For the Birds

Listen to a demo version of "For the Birds," the fifth song on Scenes from an Icelandic Novel.

For the Birds

From the preface of the book: "Any consideration of the meaning of the novel must begin with its richly symbolic title, Svartfugl. The Icelandic word svartfugl-literally "black bird"-is the generic name for the family Alcidae (or, in English, Alcids)....From a certain point of view, one which is crucial for interpretation of the novel, the human community is a bird cliff and all men are svartfugl: here are two symbols for man's unregenerate animal nature. There is an ever-present possibility of civilized life reverting to this dimension, this lowest common denominator....The bird cliff , then, is a symbol for human life at its animal level: for a world which is beyond good and evil, since it is too primitive to distinguish between them, and has no conception of guilt and innocence. For this reason it is important to remember that the Alcids are parti-colored birds, both black and white, both guilty and innocent....Their nature is both black and white, and it is Eiulv's triumph to perceive and understand this fact."

snow "snowstorm, not a strong...it's only a bit like snow is falling...blowing in the harbour...in the snow you see the ships...with the anchors, and they are loaded with memories and they're waiting to leave. .and the snow...you know the places where they were stacking teh fish...looks for these old places of stacking fish to settle down in, and with salty fingertips, the sea melts the snowflakes at the harbour"