An Artist and a Poet

The Artist

In the west of Iceland, in the green and pleasant pasture land to the west of Langjőkull, lives the artist Pàll Guðmundsson, at Húsafell. 

Public art can sometimes be intrusive in nature I think, as when one is confronted by a chainsaw statue in an otherwise natural woodland. But Pàll's work is something quite different. His outdoor sculptures do not thrust themselves into your consciousness; you become aware of them by degrees as you walk the area surrounding his studio. You become aware a stone is somehow looking back at you as you approach.





We enjoyed our first visit so much that we had to go back again when we had more time, and doing so found lots of stuff we had missed first time round.








These sculptures are not his only work by any means. At the same place he has a gallery of portraits, many of them of local people. And he has his wonderful steinharpa, a xylophone-like instrument made of stones picked up around the place. It's by no means a gimmick - he plays proper music on it.
See for yourself here (you also get to see some of his pictures too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDjpIIYlmZg

The Poet

Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807 - 1845) was a poet, author, naturalist, translator, promoter of the Icelandic language and campaigner for Icelandic independence. He was co-founder of the journal Fjőlnir, in which he published essays and poetry, and which strove to raise Icelandic national consciousness. He is one of Iceland's best known and widely read poets.

His home in Öxnadalur, under the spectacular peak of Hraundrangi, is kept as a museum to his memory. It's a beautiful house in a beautiful place.

And from time to time some of us have been lucky enough to work there, staying in the house for a few days or a week.

Preparing waymarkers for the walking trail in the mountains behind the house.

A spot of gardening

The view down Öxnadalur. Route 1 passes through here on its way to Akureyri. A layby is provided giving good views of the house and mountains.

His biographer and translator, Dick Ringler, has loads of good stuff about him here:

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Skjald/Skjald.html