Borgslægtens Historie, known in Iceland as Saga Borgarættarinnar, is based on the Danish-language novel Af Borgslægtens Historie (literally, “The History of the Borg Family”) by Icelandic author Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975), first translated into English in 1920 as Guest the One-Eyed. This epic film, conceived in two parts, chronicles the story of two brothers, Ormarr and Ketill, the sons of Örlygur, the autocratic farm-owner of Borg. At the beginning of Part I, Ormarr rescues the peasant Páll and his daughter Rúna from danger. Örlygur takes the girl in and she grows up with his sons at Borg. The artistic Ormarr moves to Copenhagen to study the violin, but abandons music for a business career. He falls in love with the banker’s daughter Alma and intends to ask for her hand in marriage, but then Ketill appears on the scene, charms Alma, and hastily marries her. Ormarr returns to his home in the country, where he finds out that Ketill seduced Rúna before his departure. Ormarr finds Rúna when she is about to throw herself off a cliff. They fall in love, and to save her from scandal they get married and travel abroad, where a son is born. When Ketill returns with Alma, his father has disowned him. Ketill becomes a priest at Hof, but neglects his wife, who develops a mental illness. He starts nasty rumours about his father and brother; the lies lead to Örlygur’s death, after which Ketill disappears.
Part II begins 20 years later. Ormarr has taken on his father’s role as the patriarch farmer at Borg, with Rúna by his side and young Örlygur (“the Young Eagle”), her son by Ketill. Alma also resides at Borg. Young Örlygur is in love with Bagga, the daughter of a poor widow, but Ormarr doesn’t feel she is good enough for his son. One day, when Örlygur is on his way to see Bagga, he meets a one-eyed vagabond. He is a noted tramp, Guest the One-Eyed [“Gæst den enøjede”, in the original novel], who has been wandering around the country, preaching Christianity. He seems to know all about the people in the area, and Örlygur is fascinated by his worldly wisdom. Ormarr has arranged for Bagga to become a housekeeper with the local doctor, but Örlygur stops her, professes his love, and takes her home to Borg. En route they happen upon Guest the One-Eyed [Gæst den enøjede], who needs help. When they return to Borg, Ormarr and Rúna soon realize that the vagrant is none other than Ketill, who has tried to seek forgiveness through the humble life of a tramp. The three of them give the young couple their blessing; they are the future.
Af Borgslægtens Historie was Gunnar Gunnarsson’s first novel, a monumental achievement for a young writer, published in 4 volumes between 1912 and 1914. The work secured its author an international reputation, and Danish actor-director Gunnar Sommerfeldt saw an opportunity to create a grand epic accentuated by the magnificent Icelandic landscape. Sommerfeldt (known to Giornate audiences from Markens grøde, 1921, shown in 1999, and Filmen fra det hellige land, 1924, in 1995) managed to convince the author and the chairmen of Nordisk Film to approve the project – at least, according to Sommerfeldt – though Gunnarsson’s outsized financial demands delayed the signing of the contract, which was only finalized once Gunnarsson agreed to join the film crew in Iceland (he also accepted a small role, as Doctor Jón Hallsson).
Borgslægtens Historie marks the beginning of filmmaking in Iceland: made in 1919 with Danish and Icelandic actors, the shoot was arduous, given the uncertain weather conditions and the difficulties of travelling with a full crew. The locations were mostly in Reykholt in Borgarfjörður, Keldur at Rangárvellir, and in a studio built on Amtmannstún in Reykjavík. The film premiered in Copenhagen in August 1920 to mixed reviews, but was celebrated when it was screened in Iceland in January 1921. It has been dear to the Icelandic people ever since, and is shown regularly in cinemas and on television.
To mark the film’s centenary, Kvikmyndasafn Íslands/The National Film Archive of Iceland, the Gunnar Gunnarsson Institute, and the Akureyri Culture Company have collaborated on a digital reconstruction of the film in high definition, derived from the 35mm print held in the National Film Archive of Iceland and the negative in the collections of Det Danske Filminstitutet.

Skúli Björn Gunnarsson

The music  What do you do when you are presented with the task of writing music for a 100-year-old film? The possibilities are endless; you can write something totally modern or you can write music that befits the period. I decided to go for the latter.
The movie was made at a time when the music scene was in the midst of a big leap from the old harmonic culture which had dominated Western music for approximately 400 years. New ideas were being born. So my music could dance on the edge, so to speak.
What would the director have wanted if he were alive? Should that be a consideration? In the end, I decided to choose something Germanic in general. It could be both traditionally harmonic but also inspired by the new ideas that were being born at the dawn of the 20th century. Late romantic period, atonal, renaissance or early baroque, and some traditional Icelandic folk music using parallel fifths. Maybe not such compatible styles, but still all more or less West Germanic.
One of the recurring themes in the movie is religion and the fear of God, so Lutheran psalms were close at hand. In the original novel that the movie follows there is even one particular psalm mentioned, so naturally I used that one and arranged it in a somewhat Icelandic folk way using parallel fifths: you hear a glimpse of a version that actually could have been sung by locals at the time, but then I add a little 20th-century twist.
Another psalm I used, “Liljulag”, is a famous Icelandic tune that was found in a French book on music from 1780, Jean-Benjamin de La Borde’s Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne. La Borde based its publication on an earlier Danish text by Johann Ernst, who had transcribed it himself from an Icelander named Jón Ólafsson. This tune makes little sense in a traditional western harmonic sense, so it has fascinated many composers in the past. My very first task in writing the score for this film was to harmonize this psalm, and melodic fragments from it can be found all over the music, sometimes hidden behind serial methods.
The score was originally composed for a full-size orchestra and was recorded and released in that version. For the live event in Pordenone, I rearranged the music to make it suit an ensemble with 9 instruments. Perhaps that version reflects more faithfully the way the movie would have been presented at the time of its release, as full-size orchestras were seldom used in Iceland.

Þórður Magnússon [Thordur Magnusson]