Friday, May 10, 2013

Preparation

So many things have happen since my journey to Bildalia. Not for me in particular, but for the Bildalians. I started my daily job at the hospital and everything went into the familiar routine but I feel that Bildalia has changed me. I am not he same.
I met Monika once, as she is now studying in the maritime academy in Reykjavík. I met her with her new friend, a tall captain of a whaler.
She didn't have the braids or the dirty fingers I had grown accustomed to. She wore her hair in a knot on the top of her head, her fingernails had grown long and clean and she really looked like a lady in her dress and long overcoat.
We greeted each other politely but distantly like old acquaintances. She introduced me to her friend and we shook hands. His name is Halldór and he is a captain of one of the whalers, a steam powered old ship only operating in the summer. Monika was completing her licence to manage ships up to 200 tons, and after the final exam she would go home to Bildalia. The young Siggi was now working in her place with her father on his boat.
-My father will soon retire, so I will take over and Siggi will be my first mate. She said. -Siggi is a hard working young man and a good companion.
I knew that Siggi is also managing the Bildalian Post newspaper alongside his fisherman job.
A talented young man, that's true.

I've been thinking a lot about my friend and teacher Bartholomew and his part in this story. He is now working with the research team in Bildalia. They have built a high power radio transmitter facility in the valley of Otradalur and the area is now covered with antennas and radars.
-It's like a steel forest has grown in the valley. Said my friend Eldar in one of his letters.

I took a decision one weekend to go and visit my old school up on the highlands. Helga my good friend and teacher is now the headmaster of the old Skálholt school during the winter and in the summer she manages the secretive occult school for the gifted. Skálholt has been Iceland's  most respected university since 1056 and until the university of Iceland was founded in 1911. Now the school is a boarding school for privileged children. It is considered a very conservative and old fashioned school today but it is still very popular among the Iceland´s elite. Only 30-50 students get admission, though hundreds may apply.
I took the bus from Reykjavík to Skálholt early in a Saturday morning and just before noon I stood at the gate of the schoolyard. Everything was silent.
An elderly woman came out of the front door and walked across the square towards the bell tower who stood beside the old church. She looked at her watch hanging from a chain on her chest. I reached for my pocket watch and saw the time was almost twelve.
At one minute to twelve she pulled the bell cord and within seconds the school building came alive.
I adjusted my watch one minute forward. Helga was a person of precision, her watch would be more accurate than mine.
She noticed me standing on the other side of the gate and peered her eyes through her little round spectacles.
-Is this you Ingimar? she asked and smiled. -Have you conquered the world yet?
I opened the black gate towering me and entered the school yard.
-No, not yet. I replied.
I walked towards her and embraced her. She seemed much smaller than the last time I saw her, she must be at least seventy years old by now.
We walked inside the schoolhouse arm in arm and into the library where we used to spend hours together practicing her methods in reading, many years ago.
The library was a round hall at the east end of the building. A large window stretched from the floor to the ceiling and it was the only light in the room. The walls were covered with books five or six meters up and a little balcony separated two floors of the round room. A black iron ladder went up against the wall. It had wheels on both ends so it was easy to move it to any location within the library. I remember I used to jump on the ladder and try to slide on it all the way around the hall.
Underneath the tall window was the desk and behind the desk the tall back chair of the headmaster. Now the chair belonged to Helga.
We found a comfortable place to sit in the centre of the library. A large padded sofa that still smelled like the leather was new. Helga lid a lamp on the table in front of the sofa and I could see on her face that she was about to sell me a secret. Her left eyebrow moved up while the other was down.
-There are many kinds of knowledge, both hidden and

Saturday, March 16, 2013


The project Bildalian Chronicles is underway and the book will be ready to publish in the end of April. The webpage will be opened at the same time. 
You can sneak a peek at the Bildalia web on facebook where the latest news are published.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bildalia/349423181840545?ref=hl 

Bildalia has been an isolated region at the northwest corner of Iceland for 70 years. 
Hidden in the valleys of the westfjords it was forgotten by many, never discovered by others.
Bildalia is located in Eagle-bay, surrounded by mountains on all sides except for the way out to the arctic sea, through the narrow strait of Coldback mountains. 
During the winter of nine months Bildalia was cut off from the outside world by land. Only during the summer the roads to Bildalia were open and yet still, some would not call them roads. 
Today Bildalia is an independent state and is ready to be reopened to the world. 
A daily flight of the airship will start the third of May this spring. Roads will be build and new industry established. 
Several companies have applied for permission to operate in Bildalia. Salmon farming, production of calcified algae, production of prawns, mussels and other 'Fruits de la mer". Arts, entertainment and tourism with the Monster museum theme park at the center.
Everything is growing and Bildalia will once again prosper.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Bildalian Chronicles published


The Bildalian Chronicles was  published May 1 2013
http://www.emma.is/products/bildalian-chronicles
At the same time the official web of Bildalia was opened. Full of knowlidge, photos, videoes, drawings, games and other material.
http://www.bildalia.com
Come and join the Bildalian adventure - It has begun.