Svanar

I came here on Monday four weeks ago and already on Tuesday we went for a late night walk down to the lake in the middle of Reykjavík. It wasn't raining or even windy. The water was pitch-black in the night and we stood leaning on the railing on the Northern shore. The lights on the other side of the lake were reflected on the surface of the lake and there were always two lights of different colours side by side making a beautiful effect from where we were standing.

The water looked almost scary in the darkness, one could barely distinct the small waves. It was almost calm. Suddenly a white spot a bit right from us started moving and I realized that what I'd assumed to be a stone or a buoy was indeed alive and it was gliding towards us silently. When it came closer we saw that it was a swan. It swam right underneath us and stopped there. It was white and glowing against the black lake. And I don't wonder any more why swans swim in the river to the underworld in the Finnish mythology, so beautiful and unearthly was this swan floating beside us on the dark waves.






















Soon we saw more swans swimming towards us. There were maybe four or five of them. They too stopped close to us and stayed there. We realized that they were come to see if we had any treats to offer. Also some ducks and geese came. But they didn't stand a change against the swans who ruthlessly took the best spots close to us. And more swans came. We were the only people by the lake, you see, they thought they might check us out just in case we had something. Before long more and more swans arrived and I think we counted well over twenty of them. In the end we had to move since I got almost scared that they would climb up and start biting our pockets.

We walked down the lake southwards and all the time this silent glide of almost thirty swans followed us close by. Eventually they got tired of us. Or maybe there were other people come to stand leaning on the railing on some other part of the shore.