The World's Literature in Europe discussion

Reply to a Letter from Helga

Even though the title points to "a Letter", it is not until I open the book and read further about it that the "Reply" in the title is understood. It's not a correspondence between Bjarni and Helga as much as Bjarni's Reply letter of several chapters written after the elapse many years!

The Glossary of this "long letter" talks about the sagas and songs. It mentions Alfgrímur's oft sung "On Death's Uncertain Hour" in Halldór Laxness's The Fish Can Sing. These brief elaborations to Icelandic sagas and their characters are introductions to the soon-to-read The Sagas of Icelanders and Grettir's Saga .

The opening chapters of this overdue letter introduce the characters (not only Helga and Bjarni but also Unnur, Hallgrímur and Marteinn), set the background, and evoke some of the story's flavors (sheep farming, Icelandic scenery, narrative details, Icelandic traits). And, I read a review about this novella, http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/reviews/j... .

Icelandic Sheep

I'm on it. I think I'm on chapter 4. I was lucky enough to download both the book and the audible, and I love the voice of the reader and the pronounciation of the Icelandic names. It helps so much to head the correct pronounciation rather than what I would mangle it as.

Don, mine is from Brilliance as well. Performed by Arthur Morey.

There have been very slight variations between text on Kindle and the audio. Nothing of any substance.

Maggie wrote: "I'm on it. I think I'm on chapter 4. I was lucky enough to download both the book and the audible, and I love the voice of the reader and the pronounciation of the Icelandic names. It helps so m..."

The way to learn a language is to learn its alphabet (vowels, consonants, their doubled letters) and, as you recommend, to listen to its sounds. In Icelandic, there are some unusual sounds.

Don wrote: "...I found this reading by Arthur Money online at: http://www.brillianceaudio.com/produc... for free but I am reading the kindle version and think maybe I should shell out the extra couple of dollars for that...."

What a find, Don. The audio versions of ...Helga are spoken by the same person whether gotten from the Kindle/Audible store or from Brilliance.

Don, LOL at your comment.

I've finished the book now and really enjoyed it. To me it was essentially a love song to a simpler time in Iceland's farming era. Helga and Bjorni were merely the vehicle used to get us there.

Really lovely language. Sometimes after I'd read a passage I'd back up the audio and listen to it again with my eyes closed to seal the pictures in my mind. The author is clearly a poet.

Don wrote: "I agree completely with Maggie about the author being a poet. There is so much pleasure to be had in the language, its so very well written.

As I read I can't help but compare and contrast the na..."

Don, I haven't read Independent People, that's upcoming later this year, but the feeling for the land is made very apparent in The Fish Can Sing as well (though there land is also the sea).

Hi everyone, I was assigned to moderate this book, but you are doing a fine job on your own! I came across this last year on accident, just on the new books shelf at the public library that usually only has mysteries and romances. I read it so quickly I had to go back to my review to remember what I thought. It was more touching than I expected.

I have a tangential question to connect us as readers to the book. Do you have any old letters you hang onto? Any people from your past that might deserve an explanation? :)

And hey, how about that art? The artist is Kjartan Hallur, a panel before each chapter. I love the juxtaposition between the pastoral Iceland remembered in the letter to Helga, and the contemporary world somewhat represented in the art.

Jenny, I'm glad you brought up the chapter art, because I was very drawn to it and would study it before starting the chapter to try to see what hints it gave me, then I would return to it after the chapter to see what great insights the artist added for me. For me, the novella was greatly enhanced by the chapter art.

Don, on your comment about the unreliable narrator, I, too, kept reminding myself that I was getting this story only from Bjarni's POV and that it would be a very different story from the womens' POV.

Also, Bjarni makes much about Helga wanting to go to the city, a very unattractive place to him. I kept wondering what other choices Helga had. She couldn't run the farm by herself without a man and it was very isolated there. She probably had few, if any, women friends near by. Women tend to be social and in the city she could find friends and explore other interests. The time of the affair was during WW II and the U.S. added a base there to assist England, make bombing raids, and make the D-Day landing easier as well. The city environs would have been very attractive to most women who had been so isolated and forlorn for so long.

Thank you, Don, for the great info. Nice to know someone is taking the side of the elves.

And, I look forward to reading some of the sagas to see what life was like in ancient times. Iceland's Bell gave us a tiny view of how hard life was for everyone then, but especially women.

I just began this novella this evening and yes it reads quickly---except for the names :). but then I find myself reading again the descriptions of the farmlands and river. I enjoyed your section on the elves above Don. Thanks. And I very much enjoy the art before each chapter. There definitely appears to be more in each than first seen.

Don wrote: "Well it might be a while before I eat anything smoked again. Enjoying this so far though. Something about pastorals that really move me."

Chapter 6 has wonderful characters and situations, i.e., it's interesting to see how the characters act in their situations on Iceland in winter. This chapter can stand on its own as a mini-story. Won't give away the details!

Maggie wrote: "...I've finished the book now and really enjoyed it. To me it was essentially a love song to a simpler time in Iceland's farming era. Helga and Bjorni were merely the ve..."

The story's characters mention some wonderment about what the independent farms will come to in the future. Changing circumstances affected traditional, pastoral farming--Challenge to the Almighty Sheep.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "...I have a tangential question to connect us as readers to the book. Do you have any old letters you hang onto? Any people from your past that might deserve an explanation? :)..."

I save memorabilia and letters from close family members, though I've already replied to them. There is one letter of long-standing (maybe over fifteen years) which I keep but don't know how to read it as it's written in a language I don't know. It would be nice to be able to reply. In the case of Bjarni, I'm guessing his reply is delayed because he hasn't had time to sit down and think about a thoughtful, truthful response.

Sue wrote: "I just began this novella this evening and yes it reads quickly---except for the names :). but then I find myself reading again the descriptions of the farmlands and river. I enjoyed your section o..."

I'm admiring the story more as I get into the chapters and get to know the characters. An excellent choice as literature and historical fiction. The artwork is intriguing, and some of them are optical illusions.

I disagree about why Bjarni waits to respond. I think it is because there's nobody to disagree with him - nobody to prove him wrong.

I read chapter 6---wonderful in so many ways.

Maggie wrote: "I disagree about why Bjarni waits to respond. I think it is because there's nobody to disagree with him - nobody to prove him wrong."

That Bjarni's finishing the loose ends of his life, his friends and wife gone, is the time to think about his memories especially of Helga, and reply to her as proper. It is false rumor during his early life which makes Bjarni think what he was missing in the relationship he was supposed to be having with Helga. The story's characters seem contentious individuals but ultimately work together.

Sue wrote: "I read chapter 6---wonderful in so many ways."

Talk about novels which reach out to other times and cultures! I really enjoyed the arguments about the Barbers' Bill.

Getting back to Reply to a Letter..., there is literature, spoken and written, throughout the community's culture. Bjarni's lovemaking language combines metaphor about Helga and practical detail about sheep, and his feelings of attachment to the farm a millennium of years old count for much. Even as a rural sheep farmer he cites plays, novels, poetry. He perceives Iceland's superstitions and beliefs are more reasonable and helpful than imported ways of doing things. His soul is caught up in both sheep farming, literature, and tenderness. Besides Bjarni, there is scene in which characters spontaneously create poems to describe their immediate circumstances.

The poignant end of Chapter 13 shows Bjarni's mental conflict, i.e., feelings v. rationale, over moving to the city or remaining in the countryside:

"...when I chose this life and pursued it and didn't regret it, I learned that one should stick to one's decision, nurture it and not deviate--that this is an expression of love [distinct from love viewed as finding one's soulmate]...
When you...asked me to accompany you to Reykjavík, I came to a crossroads in my life. The path that I'd followed up until then branched. I took both paths. Yet neither of them rightly, in the sense that I followed one of them--but had all my heart on the other. With you."

He views his activities in the rural community as yielding a worthwhile existence. Often, people in history migrated from the countryside to cities or emigrated to industrialized countries for dreams of a better life. Thinking for himself, Bjarni foresees cities as soulless.

Asma wrote: "Maggie wrote: "I disagree about why Bjarni waits to respond. I think it is because there's nobody to disagree with him - nobody to prove him wrong."

That Bjarni's finishing the loose ends of his ..."

*SPOILER ALERT* If you haven't finished reading the book you might want to skip my response...I think that he waits to reply to the letter because he doesn't want to have to make another choice. If he responds to Helga while she is still alive, will he stay or will he go... he never really says.

Jayme wrote: "Asma wrote: "Maggie wrote: "I disagree about why Bjarni waits to respond. I think it is because there's nobody to disagree with him - nobody to prove him wrong."

That Bjarni's finishing the loose..."

Spoiler Alert...here too
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I don't think he would have left for the city, even for Helga. There is an episode we read about that I'm not going to mention here that I think seals it all for him. But Bjarni's ties seem to be with the countryside, no matter how much he longed for Helga. I think there remained some loyalty for his wife too.

Jayme wrote: "...I think that he waits to reply to the letter because he doesn't want to have to make another choice. If he responds to Helga while she is still alive, will he stay or will he go... he never really says."

The final chapter 18 is amazing, imo, giving the reader further clues about his receipt of Helga's letter and about his inaction in replying soon. So, it can be a spoiler to read it in advance. I finished it and reread the ending because of its beauty and of its expanding on Bjarni's rationale about his withholding his reply to what Helga said in the letter.

Throughout the book, the reader mostly has Bjarni's narrative about his life and feelings until the ending when Helga's feelings are known through his revealing the contents of Helga's letter. During his life, the absent Helga inspires his thoughts and longings; she's like a muse than a real character, like an earth mother as he periodically lays down between the "Helga tussocks".

Sue wrote: "Jayme wrote: "I don't think he would have left for the city, even for Helga...Bjarni's ties seem to be with the countryside, no matter how much he longed for Helga. I think there remained some loyalty for his wife too. "

True. Bjarni's comfortable with the land and animals, with the stability and safety of community life and of marriage. If Helga is generally admired by men, then his proffering his love is an uncertain step. He also is wise to the differences between life in the city and in the country and to the foreseeable future in each place.

Asma wrote: "Jayme wrote: "...I think that he waits to reply to the letter because he doesn't want to have to make another choice. If he responds to Helga while she is still alive, will he stay or will he go......"

There is a lot of beauty in this short work. And so much emotion.

Sue wrote: "There is a lot of beauty in this short work. And so much emotion. "

I would describe the writing style as lyrical because the narrator is expressing so many of his authentic emotions. The reader can sense the heartfelt energy behind his words :)

Yes! I agree Asma.

If any of you have been waiting to read this book, it is $2 for Kindle today on Amazon.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "If any of you have been waiting to read this book, it is $2 for Kindle today on Amazon."

Hey, Jenny, This novella is a really interesting read, not only capturing a reader's imagination but also informing about Icelandic country life. The one long, chaptered letter of correspondence to Helga, making up the form, and the lyrical nature of Bjarni the letter writer, recounting his life both with/without Helga, is charming. If I were to define its center, what the different parts of the story point to, which is differently envisioned by individual readers and writers, according to Pamuk, it would be what an Icelandic sheep farmer's life is like. It's not all about sheep but about his relationship with the animals, with the community of characters, and with himself. That says why, after his long consideration, narrated in the novella, it's hard for him to leave the countryside.