Nordic roots

[imomus]

One of the unexpected side-effects of my first trips to Japan in 1992 and 1993 was that I developed a fascination with Scandinavia. Just flying over the region's ragged coastlines, scattered islands, myriad lakes, gazing down from a 747, I felt some kind of pull, some sort of call. Luckily, at the same time real Scandinavians were calling too, with expenses-paid invitations to visit. I made a concert tour of Sweden and Finland in 1994, and a trip to Helsinki to make the "Man of Letters" video in 1993. After shooting videos for some of my songs with director Hannu Puttonen, I took a train up through Finland to the Arctic Circle, rented a Volvo, then drove around in Finnmark, that weird topmost part of Scandinavia where Finland, Sweden and Norway all join up.

Talking into my video camera (some of the footage turned up in "Man of Letters"), I remember saying that the region felt like an older, richer version of my native Scotland -- a Scotland with all its features exaggerated. Instead of bare low hills, Finnmark had tundra. Instead of sheep, it had deer. Instead of grey squirrels, red. Instead of low squinty sun in winter and halfhearted overhead sun in summer, Finnmark had total blackness and the midnight sun. It was an Ur-Scotland, a Scotland on strange drugs, a Scotland with millienia-long deja vu. I remember driving the Volvo back to the rental shop through the night, racing to make my flight back to Helsinki. At 2am and 3am the sun still shone brightly. I felt completely disoriented -- yet oddly at home.



I always suspected that I had Scandinavian ancestry, but my mother -- an avid ancestor researcher -- has now confirmed it. She's traced our family tree (through her father's line) back to 1660, when people with Norse-style patronymic surnames lived on Shetland, an island almost as close to Norway and Iceland as it is to Scotland. The tree goes like this: Jarem Robertson (from Grobsness, Shetland) begat Hercules Jaremson (born 1690). His son John Herculesson (you see how the surname changes according to the father's first name?) sired William Johnsson, who married Margaret Jarmsdochter and produced Hercules Johnson in Muckle Roe. We're now at about 1800. The Icelandic-sounding names break down at this point, replaced by more Scottish-sounding ones. Laurence Johnson marries Catherine Sinclair. Their daughter Jane marries Alexander Mackintosh, and their daughter Margaret Munro Mackintosh marries William Robert Hood, who lives into the 20th century. His son is my grandfather, who marries my granny Janetta MacKechnie (the MacKechnies come from Mull, an island my mum has written a history of).

Now, I normally glaze over when the subject of genealogy comes up -- and if one's own genealogy is dull, other people's doesn't stand much of a chance. But I have a great interest in northernness (as this rather odd entry from earlier this year shows), and of course this all makes for great research / daydreaming opportunities for my Book of Scotlands.

In the second week of June I'll take the overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Shetland in the company of my mother. We'll spend a few days there, the two of us (the tenth and eleventh generations on from Jarem Robertson) and visit Orkney too.

Perhaps it'll be a bit like W.H. Auden's trip to Iceland in 1936, with Louis MacNeice. Auden believed himself to be of Icelandic descent, and thought of Iceland as "holy ground". But, as the New Statesman tells us, Auden was quickly irritated by the reality of the Iceland he discovered: "In his letters home, Auden mocked the mediocrity and shabbiness of the architecture, the gloom of the locals, and the awful food - the bitter soups, the dried fish, the overcooked mutton and, a speciality, the rotten shark pickled in sour milk... "Reykjavik," he wrote, "is the worst possible sort of provincial town as far as amusing oneself is concerned, and there was nothing to do but soak in the only hotel with a licence."

Auden went back in 1964 and found the place much more to his liking. Iceland was now an independent republic. It was more prosperous, but "had not yet become vulgar". Anyway, I'm looking forward to some generational time travel this summer; in preparation I've been watching Michael Powell's film "Return to the Edge of the World", documenting his 1978 trip to the Shetland island of Foula.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The only roots that matter now are NETROOTS. Do you read Dailykos? It's where I go for my daily dose of smugness.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I try to blog a bit further off the beaten track than Dailykos. No analyses of last night's Dem debates for me. For what it's worth, I support Obama and really regret the way this sibling rivalry is playing into the hands of the GOP machine. But that would make a pretty dull Click Opera entry, ne?

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Alas, our favourite post-racial candidate may yet be sidelined by the Democratic party machinery itself. I think I'd be very disappointed if that happened.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

What are the political differences between Hilary and Obama?

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Less about their political differences rather than from where they come and what they are.

Hillary= White person with a golden spoon in her mouth from the start.

Obama= Black person who grew up on a "stone floor" and got where he is now through hard work.

More politicians should have had some avarage job before they start with politics!

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of snobbery or reverse-snobbery -- they're both repugnant attitudes for exactly the same reason. Unfortunately, the latter is very tolerable in today's society.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

How about Hill voted for the Iraq invasion and Barack didn't?

But I DO NOT WANT TO DISCUSS THIS HERE when 80% of the rest of the internet is having mega-tedious retreads of the same topic. Have some dignity, man!

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

That wasn't a retorical question -- I honestly haven't done any research into the differences between them, which is why I asked!

I'm happy not to discuss the American elections. Anyone would think the United Kingdom was the 51st state the way they go on about it over here.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

It's a regular topic of debate here, too. I know a lot of Americans are pretty peeved about foreigners having such a... uh, firm preoccupation about their politics, but I suppose it's that a lot of people feel they've a stake in what the Only Superpower does and how.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

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[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Well, I am a big fan of staying to the topic. Where did you get the snobbery part from?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

That comment about Hilary being born with a "golden spoon" in her mouth (That should be silver, but English is your second language so it's cool)

I don't believe being poor makes you a better person. I believe realisations and reflection on the nature of existence play a very important role in making people who they are.

Confucius once said "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

It would be like instantly writing off Momus because he's from a middle/upper-middle class family who sent him to public school and are probably going leave him a healthy inheritance. Sure, those experiences will contribute to his view of the world but they haven't necessarily made him a worse person.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

But momus is not a politician. I don't think you are quite explaining your point here.

A politician who have had a real job like the lower or middle classes will possibly come to sense better than a politician who have had a job as a CEO.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Yeah but Momus still has political views and this is an argument of legitimacy; whether someone of the middle/upper classes can ever have legitimacy in politics bearing in mind politics is mostly about governing the ordinary people.

What you're basically saying is that people can't have truly legitimate views on the politics of the classes below their station because they've never lived it. I don't necessarily think this is true.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Well, if it wasn't true, then wouldn't the world be a much better place?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

You can only go so far with empathy. Politics isn't empathy, it's first and foremost management. I believe an understanding of sociology and politics is more important than your background.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Only because you've read about society it doesn't that you really understand it. That is why it is important to have some actual field experience as a politician. If those who are born on top stays on top for their entire life they will never understand how it being beneath. If they can't understand how it is to be beneath then they won't be able to make the right changes.

I can make an example: Those who built up the idea of Folkhemmet where politicians who have had several real jobs before becoming politicians. Those who have ruined Folkhemmet are politicians who more or less got stuck in politics early in their career, or had some sort of CEO job prior to their entry in politic.

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Don't you think it may be that the terms you use are mere memes and that really they are both very effective pieces of party machinery.
I have still to investigate fully Obama's accusations of Hillary's connections with interest groups and his supposed lack thereof. There's no way he will survive in power if that is the case. Look at JFK. But if he is as brave and courageous man as he purports to be....

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

There were some developments recently where it looked as if the Clinton campaign was going squarely into accusing Obama of "dealing with interest groups and taking their money," period, which was pretty much the height of idiocy. (Though only because it obviously didn't work as intended.)

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Oh god. SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A FIAT.

[(Anonymous)]

I basically just made my decision on the fact that Hilary Clinton was a member on the board of Wal*Mart, and that Barack Obama was not.

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/dtwof-episode-526#more-570