Northern light - 01.07.1941, Qupperneq 8

NORTHERN LIGHT
THE TRUTH ABOUT ICELAND
O, tell me the truth about Iceland; it’s the truth that I’m wanting to know.
Is it really surrounded hy icehergs? Is it always deep-covered in snow?
l)o the Icelanders all live in igloos? Do they feed on the blubber of whales?
Do they spend their whole tinie writing sagas, and drinking Black Death out of pails?
O the truth is not easy to find, lad, but remember, whatever you’re told,
That all is not icey in Iceland, though the natives are certainly cold.
Do polar bears play in the lava? Do reindeer come up at Ihe run
To carry off bevies of stúlkas at midnight to bathe in the sun?
Are the stúlkas like Sonja Henje? Do they spend all their days on the ice?
And are they so fond of their skiing that they don’t think plain “he-ing” cpiite nice?
O the truth is not easy to find, lad, but remember, whatever you’re told,
That all is not icey in Iceland, though the stúlkas are (usually) cold.
Is your life one long round of amusements that you needn’t leave duty to seek,
What with ENSA (one evening a quarter) and the wireless (six hours in a week)?
And what is all this about geysers? — It’s the truth that I’m wanting to know —
Is there really this natural hot water to warm you wherever you go?
O the truth is not easy to find, lad, but this fact is abundantly clear,
—. If you got in hot water in England, you’Il get in hot water out here!
O tell me the truth about Iceland, for the truth ís not easily seen,
What with M. of I. films at the pictures, and prelates from far Aberdeen.
Are the troops all as happy as sand-boys? Do they fatten on good M and V?
Do they cheer when they’re given an issue of tablets (ascorbic) for tea?
O the truth is not easy to find, lad, but — a word of advice in your ear —
Whatever you hear about Iceland, believe about half that you hear!
SOMETHING
One feels sometimes that if one were
a sterner fellow, one would keep a score
against The People Who Talk But Don’t
Know; especially against those people
who pack one off to Iceland filled with
what turn out to be the most outrage-
ous of fallacies.
“There is nothing to do in Iceland,”
they said, “but fish”.
I looked out of the carriage window
at England rolling southwards and pic-
IN THE AIR
tured myself in Iceland. There was no
work to do. One stood on a bare and
rocky coast clad in a tropal coat, cast-
ing a line in a swirl of foam before an
audience of interested seals. Then there
was another picture that I like rather;
that of myself poised with a harpoon
above a hole in the ice. Yes, it was a stern
life one was going to, but had not some-
one said something about regular leave..?
A month and a half in Iceland suffice