Paradise Reclaimed
Page 27
But when the Mormon began to preach it was received with the kind of amiable indifference that was in fashion among our compatriots in the sagas when they accepted an unknown faith in the year 1000,* and yet did not accept, because they could not be bothered to argue; or when they sat down and tied their shoelaces because they could not be bothered to flee when they were overcome in battle. Icelanders had now completely lost that spark of religious conviction which had shown itself a few years previously when they tied Mormons to boulders. Progress or retrogression? That was the question asked by the finest bishop to travel round Iceland in recent centuries: it is no fun at all to wrestle with a lot of wool when it is not even in sacks.
And before the Mormon realised it he had reached Steinahlíðar. When he came to Hlíðar late one afternoon during the hay-making, he was staggered to find that there was no farm there. And yet he felt that it was only yesterday that he had got up early one morning and taken leave of his children in their sleep, while his wife stood tearfully on the paving and stared after the wisest man in the world as he disappeared round the shoulder of the mountain. Nothing would have seemed more natural to him than to find everything there the same as he had left it, and to be able to go in to his sleeping children and wake them with a kiss. What surprised him most now was that the home-field had become pasturage for alien sheep. That the farmhouse should have disappeared would have been bearable had not the paving on which the woman had stood also sunk into the ground. Who were these two silent little birds that flew out of the banks of dock and angelica where the farm had once stood, and vanished into the blue? Had he not put his hand into his pocket and found the letter from a man in Edinburgh that this was his farm, he would scarcely have believed it.
But it was not until he had a look at the boundary-walls that the enormity of it all really struck him. Was it any wonder that it should hurt him so much to see how these masterpieces by his great-grandfather, the model and example for many a district, had gone in a flash while he slipped away for a moment? And the rubble off the mountain scattered all over the hayfield! Then he happened to look up at the steep mountain above the farm, at the fulmar, that faithful bird, sweeping with smooth and powerful and deathless wingbeats high up along the cliff-ledges overgrown with ferns and moonwort, where it had had his nest for twenty thousand years.
He laid down his knapsack with the pamphlets by John Pritt, slipped off his jacket and took off his hat; then he began to gather stones to make a few repairs to the wall. There was a lot of work waiting for one man here; walls like these, in fact, take the man with them if they are to stand.
A passer-by saw that a stranger had started to potter with the dykes of this derelict croft.
“Who are you?” asked the traveller.
The other replied, “I am the man who reclaimed Paradise after it had been lost, and gave it to his children.”
“What is such a man doing here?” asked the passer-by.
“I have found the truth, and the land in which it lives,” said the wall-builder, correcting himself. “And that is assuredly very important. But now the most important thing is to build up this wall again.”
And with that, Steinar of Hlíðar went on just as if nothing had happened, laying stone against stone in these ancient walls, until the sun went down on Hlíðar in Steinahlíðar.
Notes
the third last foreign king to wield power here in Iceland: Kristian IX, King of Denmark 1863–1906; he was the son of Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
viking who always went to bed with the axe Battle-Troll under his pillow: Battle-Troll (rymmaugýgr): the mighty battle-axe owned by Skarpheðinn Njálsson in Njáll’s Saga.
entrance to Gnípahellir: Gnípahellir, in Norse mythology, is the place where the great Wolf Fenrir would break free from his fetters before Raganarök (Destruction of the Gods).
In charge of this company was Sheriff Benediktsson: Einar Benediktsson (1864–1940) became one of Iceland’s major poets. He was also a cosmopolite and entrepreneur (see chapter 30). In his younger days, he was appointed a country magistrate (Sheriff).
The other visitor was the agent Björn of Leirur: Björn of Leirur is loosely based on a historical character named Porvaldur Björnsson (1833–1922), a farming magnate who lived at Porvaldseyvi at the roots of Eyiafjallajökull. He, too, became an entrepreneur, investing all his money in trawlers, but went bankrupt. He had no children by his wife, but had two children by Ingvald, the daughter of Eiríkur of Brúnar (the original of “Steinar of Hlíðar”).
there was seldom much brennivín . . . : brennivín (literally “burnt wine”) is a strong spirit, like schnapps, flavored with caraway seeds or angelica roots and familiarly know as “Black Death.”
like old Thorvaldsen: “Old Thorvaldsen”: The Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), the son of an Icelandic woodcarver. He was Denmark’s most celebrated sculptor of his time, and a leader of the neoclassical movement.
It is of no little importance to arrive at Þingvellir: Þingvellir (Parliament Plains) is the great natural open-air arena where Iceland’s Parliament (the Alþingi) was established in 930. Although the Alþingi had been moved to Reykjavík in 1845, it was still considered the center of the land, and all national festivities were celebrated there—and are, to this day.
Hrafnkell himself, should forfeit nothing but his life: Hrafnkell Freyr’s-goði is the anonymous hero of Hrafnkell’s Saga. He revered his horse so much that he swore that he would kill anyone who rode him without permission. The saga talks of the dire consequences that ensued when his shepherd rode him, and Hrafnkell killed him without compunction.
nor am I accustomed to forget Sleipnir: Sleipnir was the eight-legged horse belonging to Óðinn, the chief god of the Norse pantheon.
the thousandth anniversary of the settlement of Iceland: The traditional date for the first settlement of Iceland is 874.
Norse warriors who served in the Varangian Guard under the emperor in Constantinople: The Varangians (Væringjar) were an elite unit of highly paid Scandinavian mercenaries serving as part of the Byzantine emperor’s imperial guard, founded in the late tenth century.
No farmer was considered worth his salt if he could not trace his genealogy back to Harald hárfagvi (Fine-Hair): Harald hárfagvi (Fine-Hair) was the first Norwegian ruler to unify all Norway under a simple crown, late in the ninth century.
or his namesake Harald hilditönn (War-Tooth): Harald hilditönn (War-Tooth), a semilegendary Danish king, is said to have been defeated at the Battle of Brávellir, in Sweden, after being betrayed by Óðinn.
All Icelandic genealogies can be traced back to the Ynglings and the Scyldings: The Ynglings were a semilegendary dynasty of kings who ruled Sweden from the end of the third to the middle of the ninth century and were descended from Yngvi_Freyr, the god of fertility. The Scyldings (Skjöldungar) were an equally legendary dynasty of Danish kings descended from Skjöldur, the son of Óðinn.
King Gautrekur of Gotaland: King Gautrekur Örvi (the Generous) is the eponymous hero of one of the many Legendary Sagas within Iceland. He appears in genealogies Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), and is said to have been a king in Sweden.
Ganger-Hrolf: Ganger-Hrolf (Göngu-Hrólfur) is better known as Rollo, the viking leader who founded the duchy of Normandy in France.
Gormur gamlí (the Old): Gormur gamlí (the Old) was a tenth-century king of Denmark; he died in 958 and was interred in one of the great burial mounts at Jelling, in Jutland.
who fought the battle of Brávellir: Brávellir was a celebrated battle, said to have been fought between the Danish King Harald War-Tooth and his nephew Hríngur, after Óðinn had sowed dissension between them.
one from an old ballad involving the hero Þórður hreða (Menace): Þórður hreða (Menace) was a Norwegian warrior who fled to Iceland in the tenth century. He is the hero of a fourteenth-century saga called Þórður saga hreða. Like Steinar, he was noted for his craftsmanship.<
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“Or at least the old ogress Grýla.”: Grýla was the quintessential bugbear of early Icelandic folklore; she was an elemental troll, with fifteen tails (with a hundred bags on each tail for holding captured children). Her name was much used to frighten recalcitrant children.
a berserk fit no less frenzied than when Einarr Skálaglamm fastened the shield: Einarr Skálaglamm Helgason was Egill Skallagrímsson’s poetic protégé in Egill’s Saga. His nickname means “scale-tinkler.” He presents Egill with an ornate shield he had been given by the ruler of Norway. When Egill saw it hanging in his bed-closet he was curious—he thought that Einarr expected him to write about it!
started to hunt for minnows in the Tjörn: Tjörn is the name of the small lake in the city-center of Reykjavík. The name is related to the word “tarn.”
when they accepted an unknown faith in the year 1000: In the year 1000 (or 999, as scholars now suggest), Iceland was converted from paganism to Christianity by parliamentary decree.
Halldór Laxness
PARADlSE RECLAlMED
Halldór Laxness was born near Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1902. His first novel was published when he was seventeen. The undisputed master of contemporary Icelandic fiction, and one of the outstanding novelists of the century, he has written more than sixty books, including novels, short stories, essays, poems, plays, and memoirs. In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1998.
INTERNATIONAL
ALSO BY Halldór Laxness
Independent People
FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION, MARCH 2002
English language translation copyright © 1962, copyright renewed 1990 by Halldór Laxness
Introduction copyright © 2002 by Jane Smiley
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