The World's Literature in Europe discussion

From the Mouth of the Whale

I wondered what's going on in the Preface with the creation of a human in God's palm and the fate of Lucifer to not bow down to that contemptible, doted on infant, smaller than God's fingernail, in Seventh Heaven. Then, the beginning narrative starts, set in the seventeenth-century, Iceland's new laws against Catholic superstition and charity vie with farmers' secretive reenactments of Easter rites with statues of the Virgin Mary and other ones dug up from the tussocks. Simultaneously, a solar eclipse occurs, making the main character's family farm into a pandemonium as guests take Jón's dead father to the roof as if to resurrect him as Jesus was resurrected. By contrast to that excitement at the farm is the cool distraction of Jón (interested in the practice of healing and science) by the young woman Siggy, who talk beyond the din about how eclipses happen through the geocentric placement of the planets (Copernicus discovered a century earlier the heliocentric universe). In this story will be a Wizard, who involves Jón in laying hands on a ghost, a daring adventure seen as sorcery and causing trouble for him.

Asma wrote: "I wondered what's going on in the Preface with the creation of a human in God's palm and the fate of Lucifer to not bow down to that contemptible, doted..." Same here, Asma. A very curious beginning. Lucifer's refusal to bow down calls to mind Milton's Paradise Lost but that came out in 1667 and this starts off in 1635. I had thought Milton original on that theme but maybe he took it from somewhere else. Catholicism was outlawed in Iceland in 1550 and the last Catholic bishop there was killed then. Iceland became a Lutheran country and to this day still has a state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland.

Don, I gathered that Jónas's separating the ghost from the body and soul of the parson's son is one of his visions. People subsequently believed that he used black arts to exorcise the ghost. That wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination about Jónas who heals others, studies natural philosophy, and is called Jónas the Learned.

His being returned from Denmark to Iceland's Althing reminds of Grettir, who goes to Denmark for acquittal from the king but goes back to Iceland for the Althing to convey the king's decree.

Birds in the vignettes are plentiful. Jónas's connection to the sandpiper in the opening narrative is quizzical. The vision of the man approaching him in the boat while bringing forth all the birds, fish, plants, mountains is beautiful. What a surprise when the boatman is coming for Jónas, releasing him from Iceland to sought-after freedom in Copenhagen.

Asma wrote: "Don, I gathered that Jónas's separating the ghost from the body and soul of the parson's son is one of his visions...."

So surreal. Yes, it does call to mind Grettir as well as Iceland's Bell. There are some scenes of beauty and nature as well as of horror. The whaler's fate apparently had a historical precedent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A1... of which a real Jón the Learned apparently wrote an account. The humor helped a lot with this one, imo, as compared to Blue Fox. Still, I didn't get this one either. Couldn't connect with any of the characters. For those who find the old potions and treatments amusing, I highly recommend a blog "Ask the Past" at: http://askthepast.blogspot.com/ for its humorous take on olden wisdom. I also liked the book because it spurred my curiosity about 17-th century scientists. So many fascinating people that I had never hear of before at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category... and so many of them women. At least in wiki, most come off much less buffoonish than the ones depicted in this book.

Don wrote: "The whaler's fate apparently had a historical precedent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A1... of which a real Jón the Learned apparently wrote an account. ..."

Fascinating insight into the historicity of the m.c. Jón Guðmundsson Pálmason the Learned, Don. Similar to historical Icelandic saga characters and their history-making doings a few generations after Iceland's settlement. His fictional character is drawn from a real biography, in his particular case, one of the chroniclers, collectors, linguists, and polymaths of the early 17th-century.

Archeological evidence of foreign whaling sites for rendering oil from whale blubber and for exchanging the oil for Icelandic goods.

Quarterly Conversation's review of this book points out the biblical story of Jonah who came out of the mouth of the whale. Jón's visions multiply as he gets older, including one where he's like a fish underwater. I like the way in which Sjón writes about that and subsequent ones.

In happy news for any Basque whalers who find themselves stranded on Icelandic shores, the law authorizing them to be killed on sight has been repealed and a memorial constructed to the memory of the group slaughtered in this novel. http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/04...

Don wrote: "In happy news for any Basque whalers who find themselves stranded on Icelandic shores..."

An enlightened action by Icelanders...so glad that regrettable act in Iceland's history is now ameliorated.