At Elizabethtown College, professors have many opportunities to travel and gain new experiences outside their collegiate life. During the Presidential Enrichment Lecture series Wednesday afternoon, Associate Professor of English Dr. Matthew Willen presented his experiences during his travels in the Westfjords of Iceland.
Willen has been visiting Iceland on and off since his first visit in 2008. Due to a grant from the College, he was able to start his travels in Iceland with the intent to explore the fishing industry in the area. “When the call went out to go to Iceland, I said to myself, ‘I don’t think that there’s anyone on campus that’s as suited to go to Iceland as I am,’” Willen said. “I spent most of the 80s and 90s in the outdoors, and I have traveled a lot in glaciated areas. I have traveled to very remote places, and I like that sort of region. I revel in polar exploration stories.” Starting with the idea to explore how the fishing industry has affected the way the Icelandic people live and its economy, Willen set out to explore the area.
About the size of Colorado, Iceland is one of seven arctic countries founded around 87 A.D. Although it is considered an arctic area, only one part of Iceland is in the actual arctic region. Overall, the country has a sub-polar environment. The capital and largest city in Iceland, Reykjavík, has a population of about 118,000. In most cases, the country is sparsely populated in small towns, typically located on the coasts. The area Willen explored, the Westfjords, is about the size of Rhode Island. Its population is about 7,000.
The literacy rate of Iceland is nearly 100 percent, which Willen attributes to most Icelandic people’s hobbies of reading and writing. A few resources of Iceland include its large variety of energy — geothermal, hydrogen and hydroelectric — as well as its variety of minerals and marine life. Some main industries and exports of Iceland are its energy, aluminum, minerals, fishing and, more recently, tourism. The country itself is full of natural beauty and wildlife, which gave Willen inspiration for his photography. During his presentation, he played a few slideshows with some of his photographs taken in Iceland.
Around 1980, as the fishing industry in Iceland was expedited to other countries and fish population dwindled, the fishing industry collapsed. Willen went to explore how the Icelandic people and economy were affected by this loss. Willen said he was attracted to the Westfjords in particular because of the way it looked on a map. “I saw the water, the fjords all over the place and these little towns with not much in between them,” he said. “I thought this was a great place to go and spend some time.”
As Willen travelled in the area, he discovered that he had the wrong idea about the people and economy of Iceland. “Even though I went up there [to the Westfjords] looking at the fishing industry, I found myself in these communities that were very small towns and, what I thought, were very difficult places to live,” Willen said. “People were very happy and very content to be in these communities. I remember saying to these people, ‘Don’t you find it difficult living here?’ and they just looked at me like I was crazy.” After those conversations with a wide range of people, Willen’s new mission was to discover what it is about these people that allows them to live what he calls “very fulfilling, content lives.”
While Willen explored the rich landscape of Iceland, he simultaneously explored its people and how its people can be so content living in such a harsh, desolate environment. According to Willen, in most of the larger towns, the population could range from 200 to 3,000 people. In most of the towns, there were homes, a gas station or convenience store, a church and a pool or gym area. In the larger towns, sometimes there would be banks, hospitals, stores and schools. Due to the length between towns and the long drives between towns on limited roads, Willen found it hard to believe that the Icelandic people were content with not having many resources or sources of entertainment.
Despite these factors, Willen said that the people of the Westfjords aren’t too disappointed with the place in which they live. From his point of view, Willen said that it seems like the Westfjords would be a difficult place to live. However, by living together and supporting each other through community events and collaborating in business, the tightly-knit communities can sustain themselves responsibly. “Another thing that occurred to me is that these people keep their expectations in check,” Willen said. “It’s not like they don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world. It seems to me that when people start to expect more in life, it becomes more difficult to be happy. So they don’t expect anything more out of life other than what they have, and they are very happy. Now when I think of resources in the Westfjords, I think its primary resource is people.”