by Sjón
Climate change went into reverse.
The earth reverted to the stage it had reached at noon on the sixth day of Creation.
* * *
Like a single grain of sand that has accidentally found its way into a blue thread in a closely woven tapestry – which shifts infinitesimally when a draught blows through the halls of the ruined museum, stirring the wall-hangings – a 1.4 MB text file lurks in the cold depths of the super-software’s consciousness: Codex1962_Josef_Loewe.txt.
If we were to enter by night the main square of a small town, let’s call it Kükenstadt, in Lower Saxony (judging by the architecture and the signs above the shops lining the square), we would find the atmosphere typical of such towns after midnight. Everything so wondrously quiet that it puts one in mind of the dormitory at a summer camp for obedient children …
* * *
For Andria(S) a single day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as but a day.
And so the centuries pass.
Also by Sjón
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
The Whispering Muse
The Blue Fox
From the Mouth of the Whale
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sjón is the author of, among other works, The Blue Fox, From the Mouth of the Whale, The Whispering Muse, and Moonstone. Born in Reykjavík in 1962, he is an award-winning novelist, poet, and playwright, and his work has been published in thirty-five languages. Alongside his work as a writer, Sjón has taken part in a wide range of art exhibitions and music events. His longtime collaboration with the Icelandic singer Björk led to an Oscar nomination for his lyrics for the film Dancer in the Dark. He lives in Reykjavík. You can sign up for email updates here.
A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Victoria Cribb has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Iceland’s language and literature. After reading Old Icelandic at Cambridge, she took an MA in Scandinavian Studies at University College London and a BPhil in Icelandic at the University of Iceland before working in Iceland for a number of years as a publisher, journalist, and translator. Since 2002 she has lived in London, working as a freelance translator, and currently also teaches Icelandic at University College London and in Cambridge. Her translations include Sjón’s The Blue Fox, From the Mouth of the Whale, The Whispering Muse, and Moonstone, and three novels in collaboration with Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, as well as countless other works of fiction and nonfiction, published in books, anthologies, and magazines. You can sign up for email updates here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
PART I
THINE EYES DID SEE MY SUBSTANCE
a love story
I
Chapter 1
II
Chapter 2
III
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
IV
Chapter 9
V
Chapter 10
VI
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
VII
Chapter 17
VIII
Chapter 18
PART II
ICELAND’S THOUSAND YEARS
a crime story
I
Chapter 1
II
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
III
Chapter 4
IV
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
V
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
VI
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
VII
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
PART III
I’M A SLEEPING DOOR
a science-fiction story
I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
II
Chapter 5
III
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
IV
Chapter 11
V
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
VI
Chapter 15
VII
Chapter 16
EPILOGUE
Also by Sjón
A Note About the Author and Translator
Copyright
MCD
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
175 Varick Street, New York 10014
Copyright © 2016 by Sjón
Translation copyright © 2018 by Victoria Cribb
All rights reserved
Originally published in Icelandic in 2016 by JPV Publishing, Iceland
English translation originally published in 2018 by Sceptre, Great Britain
Published in the United States by MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2018
Part I, Thine Eyes Did See My Substance—a love story was originally published in Icelandic in 1994 by Mál og menning, Reykjavík, as Augu þín sáu mig—ástarsaga
Part II, Iceland’s Thousand Years—a crime story was originally published in Icelandic in 2001 by Mál og menning, Reykjavík, as Með titrandi tár—glæpasaga
Part III, I’m a Sleeping Door—a science fiction story (Ég er sofandi hurð—vísindaskáldsaga) was originally published along with Parts I and II in Icelandic in 2016 by JPV Publishing, Reykjavík, as CoDex 1962
The quotation in Part III (“Then he sees the mouse-haired girl dance past…”) is from Gangrimlahjólið by Loftur Guðmundsson, published in 1958 by Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík. The interview with María Guðmundsdóttir is from Morgunblaðið, September 15, 1962.
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This book has been translated with financial support from
1 ‘On the distinctive natures of angels’ by Helmuth Adler (Radiant Life – Icelandic Unisomnist Newsletter, no. 3, 1979).
1 According to Flemish texts of the mid-seventeenth century, which preserve the oldest known versions of the tale of the girl with the blue arms, the origin of her nickname was quite different. The weavers, aware that she was the child of the master dyer, and assuming, from her appearance and clothing, that she was a boy, used to refer to her among themselves as le fils bleu or “the blue son”. The Icelandic poet Matthías Jochumsson misread this as le fil bleu or “the blue thread” in his retelling of the French version of the story, which he published in the third issue of the Fjallkonan newspaper in 1889. This is the edition used here. Matthías never got round to revising it and publishing a corrected version, though many readers, including Benedikt Gröndal, had pointed out his mistake.
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