Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.02.2019, Qupperneq 14

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14 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • February 15 2019
One winter in Grímsey,
the fire died out and
there was not a single
home where a fire could be
found. At this time, the sea
froze hard but continued calm,
so that the ocean between
Grímsey and the mainland was
frozen over, and the ice thought
strong enough to bear the
weight of men. Therefore, the
people of Grímsey determined
to send to the mainland for
fire, and to this end they chose
the three fastest and strongest
men on the island to make the
journey.
They left the island early
one morning, in calm weather,
and a great many of the islanders
went with them out onto the
ice, and bade them farewell
and Godspeed. Nothing is told
of their travels until, at about
the halfway point, they found
the ice open; the rift was so
long that they could not see
its end, and so broad that only
two of the messengers could
jump over it, the third being
unable to trust himself to leap
across. The others told him to
return back to the island while
they continued their journey
towards the mainland.
The remaining man stood
at the edge of the ice, unwilling
to return to the island, and he
watched after his companions
before he decided to walk
along the water in search
of a place where the open
water was narrower. As the
day passed, clouds gathered
quickly, and a southern gale
sprang up with rain and sleet.
The ice suddenly began to
melt and at last the man found
himself stranded on a piece of
floating ice, drifting towards
the open ocean.
By the evening, this piece
of ice had drifted towards a
large floe and the man walked
over to the floe until he found a
she-bear, resting over her young
ones. The man was as cold as he
was hungry, beginning to fear
for his life. When the she-bear
saw the man, she gazed at him
for some time, and then, rising
from her lair, went towards and
around him, signaling him to
come into her lair and lie down
beside her cubs.
This he did with but half
a mind. After this, the animal
laid herself down upon him,
spreading herself out over him
and her young ones, covering
them all as well as she could.
The bear coaxed to man to take
her teat into his mouth, and
suck, together with her cubs.
Thus the night passed.
The next day, the animal
rose up from her lair and
signaled the man to follow her.
When they came to the ice,
not far away, the bear flung
herself down, leading the man
to understand that he was to
mount her back. When the man
had mounted, she shook herself
until he could no longer hold
himself on and he tumbled
off. She made no further
attempts in this regard, but the
man thought this behaviour
of hers rather strange. Now,
three days passed in this way:
at night, the man rested in
her lair and sucked her, but,
every morning, she repeated
the same exercise, making the
man sit on her back and always
shaking him off again.
The fourth morning, the
man could hold himself on
her back, no matter how much
she shook and twisted herself.
This day, in the afternoon, she
started from the floe with the
man on her back and swam to
the island. When they came to
shore, the man beckoned his
bear-friend to follow him, and
they went home. He ordered his
best cow to be milked and gave
the teat-warm milk to the weary
bear – as much as she would
have. Then he went before
her to his pen and took from
it two of his best wethers, tied
them together by their horns,
and flung them across the back
of the bear, who swam away
again, back to her young ones.
They had a goodly feast of it.
This was a day of great
rejoicing on Grímsey, for while
the islanders gazed in wonder
after the bear, a boat was
seen coming, sailing from the
mainland towards the island,
having on board the other two
messengers and the sorely-
needed fire.
A folktale from the collection
of Jón Árnason (1819-1888),
Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og
ævintýry (Icelandic Folk Tales
and Legends), adapted from
the translation by George E.J.
Powell and Eiríkur Magnússon.
PHOTO: SKEEZE / PIXABAY
Polar bear and cubs
THE GRÍMSEY MAN AND THE BEAR
Wouldn’t your amma and afi be proud?
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