Small updates

A short post, just to update everyone on what I'm doing.

Writing has begun. I have written "FADE IN:" at the top, and it can't be unwritten. But I have words on the page: about 6 pages, with some 354 left to go, if this turns out to be as large a project as I think it will. I'm still buried in Norse Eddic poems, making my way through the older literature as I've now read a few translations and adaptations. My current reading is the Poetic, or Elder Edda, which is a collection of poems from different anonymous authors that chronicle that history of the Norse gods and provide wisdom for everyday living; how one should treat friends, how one should act as a guest, advice for becoming wise, etc. There are some good gems in there. A few, on friendship and wisdom, from Havamal.

"It's a great detour to a bad friend's house,

even though he lives on the route;

but to a good friend's the ways lie straight,

even though he lives far off."

And:

"You know, if you've a friend, one whom you trust,

go see him often;

for brushwood grows, and tall grass,

on the road which no man treads."

And:

"The foolish man in company

does best if he stays silent;

no one will know that he knows nothing,

unless he talks too much;

but the man who knows nothing does not know

when he is talking too much."

They prize moderation much more than film adaptations might have you believe. Mostly recently, the History channel has been running a series called "Vikings" that I need to catch up on. Thus far I've detected some inaccuracies with it, but it seems a better presentation than most.

I'm writing what I call an exploratory draft. While I have an outline for the entire project, it's never enough. Unexpected problems always crop up, and screenplays tend to slide away from your intentions in the middle somewhere, not wanting to quite connect with the end. I prefer to just try to write it and solve the problems as I come to them rather than trying to anticipate everything ahead of time. So far so good.

I have taken a few other steps to help research along. I have contacted Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, an Icelandic filmmaker, writer and director of a trilogy of films reported to be among the most authentic-looking Viking films anyone has ever made. I'm also reaching out to the Icelandic Film Centre to ask about script development grants. So we'll see how that goes, on both counts, I'm not yet sure whether anything will come of it.

Before too long we'll have new artists arriving, a woman from Japan and a man from Switzerland. We're still waiting on the snow to melt some (and will be waiting longer after snowfall today) to do some further traveling.

As this post has been light on pictures, I'll include a couple here just taken outside the house.

Taken around midnight, thirty second exposure.

Also taken at night, longer exposure. I think this was a quiet aurora, far off.

On Icelandic culture

In the past week I have learned a lot about the culture I am now living in, primarily through reading the stories from Iceland's history. The stories a culture tells say a lot about their lives and their perceptions of the world, the process in which they understood the things around them and rationalized them. Even though cultures change (Greek mythology may not give you a good picture of modern day Greeks) I think it's important to see where people come from, and this is very true of Iceland, a country with a rather unique tie to its heritage through a number of prolific writers.

It seems the Icelandic people have always been scholarly. Anywhere they settled, they had books. For a period of time it was popular in Iceland to copy books by hand. Iceland remains a very educated country that has produced some remarkable feats of literature that often go unnoticed. The Icelandic sagas make a massive book of stories about heroes and history that, were it published in a major European nation, might be regarded as a much bigger achievement. Poems were composed on a number of subjects, including general wisdom for everyday living; how much you should eat or drink when you're a guest in someone's home. Histories of the settlement age were kept as well.

Accompanying the Sagas are the Elder (or Poetic) Edda-comprised of earlier sources-and the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. These are the most complete sources of Norse mythology that we have. I met with a local teacher of Icelandic literature to talk about them, as I had started drawing conclusions from them that I wanted to confirm with a native before running too amok with my own notions:

The Icelandic people are, generally, optimistic despite some of the conditions that they live in (cold, long winter months, long periods of darkness) and despite a difficult settlement period followed soon after by bloody civil wars between ruling families all striving for power. A (very) inebriated woman in a bar told me that Icelanders have the saying: "everything will be okay" something that might be said when you don't plan something out very well and it falls apart.

This seems to me to be reflected in the Eddur, the story of the Norse gods. The stories often follow the gods in their desperate attempt to prepare for Ragnarök, a final war which they know they can't win. They continue on in the hopes of preserving some part of the world, leaving something left for humans to return to. Thus far, it seems a sort of theme: hope in the face of huge obstacles.

The people here have a very close connection to the land, which I am still figuring out. It seems as though the land as an entity is very much a part of the people and their lives. The prose Edda describes the process in which the world was made from the body of a giant: his skull made into the sky, his blood the oceans and the rocks in the ground from his teeth and bones.

Iceland is almost entirely powered by the island itself: mostly from hydro power and geothermal energy. Wikipedia lists its fossil fuel usage for power as .1%. Every town I have seen has geothermal swimming pools and hot tubs and the swimming pool seems to be the place to go to get news. You might think that farming and growing crops would be impossible in an area with such rocky volcanic soil, cold temperatures and so little sunlight for a chunk of the year, but because of Iceland's unique spot on the planet, they are able to grow in greenhouses year round: tomatoes, cucumbers, flowers, even bananas. With one hand it takes, with the other it gives.

Tomatoes at Hædarendi

My meeting with the literature teacher showed me I have more reading to do, but I'm moving past character development and moving into outlining the whole project. This weekend I'll pick up some more books: some of the sagas and epic poems.

Following my literature discussion was a small Icelandic Folk Music museum located in nearby Siglufjörður. The heart of traditional Icelandic music is the rímur, an epic poem written in meter. They have simple, Gregorian chant-like melodies that employ a kind of half-singing similar to recitative in opera. I have a book full of traditional melodies to look through. More complex forms exist like the Tvísöngur, songs that alternate between unison singing and two parts, characterized by parallel fifths.

The oldest musical traditions are vocal, but there are a handful of traditional Icelandic instruments, mostly stringed instruments with strings made from horse hair. 

An Iceland violin (right) and Lanspil (left).

Other musical styles and instruments came later: polka was popular for a time, as an example. Even modern bands from Iceland sometimes use the traditional styles in their music (Sigur Rós comes to mind). There have been a series of more modern interpretations of traditional folk tunes, many of which I have enjoyed a lot. Guitar Islancio is a guitar trio of very talented guitarists headed by Björn Thoroddsen that do very eclectic jazzy interpretations, and are well worth looking up.

In other news, the weather is looking better after a big blizzard this week which left the town covered in snow. I made it to Hrísey island with one of my flatmates and made contact with some more artists at a residency there.

Ólafsfjörður

Hrísey

Another view from Hrísey.

In the next few days I will have some more time in Akureyri to see the city when everything is not closed for Easter. In the near(ish) future, a trip to Mývatn to see the dimmu borgir, hot springs, and a volcano hike is in order.

On the Edge of the World

I have arrived at my final destination after a week or so of traveling: the village of Ólafsfjörður on the northern tip of Iceland. Though I don't quite want it to be the case, it's time to stop being a tourist and time to get to work (although I'll be taking a few more trips before I leave to see different parts of the country). 

I spent my weekend in Akureyri, following Reykjavik and a short flight over the Icelandic Highlands. I'm still trying to figure out how this country is put together: lots of very abrupt mountain ranges that end just as quickly, interspersed with massive canyons that seem to be totally self-enclosed, just huge fissures in the Earth. Certainly the result of an abundance of volcanic activity. I noticed the difference in temperature as soon as I got off the plane which landed between two rows of icy mountains. Akureyri is a nice little city that I will have to visit again, as a lot of things were shut down for the Easter weekend. Iceland is not a terribly religious country, but they celebrate Easter very conservatively. It's a city of about 17,000, the only other city in Iceland and the "capital of the north." It was a quieter weekend, which is probably for the better: lots of time spent in the cafe/bar on the ground floor of the hostel catching up on things and watching Premiere League games which screened as often as they were on.

Akureyri

Another Icelandic church: Akureyrarkirkja

I took a bus up to Ólafsfjörður in which I made contact with four other people also on their way to artist residencies in different places on the north coast, so it seems there's something of a network of us up here. The bus trip was as scenic as any other travel has been in Iceland: things have become almost entirely white. The snow up here will not melt for some weeks yet, especially with temperatures in the twenties like we've been having.

The town itself is small: around 900 people, sitting right on the water with its own small harbor. The main industry has been fishing for quite some time. To get here you have to take a one-lane tunnel 3 kilometers long under the mountains, turning off onto strategically placed alcoves when someone needs to pass. It is isolated, and that is both unnerving, and exactly what I was looking for. There's one local restaurant/bar for social activity, from what I can tell. I should have plenty of time for writing, in a snug little apartment.

Listhus Artspace Apartment

Living Room

Kitchen

Ólafsfjörður

It's a little strange to be situated in such a place. When I look out across the water, I know that there's nothing up that way. Just ice, and eventually, eastern Russia. For the most part it's a straight shot to the north pole.

For research, I have several things lined up. I am visiting a small Icelandic Folk Music Museum which conducts regular sessions instructing peopled in traditional vocal styles. I'm not yet sure whether I attempt said vocal styles, I reserve the right to listen first. I will be visiting a local music school for similar purposes: determining how Icelandic folk music is put together. There is a possibility I will get to try some traditional Icelandic food, which is mostly animal organs and shark that has been left out to ferment, so we'll see how that goes. And following that I have an appointment to talk with a local teacher of Icelandic Literature which is really where my research lies, in the Eddur and the Sagas.

I have begun the character development process, which will initially cover about a dozen central characters, with plenty more on the fringes waiting their turns. It's a little daunting to be putting words on paper toward a screenwriting project that might be hundreds of pages long, but the characters are the foundation stones as in any narrative, so at least I have a place to start.