A presentation on nearly a football field-sized Icelandic tapestry that depicts one of the country’s most popular sagas will be given at Point Roberts Community Center as part of the tapestry’s North American tour on Wednesday, May 21.
The textile, which creators believe could be the world’s longest tapestry, was started as a community project in Hvolsvöllur, a town of roughly 1,000 people about 1.5 hours east of Reykjavík. In 2013, the community set out to recreate the ‘Njáls saga’ that took place in their small town using an ancient embroidery technique, and by the time the tapestry was complete in 2020, the project had grown to involve thousands of embroiderers from more than 150 countries.
“I would sometimes just stop and look at my work and think, ‘There could be someone looking at this a thousand years from now,’” said Claudia Pétursson, who is touring the tapestry. “I couldn’t even sew. I was so overwhelmed at the thought.”
The 13th century saga depicts Icelandic life between 960 and 1020 with a story of conflict between Icelandic families that touches on honor, revenge and respect.
“This story lives in that culture the way Shakespeare lives in ours,” Pétursson said. “If you live in Iceland, you know ‘Njáls saga.’ And what I’ve noticed about immigrants who’ve come to North America, they know the story. It’s woven into their family history.”
Pétursson, who splits her time living in the U.S. and Iceland, stumbled upon the project while showing visiting friends the town of Hvolsvöllur. There, the community invited her to sew and she quickly began spending 12-hour days focused on bringing the project to life. As Pétursson’s involvement grew, she brainstormed taking a smaller, 20-foot tapestry on tour to bring awareness to the project and crowdfund for a museum to house it.
The presentations include history on the saga, the landscape where it took place and background on creating the tapestry.
Pétursson has already presented the tapestry at a Scandinavian conference in Minneapolis, an Icelandic convention in Winnipeg, at the Metchosin Arts and Cultural Centre in Victoria, B.C. and the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.
Pétursson said she decided to make Blaine a stop on the tour because it was a popular destination for Icelandic settlers. She will present in Point Roberts, which also has a rich Icelandic history, before taking the presentation this summer through Canada, the upper Midwest of the U.S. and eventually ending the tour on the east coast in the fall.
Eventually, the tapestry will be shown through Europe and possibly Asia. The goal of the tour is to increase interest in Icelandic literature and textiles, to bring awareness to the project and to inspire other communities, and to fundraise for the museum, Pétursson said.
The presentation is being organized with help from the Point Roberts Historical Society.
Heritage society president Rob Olason said about 15,000 Icelanders left the country in the late 19th and early 20th century because of poor economics and a large volcanic eruption that destroyed agriculture. Many settled in Winnipeg before moving throughout Canada and the Pacific Northwest, where the climate was milder. Blaine, Point Roberts and the Marietta community in northwest Bellingham attracted Icelanders as word of mouth spread about the area, where jobs could be found in fishing, lumber and agriculture.
Relics of Blaine’s Icelandic past can still be seen by the Grace Lutheran Church and Free Church Unitarian, founded by Icelandic settlers, as well as gravestones at Blaine Cemetery on H Street Road.
The heritage society, which has about a dozen members, has stopped meeting regularly since the pandemic but still holds occasional remote meetings and hosts dinners when people from Iceland visit Blaine. For more information on the society and to get involved, visit blaineicelanders.com.
“I hope it inspires communities to do something that leaves a mark,” Pétursson said. “Wherever you live, wherever your story is, and you don’t have to do it in 90 meters of sewing, do something your whole community gets involved in and that you want to tell the world.”
The presentation will be given at 6 p.m. at the Point Roberts Community Center.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here