The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.1988, Blaðsíða 17

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
15
Serious — It’s Golf.16
The Art Show relates the adventures of
an art lover among the masterpieces on
display at a small town art show. In this
piece, Paul’s sense of humor shines through
to good advantage. “The names (of the
pictures)” he confides, “are revealing.
There is one showing a boy feeding hay to
a cow, and the name of the picture is ‘Boy
Feeding Hay to a Cow’ . . . And there is
another one showing a dog chasing a
frightened rabbit. I was impressed with the
title: ‘Dog Attacking Rabbit.’ Now there
was a bold sally of the imagination!”17
In some of his comments, Paul mixes
just a drop or two of acid: “I don’t want to
omit the spectators. After all it was for
them the show was organized. Here was
their opportunity to wade knee-deep in
culture. They stroll about pausing here and
there, smiling, frowning, chortling as they
react to the strangeness before them. It is
revealing to note their comments. You
begin to understand their deep feeling for
art. Such discriminating phrases as ‘this is
nice,’ and ‘this is very nice’ and ‘this is
pretty nice’ are commonly heard, but some-
times someone comes up with a truly
memorable gem like ‘damn good’ or some-
thing equally inventive.”
An essay is a sort of glass in which the
reader catches sight of the author’s face —
not full face, but in profile. It always strikes
a personal note. Individuality is its kernel.
Paul’s essays are written for the serious, but
not the highly instructed PhD level. They
reveal a pleasing personality.
One of the stories that Paul has contrib-
uted to the Icelandic Canadian is called
simply “Battle.”18 It is the tale of a chess
game between Hastings, a young English-
man, an army captain, one of the breed,
who, in E. M. Forster’s words, go forth
into the world with well developed bodies,
fairly developed minds and undeveloped
hearts, and Sigfus Jonasson, an old Ice-
landic farmer, who by virtue of native in-
telligence and intellectual curiosity, with-
out benefit of public school or university,
has become a man of culture and educa-
tion. During a snow storm, Hastings has to
abandon his jeep. He seeks refuge at Jonas-
son’s farm. Hastings is a member of the
British occupying force in Iceland. “Only
the British war office knew how many
troops were sent to ‘occupy’ the island.
Because the country was defenceless, the
Icelandic parliament had sanctioned their
presence. But the ordinary citizen was re-
vulsed by the sight of foreign troops. They
were a peace-loving people. They had
never had an army. From the first they
were sullen and unfriendly, and Hastings,
put off by their coldness, regarded them
with subtle disdain.”
But Jonasson, one of nature’s gentlemen,
knew his obligations to a stranger who
makes a call on his hospitality. He says to
his wife: “Friend or enemy we will treat
him like a guest. He is just another human
being. He has no uniform now. While he is
here we will forget his allegiance.”
To pass the time, Hastings challenges
Jonasson to a game of chess. Jonasson
wins the game handily. Hastings wants a
return match. Nothing in all his experience
had fitted him to appreciate such a man as
his host. He under-estimated him com-
pletely. “He did not know the character of
the Icelandic country man. He knew noth-
ing about his heritage: that he had felt the
first glow of poetry in his breast as he took
his mother’s milk, that many of the great
sagas were in his head before he cut his first
tooth, that his grandmother had brightened
his dreams with the tales of fairies, elves,
trolls, and outlaws throughout all his early
years. His natural intelligence had been
honed by careful study, and wide reading
had given him broadness of mind far be-
yond the common man. Almost alone, he
had learned to read French and German.
English he could read and speak. Danish
he could read and speak flawlessly. He was