Hornstrandir Memories, Heart of a forgotten land

Are you convinced about the need to preserve singular life stories? Contribute to this project base in the northern fjords of Iceland

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12/02/2014

End date

€1,205

Out of €4,800

25 %

Édition 2014

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FAMILY MEMORIES !!!  Because Hornstrandir Memories, Heart of a forgotten land it's also a personnal story family ..   Single mother, I had to deal highly between my family and my professionnal life for this project. My daughter Aïna came with me for several travels in Iceland and some short trips in Hornstrandir whithout any hikking. I would like to thank her very deeply for his ability to cope with the situations, for his curiosity and open mind, wich beyond the  difference of the language, allowed her to make friendschip with some peoples. His presence gived an incontestable human value to the project and feeded the relationschip with some old peoples. I thank her also deeply for his patience during my absences who were quite long separation period throught the eyes of a child. In those moments, I received the precious support from my parents who takes care of her. Without them, I wouldn't be abble to do this project. SO, THANK YOU DEEPLY TO FAMILY !  <img alt="Carte_postale_1-1414944676" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/133557/carte_postale_1-1414944676.jpg" /> I'm very glad I could offer and share this experience with my daughter. When I remember my own childhood memories, at the same period of his life than mine actually, my mother suffered four years of long pain linked to a disease which caused dizziness and loss of balance. She became suddenly unavailable for his family life. Far from his wish, I felt abandonned and quickly I had to cope the biggest question of my life by myself.... During those years, my mother's grandparents became pillars in my life and exemple to follow. Today, unfortunatly they are gone during this project, so it's also an homage to accomplish this. My personnal link with Hornstrandir is closely linked to my personal life and this feeling of abandonment deeply wrought on me and despite the years who doesn't abandon me !! Through this life experience I have a natural empathy for every people who is carying this feeling and share it ... <img alt="Carte_postale_2-1414944718" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/133558/carte_postale_2-1414944718.jpg" />

<a href="http://minedhistoires.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Island.pdf" target="_blank">http://minedhistoires.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Island.pdf</a>

La très intéressante web revue dédiée à l'Histoire parle de Hornstrandir Memories et donne un coup de pouce en faisant connaître le projet ainsi que la collecte <a href="http://minedhistoires.org/2014/10/23/octobre-2014-n9/" target="_blank">http://minedhistoires.org/2014/10/23/octobre-2014-n9/</a>

<img alt="Print001-1411314497" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/121567/PRINT001-1411314497.jpg" /> My name is Arnòr, I was born in 1922 in Horn, on January the 14th. In Hornvik as soon as we were old enough to help in the farm we did it, more or less at the age of five years. We took care of horse, cow, sheep. There were five families who lived in Hornvik, four of them were owners and one was a tenant family.  A fisherman lived on the shore and when he decided to leave Horn, he disassemble his house and took the wood to rebuild it elsewhere. It's was a common way at that time. This family consisted only of a couple and a child.  In our house I remember when I was a child, there was a lot of noise because firstly the house was very small and we were also nine to live in there at that time. There were a total of 21 children who lived in Hornvik bay. When the first teacher came, I was not yet old enough to attend the class, it was only the older boys who were going to see him, but as it was a family member, I remember it was very nice to be next to him. On one occasion, there was a marriage at the place where the school was given. A large barn was erected, and us, the children, we were staying there ... but although we were not suppose to do so.  At that time people could quite live together without necessarily being married, but some get married, it was their choice.  There was even a couple, at Hornvik, so decided to get married that they walked till Adalvik in the middle of winter, in the darkness, in the cold and the snow, just before Christmas, to see the priest and get married. There were frequent exchanges between communities, people came to visit, but perhaps more for practical reasons, to seek help for example. Except for the Christmas period, where we visited more for fun.   Every spring, many people came to Hornvik to collect eggs in the cliffs. People came from everywhere, also from the area of Jokülfirdir. The cliffs were a big part of life here in Horn. These seasonal visitors stayed here in the barns of the farms, but were also organised to have a place outside the barns for stewardship, they were use to come with a woman to cook. I was fifteen the first time I went in the cliffs to collect eggs, I was not at all frightened by the idea of going there, however, I was very excited to finally be allowed.  When I was younger, I used to go into the valleys to graze sheep and I often leaned on the edge of the cliff.  At about five or six years old, I even went with a friend, we were a little down the cliff to take some eggs .... but then we were punished by my friend's mother and we were not allowed to go there together again ..  Sometimes it happened, I was just sitting on the edge of the cliff with a sort of small tool that allowed me to capture birds. Today I see substantially less birds than before. Each year chunks of cliff drop, cliff are then changing consequently and there is less eggs. The step of the cliff certainly affect the nesting birds and they relocate.  In the past, people were used to go down the cliffs from the top, but today it is much safer to climb from the sea level. The weather should be good enough to do so.   When the first people left Hornvik, we were not worried about this fact, and my father was determined to stay in Horn for the winter.  But unfortunately he became ill, probably due to a stomach ulcer.  Myself, I was in Isafjordur for a short period and at that time, there was only five people still living in Horn. We were the last family. My father had already lost a lot of blood and my parents decided to leave. We had no choice anymore.  The young people from Hornvik were already all gone elsewhere and the older could no longer face the entire work.    If the British Army did not come during the second world war, probably a lot of people would continue to live in Hornstrandir.  The army overpaid youngs peoples to work at the construction of the military base in Darri, in Adalvik bay.  Our family stayed at Horn until the end of the war and we never worked for the army.  The U.S. military then came after World War II during the Cold War, but  Hornstrandir was almost inhabited.   Until the arrival of the British army, there was no money in Hornstrandir, people lived mostly in self-sufficiency.  The army engaged young people to work first in Adalvik, then they moved to work also in Reykjavik, after the war. In 1942, the teacher no longer came over to Horn, because there was only three children there, so the kids went up at Hesteyri and Adalvik to attend school.  Stiggur, my brother, was at Hesteyri in 42-43 and then from 43-44 to Sæból in Adalvik. The school lasted only four months. They walked through the mountains with the teacher to reach the place and started at the beginning of november, for the winter period so.   Upon leaving Horn, I was very sade to leave definitively, says Arnor, and this is something which I don't want to talk too much about it, it is too painful for me.  A year later, in 47, I went back to harvest the eggs and it was so good to be back there. Even today, I dream about Horn all the time, I wish to go back and stay there. I would much rather be in Horn than here in Isafjordur.   I also remember that just before our final departure, I had to go to the old doctor house at Hesteyri. The British people left with the radio and so we had to walk through the mountains till there for a phone call and to be able to contact the doctor at Isafjordur to ask him to come by boat till Hornvik. My grandmother was sick, so I do the round trip to Hesteyri, it was late September, and the darkness become more present, I had to walk a little bent to be able to see something .. There was fog up half the mountains.  When I arrived at Hlöduvik there were the ruins of an old house deemed to be haunted by a lot of ghosts. I walked along the sea and something was moving around the house ... I knew I could not run away to escape, then I decided courageously to walk towards the thing that made noise and was moving, just to see what it was ... and in fact, it was just a sheep ! I was very relieved. It still makes me laugh today. On my way back, I tried to cross the river with my woodstick as I used to do, ie, I was planting it in the middle of the river to help me to jump over, we were all use to do that. Except that this time, my stick broke and I felt in the river and lost one of my shoes ..  So I stopped in one of the abandoned houses in Hlöduvik, again. I found a snow shoe with which I could move on. I finally arrived at Horn shortly before the arrival of the Doctor...   For me there was no hard life there, memories are really good. We always had enough food, we had never experience difficult period of starvation in this region of the country. We had of course to work at early age, but nothing different than from other places in the country. All we had to do was hard work, of course, but it was a very good life.  Some people were even jealous of us.  On the other hand , if you had no boat, then life could be much more difficult. As soon as the weather was good, even in the winter, we went fishing on the sea. There was also a lot of seals here, we were hunting them with rifle. We hunted also fat birds after winter.  In short, as long as we could go on the sea, there was always plenty of food. The birds were cooked with their skin to collect their fat, we ate boiled heart and liver that we steeped in fat. Much later, around 1967, we heard there was a group of marsuins (more or less from 10 to 15 specimens) which reached Hornvik and remained blocked by ice. We hunted them, we took the fat and meat. The majority was sold, we just kept one for us and we found it so good!   (to be continued ...)   All rights reserved Johanne Verbockhaven © 2014

A nice memory sent from Paris this morning by Jeannette Denis who came to contribute directly at the stand, she's so sweet !   <img alt="Carte_ginette-1413403202" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/128586/carte_ginette-1413403202.jpg" />

Un beau salon plein de belles rencontres prometteuses se termine.  Hornstrandir Memories est heureux d'avoir participé à l'évènement Europe Refresh II co-organisé par les Halles de Schaerbeek-Le Carreau du Temple et la plateforme KissKissBankBank.  Belle expérience et plein de belles personnes !!   This is the end of a beautiful showroom full of nice and promising meetings. Hornstrandir Memories is pleased to have participated at the event Europe Refresh II co-organized by the Halles de Schaerbeek -  Carreau du Temple and KissKissBankBank platform. Great experience and lots of beautiful people !!   <img alt="Carreau_du_temple-1413295377" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/128156/carreau_du_temple-1413295377.jpg" />

After an intense week-end, filled with beautiful meetings, the Hornstrandir Memories project had the great joy and surprise to receive the Atomium prize . This contribution will be add to the total amount collected. A reference in the landscape of Brussels, the Atomium was built there over 50 years with a goal, which was also his slogan illustrate the "Appraisal of a world for a more humane world" through values of peace, progress, and live-better. Then symbol of innovation which was to be short-lived, he survived and is today a major place of heritage Brussels, European and even international. It is with a pleasure and honor they desired support the project Hornstrandir Memories who has interpelate them. More than the beauty of the pictures, the incredible legacy of the place or the emotion of its inhabitants, it is the approach of the photographer they wanted to support: to be inspired by his childhood and his personal legacy, family stories passed down orally and humanity that binds humans. To feed on his childhood memories from the belgian country to explore the world, and dedicate his art to the transmission between generations, countries, continents, forgotten memories of the Icelandic territory. It is with infinite joy and a great honor that I receive this award and I thank from my heart the Atomium for its financial support and assistance to the broadcast that will inevitably result in a breakthrough project. <div id="gt-ft"> <div id="gt-ft-mkt"> <div class="gt-ft-promos">  </div> </div> </div> <a href="http://www.atomium.be/Expos.aspx?lang=en" target="_blank">http://www.atomium.be/Expos.aspx?lang=en</a>     <img alt="Atomium_logo-1413290386" src="https://d3v4jsc54141g1.cloudfront.net/uploads/project_image/image/128139/ATOMIUM_LOGO-1413290386.jpg" />

The collect is progressing apace today! We rely on the generosity of three contributors each gave a substantial donation! Thank you deeply to them !!

Thank you wholeheartedly for this new Kissbanker that passed through me to add its generous contribution, with no credit card! If you are in the same situation and want to support the project, be sure to contact me, I add your contribution.

The project was awarded by Atomium at Europe Refresh Salon II in Brussels, last weekend. It will have a visibility in Brussels in this mythical place and a financial contribution for the publishing of the book. I'm so happy because it represents, in addition to a considerable help, a nice vote of confidence for the project and its future development. Thank you again to the Atomium for this commitment Hornstrandir Memories.

Hornstrandir Memories, Heart of a forgotten land

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