Stories are a staple of all world cultures. They convey new ideas and older history. And such stories are at the core of Harold R. Johnson’s new novel, The Björkan Sagas.
Johnson is a well-known and respected author whose past works have been primarily informed by his Cree ancestry. But The Björkan Sagas brings in another part of his heritage. “I have published 10 books; every one of them pays homage to my Cree ancestry. It was time to honour my father, who was born in Sweden,” he says.
- The Björkan Sagas
- Harold R. Johnson
- House of Anansi Press Inc
- $24.99 Hardcover, 176 pages
- ISBN: 978-14-87009-80-9
Putting stories modelled after Scandinavian sagas out in the world has proven to be a bit of a narrative journey. They started off in the simplest of ways for Johnson. “Every night as I lay down, in those moments before sleep, I told myself a little story. I kept adding until I had the entire Björkan saga in my head.”
From there, the stories he was creating became a long, narrative poem and eventually something quite different. “I changed it to resemble the Irish and Icelandic sagas, which are primarily prose interspersed with poetic lines.”
But Johnson has left some blanks for the readers to fill in as they go. “The sagas portion is an attempt to write in a new style – minimalistic. I believe the reader’s imagination is far more powerful than any writer can achieve, so, I left lots of room to imagine,” he explains.
The exploration of story is key to this book, both for the reader and for the author. “The Björkan Sagas is about me exploring my craft as a writer,” says Johnson. “True craftsmanship comes from the heart whether you are a cabinet builder, a potter, a knife maker, a metal, wood, or ceramic worker. The quality of the finished product is directly proportional to the amount of love the craftsperson puts into the work.”
It’s safe to say that an incredible amount of care and attention has gone into The Björkan Sagas. Each of the three sagas portrays the importance of balance to sustain the natural world and what can happen when greed and exploitation take over. But any inclusion of environmental themes may have been more on a subconscious level than anything deliberate.
“Environment informs a lot about who I am,” says Johnson, who lives in the boreal forest of Saskatchewan. “I have witnessed the clearcutting of my family trapline, evoking powerful emotions of loss, sadness, and anger. My heart and my spirit were broken. But I did not intentionally bring an environmental message to the work. If it’s there, it’s because that is who and where I was when I wrote it.”
An exploration of cultural identity, the power of the narrative, and the need to respect the environment all exist to an extent in The Björkan Sagas. Johnson guides the reader through this adventure of dreams and story with consideration.
“I want the reader to know I care about them as I take them on this journey of exploration,” he says. “I will not let you be hurt; I will bring you safely to the far shore.”
