrow. We’d have
to rebuild the paper
from hand, thinking
only of our lost loves
and accompanied
only by this Utah
Phillips cover. ‘Tis the
life for a cowboy. HJC

Ólafur Arnalds –
Spiral – Sunrise
Session
Ólafur chose the
shortest day of
the year for these
newly-released live
sessions, highlighting
the idea of a global
sunrise; hope for a
coming post-COVID
dawn. The dizzying
helix of the track’s
intertwining strings
and piano, reaching
endlessly upwards,
will be familiar
to fans from the
album. But the feel
of musicians playing
live—together, in a
room—reinforces the
sense of imminent
COVID-conclusion. JP

EYJAA - Don’t Forget
About Me
Cute stu$!! Say hello
to sisters Brynja Mary
Sverrisdottir and Sara
Victoria Sverrisdottir,
who comprise pop
duo EYJAA. Their debut
single, “Don’t Forget
About Me”, is a sunny,
bouncy, happy-happy
pop song that’ll make
you long for the days
of summer where you
could lay outside in
a bathing suit and
sip green juice or
something equally
aspirational. Tbh, I
thought the song
was fine until I went
to lunch and began
subconsciously
humming the
background vocals
the whole time. So
yes, it’s a certified
earworm. HJC

Fríd - Woods
Fríd’s got an
interesting
dichotomy—her
lyrics and melody
could easily place
her in the tragic
love and loss singer/
songwriter category
(“She scurried away,
way into the woods
on the run from time/
She felt her wrinkles
forming/She must be
gone for morning”),
while her unexpected
low key trap and
extreme autotune
pull her into that
late-night comedown
party vibe. HJC

Possimiste -
Paradise
Hallelujah! Possimiste
has apparently
created this sparse,
boomy, bluesy, grimey
gem to soundtrack
our journey to the
promised land.
Shades of Karin
Dreijer and Lykke
Li abound here;
perhaps Paradise is
somewhere Nordic.
Let’s hope so. With the
land to the southwest
of Grapevine’s o#ces
about to belch
hot gas—and the
ground beneath us
rumbling—we might
be making that
journey sooner than
we had planned. So it
would be nice not to
have to go too far. But
what a tune to take
us there!. JP
GRAPEVINE
PLAYLIST
JUST SAYINGS
Ever had a hot dog filled with raisins?
Doesn’t sound good, does it? Still,
Icelanders have the saying “Rúsínan
í Pylsuendanum,” which translates to
“the raisins in the tail of a hot dog.” It’s
sort of a vague way to describe some-
thing good or unexpected, and like
everything that doesn’t make sense or
is just plain stupid, we got it from the
Danes—our former oppressors. More
specifically, it was adopted from a poem
by Danish poet Christian Winther, which
we won’t mention because we don’t
want to give any Dane free publicity.
Anyway, for some maddening reason,
ages ago they used to put a raisin at the
end of black pudding sausages, which
those savages thought was a sign of true
culinary prowess. Apparently, this was
an unexpectedly great thing—hence the
saying. VG
First
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In 1,000 years, this photo will be studied as the pinnacle of art
“Rúsínan í
Pylsuendanum”
GODS OF ICELAND
Superpowers:
Astonishingly
clever, very
portable
Weaknesses:
Lack of body, being
a bit of a pushover,
being not smart
enough to avoid
weird prison
exchanges
Modern Analogue:
That guy on
Reddit who knows
everything about
everything, has
10 PhDs but still
gets roasted by
everyone in the
comments
Mímir, Bodyless Brainiac
You bet his Reddit Karma score is
hi!her than Ás!ar&ur
Words:
Owen Tyrie
Photo:
Adobe Stock
Don't get ahead of yourself, dweeb