Tell me, are you familiar with the term
Dog Days?
The Dog Days or
dies caniculares in Latin, last from July 13 to August 23. The term originated with the ancient Greeks who linked the heat of midsummer to the
Dog Star, Sirius. In Iceland, of course, summer weather is rarely more than comfortably warm, so the Dog Days did not have the same implication as in Southem Europe.
The derivation of the term
Dog Days was attributed to various local factors in Icelandic folklore; dogs were said to chew grass at this season of the year, possibly because they were in need of additional nutrients after the hard work of early summer, when dogs played an important role in herding sheep to their upland pastures. In the west of the country, the Dog Days were believed to derive their name not from dogs but from dolphins, known familiarly as "fishdogs." Tradition stated that dolphins had grown so fat by midsummer that they could hardly see, and were easy to catch.
The
Dog Days coincide with the main haymaking season in Iceland, and so weather predictions became attached to the Dog Days. In general it was believed that the weather was liable to a sudden change at the beginning of the Dog Days and would then remain much the same until they ended.
It's raining here in Reykjavík these days, so according to the old believe it should be raining to late August :-(
The Dog Days have become attached to a picturesque chapter of Icelandic history in 1809, when the Napoleonic Wars were raging in mainland Europe. A Danish adventurer,
Jörgen Jörgensen,
set himself up as "Protector" of Iceland, sponsored by a maverick English merchant by the name of Phelps, who attempted to break the very disliked Danish monopoly on trade with Iceland. While in Iceland, Jörgen Jörgensen gathered around himself a small group of Icelanders, men who were at least willing to irritate the Danish authority. Together Jörgensen and five of his "life guards" rode across the country, visiting better off farmers, ministers and sheriffs and giving orders on all hands. Degrading some officials who were not willing to obey Jörgensen's orders and upgrading others.
Among Jörgensen's life guards were
Sveinn Pétursson (1778-1839), called "Sveinn soldáti" (soldier Sveinn), from Skagafjarðarsýsla and later farmer in Mýrasýsla county and
Samson Samsonarson (1783-1846), from Húnavatnssýsla, farmer at Yxnatunga, later farmer at Hólahólar in Snæfellsnes county. Descendants of Sveinn and Samson are numerous and many of them emigrated to "Vesturheimur" (North America).
|
Jörundur, the "Dog Day King," was also a talented caricaturist. In this drawing of a ball at the residence of the Danish governor in Reykjavík in 1809, he shows the lady's tall wig becoming entangled in the chandelier (click in the picture to see a bigger one). |
Jörgen Jörgensen or
Jörundur as he was called in Iceland, reigned from June 25 to August 22, before being deposed and deported by the English authorities. For some time he sat in an English prison and subsequently he was transported as a criminal to Australia where he had the job to search for and capture escaping convicts. Later he used his time for writing and his work as a writer includes a study of the Tasmanian Aborigine.
Jörgen Jörgensen ended his life in Tasmania and is buried in Hobart.
Known as
Jörundur the Dog-Day King because his "reign" more or less coincided with the Dog Days, he became something of a folk hero to the Icelanders and did much for the continuance of the idea of the Dog Days. Jörundur is the subject of a popular musical,
Þið munið hann Jörund (Remember Old Jörundur?; premiére 1970) by Jónas Árnason.
Ref. (mainly): "High Days and Holidays in Iceland" by Dr. Árni Björnsson, published by Mál og menning 1995.
