Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights Page #2

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I can see it in your eyes.

Do you think I may have

Viking blood? Yes, that, too.

Are you a Viking? I think you are. Yes,

I must have Viking blood in me, yes.

Well, this is just fantastic.

It's so beautiful.

'One thing that didn't feature in my

childhood dreams of the north was dried fish.

'So what's this swinging ominously

in the middle of the room?'

Yes, this is a cod. Yeah. But this is

a special cod. Yeah. Called king cod.

King cod? Yes.

They wanted it to tell them the weather.

How? How did it do it? Did it...?

Before the weather changed,

it started to turn out.

People could read out from that indications

of storms and other changes in the weather.

Such a fish, would it hang

in every rorbu? Yes.

In every rorbu and in many homes.

They also brought luck.

It's dark outside, but tomorrow

I can't wait to see where I am.

GULLS CRY:

Astonishing!

Well, this is just unbelievable. It's

just... It's just fabulously beautiful.

All through the night, I could

just hear this water dashing under

and the seagulls crying and crying.

'Time to explore A

'and an unmistakable smell

is luring me uphill.

'This is as strange a sight

as you'll ever see -

'thousands of headless cod

hung up on poles. '

Do you speak English? Sorry?

No? English?

Polish. Poland.

You're Poland? And you? Poland.

Three Poland? Yes. 'It seems in Norway, like

in the UK, it's the Poles who do the work,

'but I've never seen Poles

on poles before. '

Um, how many fish?

I don't know. You don't know.

'Within a month, nearly five million

cod will be hung out to dry here.

'We know the Vikings invaded Britain with

Lofoten dried fish in their knapsacks.

'Back then drying was about the only

option for preserving protein.

'It's more of a surprise to me that this delicacy

remains one of Norway's most profitable exports. '

Smells of fish, but not a bad smell. Just a

pretty sort of all-pervasive aroma of fish.

Thank you. Spasibo.

HE REPLIES IN POLISH

What's that?! It might be

something terrible! Goodbye, guys.

'As I was pottering around, I bumped into a

man who turns out to be A's lord of the manor,

'Sigur Elingsen'

I am born here. Yeah?

So I'm the fifth generation and my grandson is

going to take over. He's working in the summer.

The seventh generation on this spot.

When you say working here,

you own this? Yes.

You own A? A and Tind!

And Tind! Yes.

And how many rorbu do you have here?

Because the fishing is good. Yeah.

We are the closest spot to the Gulf Stream

and that's where the best fishes are.

This has been going on for hundreds

of years. More than that. Really?

'Fish facts are fascinating, even for

a fake fur-wearing vegetarian like me

'who doesn't even feel comfortable with leather.

What about the catch I'm after, the Northern Lights?'

Will I see them, do you think, here?

Not now.

I think it's not cold enough.

And, eh...

No, it must be colder. Yeah. And

then it's flashing all over the sky.

It's absolutely marvellous. Is it?

The great thing about A seems to be,

probably because we're so far up,

the light comes in a different way.

So colours seem really... fresh washed.

Everything seems

so clean and sharp.

And the other thing I love is

the conjunction of colours.

They have these dark red houses

with the most beautiful,

light, warm, sax-blue

window frames and corners.

And then white round the windows to bring in as much

light as possible. It's a fashion going out in England.

A lot of people have brown wood round the windows.

Don't do it! Paint your brown windows white.

You'll have a much happier life.

I'm going to do the boulders now.

I want the white to look white,

so I'll give it more energy.

This is a very cloudy, stormy sky

with that slightly yellowish green.

I think there always comes a time in anything

you do, like drawing and painting, or acting,

when you think, "Will I ever be good enough

to please myself, let alone anybody else?

"Will I ever come up to scratch?" Or people lean

over you and go, "Aren't his eyes more like...?"

"Yes, I know. I'm dealing with the eye later.

" I can't bear being judged on things like this.

They're only for fun and if it pleases you,

which it might not, try to make it please you.

Try to do things that please you. And

if it's not good enough, get better.

This isn't going to be exhibited

anywhere. Except on the television!

'If there is one image and one word

synonymous with Norway it is fjord.

'Otto whisks me away

into a world of romance.

'Fjords like these are

so quintessentially picturesque

'that they've come to define

our romantic vision of the north -

'sublime, savage

and quite overpowering. '

These mountains are quite wonderful. They

look like fairy story mountains, don't they?

As though they'd have trolls in them. Many

fairy tales are connected to them. Giants.

And many trolls.

And there, you see, the top there.

That was a beautiful lady.

It's quite cold out here.

'In the 19th century, this type

of scenery inspired writers,

'artists and composers like Grieg to

write down folk tunes and fairy tales

'and paint the landscape.

'In doing so, they helped forge

a national identity for Norway,

'and an image of the north that

struck a chord with people like me,

'a seven-year-old with

my story books in tropical Malaysia.

'Artists today remain inspired

by the Lofoten Islands.

'I'm off to visit the studio

of one of them, Thor Essissen. '

How do you do? How lovely to

meet you. Welcome to my gallery.

It's fantastic! It's my life. I have

all things here. Yes, you do. You do.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of

the world I have ever been. Isn't it? Here.

All I can say, yes!

I am so lucky.

You're a lucky man, a good man.

'Thor's every bit the modern artist,

'assembling his art from anything and everything.

That goes for his studio and even his outfit,

'but he's just as much inspired

by nature as the Romantics.

'It's the quality of the light here

that most inspires him. '

Tell me, describe for me

the Northern Lights.

I can try! Will you try?

Maybe four weeks ago

I went around the little sea here

in the night.

And so I see

red and green, little light,

is coming.

And I stand up and see

and so the light come, come, come!

And around me.

I have never seen it before.

I stood after it, three minutes.

How extraordinary. I see nothing more.

It touched you? It came? Yes, yes!

So near me, I think.

I think so.

But I be not afraid. No.

I want more than anything to see the Northern

Lights. Have you seen it? Never. You will see it.

For sure? Yes.

I promise!

'Despite Thor's promise, as night

fell the clouds came in again. '

The truth is I'm passionate

about finding out about the north

and the Arctic Circle

and the Norse people and legends,

but what's really driven me is the

idea of seeing the Northern Lights,

something I've longed for for 55 years of my

life. I've dreamt about seeing the Northern Lights.

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