Doverodde Diary: Day 5 - Gold Boat and Mountain Man

Bronze Age, Stone Age: who knows? Our ancestors often reused burial mounds – they were a practical, plundering people. Now, we’re a little more respectful, or perhaps – profligate.

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When King Skjold died, his body was sent to sea in a boat filled with gold. But the boat was so heavily laden that it stranded on the Limfjord and to avoid embarrassment Skjold was buried, as had been the custom in ancient times, under a barrow of earth. You can see the sea from its summit.

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No one dares to steal the gold from this tomb because an evil troll is guarding it. However, the troll (who is not above stealing) helps himself to wives and children from the farms nearby. The troll will release the gold when Denmark is in its hour of need. Meanwhile the locals must put up with the troll’s evil ways.

Doverodde Diary: Day 4 - Which Bird?

They say that birdsong is a sure sign of spring. Well, this week every bird is in song, so I’m not sure why that bird, or rather that song, arrested me. I’m afraid I can’t quite describe how it went, being no expert in the curious phonetics of birdsong. I stared into the branches for some time before I saw a small dull thing perched on what looked like a dead twig at the very tip of the tree. I was able to match the peculiar sound to the wobble of its throat, so I knew I’d got the right one. But what was it?

Liz peered where I was pointing and said she thought it might be the Fuglekonge.

The Fuglekonge, or crested wren, is Europe’s smallest bird, and rather rare, according to the bird book. I was impressed that we’d found a Fuglekonge without even trying, but the bird book also suggested that what we’d seen was actually a Stillids, or common goldfinch. Now Liz says it’s a goldfinch for sure, but I’m sticking to my small bird story.

Doverodde Diary: Day 3 - His Last Journey

The loyal assistant has tears in his voice. The princess is filmed from behind; we glimpse her hair knotted demurely beneath her hat. We do not see the funeral. The news cuts from the disappearing hearse to recent footage of shipping containers, each branded with a white star. We are informed that they will continue to circle the seas.

Doverodde Diary: Day 2 - The Gardener

An empty bucket is a bad omen. But when I encounter Liz, she is carrying a bucket full to the brim with dandelions. As we talk she squashes the yellow heads down into the bucket with her hoe and a bitter smell rises; at least, she says, she caught them before the seeds could blow all over the square. I look at the neat paving under our feet, where pink bricks have been set down among the grey.

- It’s a rose, Liz says.

Doverodde Diary: Day 1 - Watch out for otters

The poster has hung in the kitchen for so long that the otter is beginning to fade to the same colour as the water. Pas på odderen. It’s ambiguous. Are there otters in the kitchen, or only among the reeds? Should the otter be watching out for me, or should I be watching out for the otter? This faded otter looks too respectable to bite anyone. She holds out her paws as if she were about to begin playing a piano sonata.

Doverodde Book Arts Festival and Limfjord Lines

Ord Kraft Literature Festival, Aalborg

Take one typewriter ...

a rubber stamp ...

and a Danish book artist ...

and the result... 

UDKANT

a pop book

containing a poem 

Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck and I will be creating copies of this book 

and giving them away to the public at OrdKraft in Aalborg 

this weekend 19 - 21 April 2012.

'Udkant' or 'On the margins' is the theme of the

Doverodde Book Arts Festival

17 - 20 May 2012.

Residency on the Limfjord

During April and May 2012 I will be writer-in-residence at the Book Arts Center at the Limfjordscentret, located in a historic merchant’s building by the Limfjord in North Jutland, Denmark. This month-long residency will culminate in a solo exhibition at the Doverodde Book Arts Festival IV and Symposium which runs from 17 – 21 May. The theme of this year’s festival, which is organised by Mette-Sofie Ambeck, will be Udkant / On the Margins.

Udkant: On The Margins

Doverodde Book Arts Festival IV

Limfjordscentret Doverodde Købmandsgård, Hurup Thy, Denmark

Plans are afoot for the Doverodde Book Arts Festival at Limfjordscentret in Denmark in May 2012. This year the theme of the festival will be Udkant which can be translated as 'on the margins'. Mette-Sofie Ambeck, book artist and the Festival's Project Consultant, says that Udkant may mean 'being on the edge of what is allowed – being furthest away from the centre – or on the edge of a remote place like a forest'.

Those visiting the Festival to experience the exhibitions, workshops and book arts symposium will be sustained by music performed by cellist Regina Brunke and cakes baked in the 'book cafe'.

This year the Doverodde Book Arts Center will appoint a writer-in-residence to produce a body of work in response to the nature and culture of the Limfjord. I'm excited to have been invited to fill this position and I look forward to working in this beautiful and historic area of north-west Denmark in the month leading up to the Festival.

On the Road to Doverodde

The Doverodde Coast

I'll be at the Doverodde Book Arts Festival in North Jutland from 2nd to 5th June 2011, where I'll be launching How to say 'I love you' in Greenlandic, and displaying earlier publications. The festival promises to be a great way to start the summer, with an exhibition of books on the theme of 'Air', a book cafe, music and workshops. More details nearer the time... Meanwhile, there's a nice series of shots of last year's festival over at the Centre for Fine Print Research Book Arts site.