The Arctic Diaries

By Melissa Davies

A poetic project of preservation and sense of place. Rich imagery and language dives deep into the lives of coastal communities in the far north of Norway, from debut poet, Melissa Davies
When the fisherman dies Fleinvær stories spill out silver strings, like guts from a spring catch. But between these pages they survive.
The Arctic Diaries chart generations of the characters, myths and misremembered details that make up the oral traditions of a windswept archipelago in Norway's far north. Created over a single arctic winter, using stories gathered from the last surviving fisherman of Langholmen, this collection of poems are part history, part field notes, exploring what role the outsider plays in preserving the experience of another.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Release date: Mar 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781913665753

Melissa Davies

Melissa Davies is a poet recently returned to Cumbria. A short career in cancer care, followed by travel writing, somehow led to a winter spent running a Norwegian island retreat. Back at the foot of the fells she used this experience to create 'The Arctic Diaries', a poetic project of preservation and sense of place. Previous poems published by Arachne in 'Time and Tide'; and in Alliterati Magazine, Maybe Later Press & Oh Comely Magazine.

Book preview

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For Matthew

Thank you for your unwavering support of my writing and for agreeing to ‘run a creative retreat’ with me in the Arctic.

May you never have to defrost another desalination system.

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Contents

Introducing Fleinvær

Guide to Norsk

Part One

18th November – We Arrive

Fleinvær is Made up of Three Hundred and Sixty Five Islands

Into the Archipelago

Bird Wife

Sær Orm

(marram grass)

An Island is the Summit of a Mountain

Værøy

Island Birth

The Lookout Men

Treasures From the First Boat

A Disturbance Recounted Years Later

The Fisherman Remembers a Boy Disappeared

Equinox

Skrei Season on Røst

Stranger

When they Closed the School

The Fisherman Remembers the Boy Reappeared

Vær, or Island Weather

Part Two

4th January – We Listen

Vanishing Act

Made into an Island

Fiskebruk

Halibut

Immersion

Coffee

Seaweed

(Collecting)

i. The Artist Collects Fish Bones

ii. The Fisherman Collects Feathers

iii. The Musician Collects Guests

iiii. The Fisherman’s Wife Collects Books

Guardians

Preparing to Leave the Island

Said the Father to His Wife, the Mother

Part Three

16th April – We Leave

Poppel

A trawlerman recalls

Flomålet

They Call Him the Salmon King of Norway

Langholmen

(Out of the Archipelago)

Introducing Fleinvær

Fleinvær is a real place – an archipelago off the Arctic coast of Norway. As well as being one of only a handful of inhabited islands in Fleinvær, Sørvær