Iceland review - 2014, Page 35

ICELAND REVIEW 33
family, I soon packed it away in a trunk and forgot
about it. Besides, I didn’t really know how to make the
costume.”
Founded in 1913, the Icelandic Handicrafts
Association aims to preserve and uphold traditions in
craftsmanship as a vital part of the nation’s heritage.
These include knitting, weaving, spinning yarn and
coloring, carving and embroidering. Last year, the
Association celebrated its 100th anniversary with a vari-
ety of events, including exhibitions and the publishing
of Faldar og skart in collaboration with publishing house
Opna and the National Museum of Iceland.
The early 20th century was a time of change; with
the advent of the industrial revolution and its mass-
production of goods; a thousand years of craftsman-
ship and skill risked being forever forgotten. A group
of prominent Icelanders realized the need for such
an organization to prevent that from happening. Ever
since, generations have been taught these skills through
a variety of courses. “However, the ones pertaining to
the making of the Icelandic costume were only aimed
at costumes as they had evolved in the 20th century.
No one really knew how the old faldbúningur had been
There, he presumably came across the dress. Magnús,
who would later become prefect like his father, was a
modern man; a harsh critic of the faldbúningur costume,
finding it outdated and restrictive. Therefore, it is per-
haps understandable that the family agreed to sell it to
Hooker. After all, its original owner had been dead for
more than 20 years.
Also on the expedition was the Danish explorer
and adventurer Jörgen Jörgensen who became known
as Jörundur hundadagakonungur (‘King of the Dog
Days’). Abetted by English seamen, he arrested the
Danish governor, placed himself at the head of govern-
ment and proclaimed Iceland independent of Denmark.
His ‘protectorship’ lasted only nine weeks before it was
ended by the arrival of the British Royal Navy ship
H.M.S. Talbot.
On the journey back to England disaster struck. On
the second day, the ship caught fire, its cargo-animal
fat-making for an excellent fuel; accounts of wit-
nesses describe it flowing dramatically over the decks.
With only a handful of life rafts, things didn’t look
good. Suddenly Jörgensen, the captain of the expedi-
tion’s other ship, arrived and thanks to him everyone
was rescued. Unfortunately, Hooker’s plant samples and
research perished and so did the bridal outfit. At least
that’s what everybody in Iceland assumed.
Fast forward 150 years, when Elsa E. Guðjónsson
(1924-2010), a renowned scholar in textiles and cos-
tume, came across a book by Hooker, published in
1811. There, it was revealed that the outfit had been
rescued by the ship’s butler, safely reaching harbor in
England. Then, in 1963, when doing research at the
V&A Museum, Elsa discovered that it had in 1869
acquired an Icelandic costume from James Hooker,
William’s son. And there it was, lying dust-ridden in
the archives of the Bethnal Green Museum, which was
dedicated to children. After all, it was made for the six-
teen-year-old Þórunn. Later, Elsa found the riding coat
among the museum’s collection of uniforms, thereby
completing the ensemble.
IMPOrTANT NOT TO fOrgET THE SkIll
Wanting to make her own faldbúningur for the 1974
celebration of 1100 years of Iceland’s settlement, Sigrún
approached Elsa for information. “She lent me patterns
taken from the V&A costume and I began embroider-
ing a floral motif for the skirt. But busy with work and
sigríður Magnúsdóttir, the mother of Þórunn ólafsdóttir for whom
the V&a bridal outfit was made.