Salka Valka by Halldor Laxness

17

In the fishing season that was now underway, nothing really happened, least of all anything worth telling, apart from the fact that one of Steinà 3/4 ór Steinsson's boats went down, and of its crew of four only one survived by clinging to the keel: Steinà 3/4 ór Steinsson. He hung onto the keel in a storm for an entire day and night. To hang onto a keel for so long was considered the most praiseworthy act of heroism and it was written about in all the newspapers, though mainly in The People, Kristófer Torfdal's newspaper, which was now sent for free to every other person in the village, living and dead. The MB Mermaid, owned by Sveinn Pálsson, rescued Steinà 3/4 ór near the Illugi Skerries, so exhausted that he couldn't speak, injured and frostbitten. He was laid up with frostbite until spring and was greatly admired for his bravery, but when the priest came early in the morning to bring the news to one of the women who had lost her husband when the boat went down, she burst into tears as instantaneously as when a clay pot is smashed with one blow, as did her aged, bedridden mother, but the little children in their beds were so surprised to see the sudden, strange contortions in the faces of their mother and grandmother that they laughed out loud- and it seemed as if their laughter would never end. Later, the mother's husband came to her from the other world in a dream and revealed to her that Steinà 3/4 ór had shoved all his sailors off the keel so that he could hang onto it himself. Many people had expected that both of Steinà 3/4 ór's boats would be lost on their first fishing trip, but that did not happen; when it came down to it, only the one boat sank. It is difficult to say how monotonous, dismal, and uneventful it would have been in the village this fishing season if a new, unmarried doctor hadn't come in place of the old one, who was now institutionalized in a different quarter of the country. The new doctor brought a considerable amount of medicine, especially brennivín, and so now everyone fell ill, even if they had no money, especially women. All agreed that it was high time they got a new doctor, because recently, a man had died from drinking the alcohol from a ship's compass and another had lost an eye in a fight.