World Light (71 page)

NOTES

The Book of Sermons by Bishop Jón Vídalín Skálholt (1698–1720) was published in 1718–20; it is one of the classics of Icelandic literature, much admired for its rich language and colorful style. It dominated Icelandic religious life for more than a century.

The Felsenburg Stories:
translated from a romantic novel by the German writer Johann Gottfried Schnabel (1692–1752) and published in Iceland in 1854. The German title was
Die wunderliche Fata einiger See-Fahrer, absonderlich Alberti Julii, eines geboren Sachsens, auf der Insel Felsenburg
. The story is told in chapters 14–15, below.

“Guðmundur Grímsson of Grunnavík” is modelled on a poet named Sighvatur Grímsson Borgfirðingur (1840–1930), a prolific but minor author with whom Magnús Hjaltason Magnússon (the original of Ólafur Kárason) was acquainted.

Pastor Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614–84) was the greatest poet of seventeenth-century Iceland, and one of Iceland’s greatest religious poets. After a checkered career he was appointed pastor of Saurbær, in Hvalsfjörður, where he wrote his
Passion Hymns
(
Passíusálmar
), a series of fifty meditations on Christ’s passion and resurrection, first published in 1666. They have remained extraordinarily popular to this day. The towering neo-Gothic church in Reykjavík is dedicated to him.

A kenning, in its most rudimentary form, is a metaphorical device that uses two nouns in somewhat paradoxical association to suggest a third, like “ship of the desert” for “camel” or “gannet’s bath” for “sea.” But in classical Icelandic poetry it was a far more sophisticated literary device based on mythological or heroic allusions; thus, since the Nibelung treasure lay at the bottom of the Rhine, guarded by the dragon Fáfnir, a kenning for “gold” could be “Rhine gravel” or “Fáfnir’s bed.” Kennings frequently have more than two elements, and are in effect brief summaries of the myths on which they are based. Thus, there are several stories which describe how Óðin got hold of the mead of poetic inspiration, and a vast number of kennings for “poetry” could be formed on this allusion.

“Ring-bearer” is a simple kenning for “woman.”

“Fjalar’s stream’s bird” refers to Óðin: Fjalar was the name of one of the dwarfs who first brewed the mead of poetry, so “Fjalar’s stream” means “poetry”; Óðin stole it away in the shape of an eagle, so “poetry-bird” means Óðin.

“Hárbarður’s mead-horn’s liquor” is a kenning for poetry: Hárbarður, meaning Graybeard, was one of the innumerable names given to Óðin; and since Óðin was the god of poetry, the god who brought poetry to mankind in the magic mead he stole from the dwarfs and the giants, the liquor of Óðin’s mead-horn would be poetry.

This very literal translation of a stanza by pastor Snorri Bgörnsson of Húsafell (1710–1803) contains a remarkable number of kennings for poetry, or poetic inspiration, which he counterpointed throughout with a more homely, sustained metaphor on butter-making.

Fjölnir and Rögnir were two other names for Óðin, so “Fjölnir’s cream” meant the raw material of poetry, and “Rögnir’s bowl” meant the seat of poetry, the mind. Boðn was the name of one of the three vats in which the dwarf Fjalar kept the blood of wisdom from which he brewed the mead of poetry, so “Billing’s butter” meant the finished version, the poem. Suttungur was the giant who wrested the poetry-mead from the dwarfs, only to have it stolen from him by Óðin, so “Suttungur’s cook” meant the man who makes the finished version, the poet.

Brennivín
(literally, “burnt wine”) is a hard liquor flavoured with angelica root or caraway seeds. It is a kind of aquavit or schnapps, and is familiarly known in Iceland as “Black Death”!

Icelandic ballads (
rímur
) were epic narrative poems of heroic or romantic adventure, written in florid and intricate language and complex metrical forms, to be chanted. They took over from the classical Icelandic sagas in the fourteenth century as the most popular literary form in Iceland, and there is a huge corpus of them extant. Sigurður Breiðfjörð (1798–1846) is regarded as one of the most skillful exponents of this unique literary genre.

In Icelandic, the primary meaning of the noun
“sál”
is “soul”; but there is another related noun (also “sál”), which means “leather bag.” It is very much a secondary meaning, and is not found in standard Icelandic-English dictionaries.

“Privy Councillor”: the Icelandic word coined by Laxness is
estaráð
, used as a purely honorific title which does not refer to any official post. There does not seem to be any specific real-life model for this particular “Privy Councillor”; he represents
any
big businessman, perhaps with some kind of privileged position, who absconds with his money when the going gets rough.

Ragnarok
, in Nordic mythology, is the Destruction of the Gods.

“The Great Verdict” (
Stóridómur
) was a harsh new code of law on moral (particularly sexual) misdemeanors which was imposed on Iceland by the Danish authorities in 1564, after the Lutheran Reformation. The death penalty was introduced for a number of offenses such as incest (including relations between brother- and sister-in-law), and adultery committed three times: men were beheaded, while women were drowned in the Öxará, the river at
ingvellir. These laws remained in force until 1838, although they were rarely enforced after 1800.

“The fellow from Skjól” is later (chapter 11, below) identified as
órarinn Eyjólfsson, who has adopted the pen-name Örn Úlfar. He is a composite portrait drawn from a number of radical, left-wing poets, like Steinn Steinarr (1908–58, the pen name of Aðalsteinn Kristmundsson), who were collectively dubbed
Rauðir pennar
(“Red Pens”).

The pen name Örn Úlfar is drawn from the words for an eagle (
örn
) and a wolf (
úlfur
), to emphasize his perception of himself as a fierce opponent of capitalism.

Norn: the three Norns in Nordic mythology were the equivalent of the Fates of classical mythology.

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851–1940) was an eminent English physicist and pioneer of wireless telegraphy. He also devoted much of his time to psychic research and published several books on the subject.

Grímur
loðinkinni
(Hairy-Cheek), from Ramstad in Norway, was the eponymous hero of one of the late medieval Legendary Sagas (
Gríms saga
Loðinkinna
). It is a very short tale, and tells how Grímur rescued from enchantment his betrothed (a beautiful princess) who had been transformed into a monstrous troll-woman through the sorcery of her wicked stepmother. One of their descendants, also named Grímur, was an early settler in Iceland, at Grímsnes.

This story is an allusion (characteristically embroidered by folklore) to a celebrated murder which led to the last judicial execution in Iceland, in 1830. Natan Ketilsson of Illugastaðir (1798–1828), an unpopular farmer, was murdered, along with his foreman Pétur Jónsson, by two members of his household, Agnes Magnúsdóttir and Friðrik Sigurðsson, on 13 March 1828. The murderers attempted to destroy the evidence by setting fire to the farmhouse, but the corpses of the two victims were not burned; the two murderers were caught, tried and executed at Vatnsdalshólar, in the north of Iceland, on 12 Janaury 1830. The block used at their execution is now in the National Museum of Iceland.

Jónas Hallgrímsson (107–45) was Iceland’s outstanding lyrical poet of the nineteenth century, and a leader in the awakening of Icelandic nationalist sentiments with his passionate romanticism. As a student in Copenhagen he was one of the editors of the annual
Fjölnir
which agitated for the restoration of the Alþingi (Althing).

Bishop Guðmundur Arason of Hólar, nicknamed
góði
(the Good), was a turbulent prelate who was bishop of Hólar, in the north of Iceland, from 1202 to 1237. He developed a reputation as a miracle-worker, and hallowed many wells and springs which bear his name to this day and are thought to have healing properties.

órður Magnússon of Háttardalur (1829–96) was a Member of Parliament in the 1880s, who later emigrated to Canada.

Skarpheðinn Njálsson was the eldest son of Njáll, the eponymous main character in
Njáll’s Saga
, the mightiest of the medieval Icelandic Sagas. With his father and brothers, he was burnt to death by a confederacy of enemies in the year 1011.

Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), the great saga historian, wrote
Heimskringla
(History of the Kings of Norway) and
Egill’s Saga
. He also wrote the
Prose
Edda
, a manual of poetics and Nordic mythology.

Grettir Ásmundarson—Grettir the Strong—was the eponymous hero of
Grettir’s Saga
, which was written in the fourteenth century. He was immensely strong, and a good poet, but was outlawed for some killings; he survived as an outlaw in the wildlands of Iceland for nearly twenty years.

In Nordic mythology, Ýmir was the primeval giant form whose bones, flesh and blood Óðin fashioned the world, using his blood for the sea, flesh for the earth, skull for the sky and brains for the clouds. The name “Ýmir” means “The Roarer,” so Örn Úlfar is allowing himself a rare moment of humor by punning on Roarer and Voice.

Rix-dollar: an old Scandinavian silver coin (
rigsdaler
).

Haraldur
hilditönn
(War-tooth) was a semi-legendary Danish king who lived (if he existed at all) in the seventeenth century. He is said to have fallen at the Battle of Brávellir (c. 800), old and blind, in a war against Sweden; his death was caused by the god Óðin, disguised as his charioteer.

Göngu-Hrólfur (Walker-Hrólfur) is better known in Viking history as Rollo (died c. 928), who founded the duchy of Normandy. Icelandic sources say that he was so huge that no horse could carry him—hence his nickname of “Ganger” (Walker). Rollo was granted the lands of Normandy by King Charles the Simple of France in return for defending France against other Viking raiders.

Örvar-Oddur (Arrow-Oddur) was a legendary hero with mythical associations who lived for three hundred years. His story was written up in the thirteenth-century
Örvar-Oddur’s Saga
. He is said to have been the son of Grímur
loðinkinna
(Hairy-Cheek).

Sigurður
Fáfnisbani
(Fáfnir’s-Slayer), also known as Sigurður the Volsung, was the legendary hero of the Icelandic Völsunga Saga (Saga of the Volsungs). A Germanic hero from the pre-Viking Migration Period, he slew the dragon Fáfnir who guarded the Rhinegold, and became the lover of the Valkyrie Brynhildur—only to be killed by his brother-in-law Gunnar. The saga was the inspiration of Wagner’s epic opera
The Ring of the Nibelungs
.

Gunnar of Hlíðarendi was the peerless hero of
Njáll’s Saga.

Egill Skalla-Grímsson was the eponymous hero of one of the greatest of the Icelandic Sagas,
Egill’s Saga
. Born at Borg in Iceland around 910, he became the outstanding warrior-poet of the Viking Age: a massive, menacing crag of a man who fought as a Viking mercenary for many years.

Árni Magnússon (1663–1730) was a brilliant young Icelandic scholar who was appointed Professor of Danish Antiquities at Copenhagen University in 1701. He was sent back to Iceland as a royal commissioner to carry out a land census (1702–12), and used the opportunity to seek out saga manuscripts wherever he went. The manuscripts he collected were sent to Copenhagen University; they have now been returned to Iceland by Denmark.