News
On the saga trail
The first part of a German-Icelandic spoken word collaboration was concluded last week with a recital at Reykjavík venue Næsti bar. The event was organized by Sagenhaftes Island, and saw three German poets – Nora Gomringer, Bas Böttcher and Finn-Ole Heinrich – travel around the country in search of inspiration, accompanied by the Icelanders Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson, Ugla Egilsdóttir and Dóri DNA.
The group's eventful journey included a visit to Gljúfrasteinn – the former home of Nobel Laureate Halldór Laxness, and to the Settlement Center in Borgarnes. They also ventured into the vicinity of the erupting volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which, although showing signs of letting up by then, pelted the group's car with ash.
The well-attended recital at Næsti bar – which also featured Icelandic poets Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir and Hildur Lilliendahl – showed plainly that both German and Icelandic members of the entourage were enthusiastic after their trip. In the visit's aftermath, they will incorporate their experiences into new material, which they will present at literature festivals across Germany in 2011, and ultimately at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
“It was a very enjoyable trip,” says Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson. “Even though I had been to all these places before, it's nice to experience the country with new people. We could explain a lot to them about the sagas, though we probably told them a lot of nonsense too. Foreigners often get these things mixed up in their heads: the sagas, Norse mythology, elves, hidden people. In that regard, I think we managed to set the record reasonably straight. All of us are interested in trying to arrive at some kind of core in the sagas, a kind of elemental force, and try to do something with it. For example, we couldn't fail to notice the exaggerations in the Icelandic sagas, and how they've fueled hubris and jingoism in Icelanders to this day.”
The project is a collaboration between Sagenhaftes Island and Goethe Zentrum Dänemark.