- Tanja Nathanael
An Interview with Faroese YA Author Rannvá Næs Hoydal
The following interview was conducted with Faroese author Rannvá Næs Hoydal via email in 2011. I had requested a review copy of her book from her publisher who kindly provided me with an English synopsis and translation. I became fascinated with Rannvá and her tragic vampire story, especially since it contrasted in such a remarkable way with the romantic vampires in YA fiction in the United States. International children’s lit scholars who examine themes of monstrousness, food, environment, and spectacle would find much to explore here.
Since this interview, Rannvá has graduated high school (Føroya Studentaskúli og HF-skeið), worked in a bookstore, and traveled. She is currently working on a collection of short-stories and studying archaeology.
Rannvá Næs Hoydal, the 2008 winner of the Faroese Ministry of Education's short story contest for young authors, has created a vampire who is at once traditionally amoral, deeply sympathetic, and uniquely tied to Faroese culture. Illustrated by Herdis Jakobsen, 7 dagar í helviti, or 7 Days in Hell, concerns 17-year-old Teitur and his discovery of his vampirism when he is driven by his hunger for blood down to the harbor to feed on whales. Pilot whale meat has been a food staple in the Faeroes for centuries, and this remarkable setting marks the beginning of a very different kind of vampire story.
TN: Tell me more about Teitur. How long has he been a vampire? Did it start that day on the beach when he drinks whale blood? Why can he not remember who he is?
RNH: As the title indicates, Teitur is a vampire for seven days. The first thing we read about is when he is on the verge of completely losing his memory of his life before he became a vampire and what happened to him. The vampire who bit Teitur was actually a tourist. That day on the beach, he has been eating very little for some two days and it contributes to his hunger for the blood. But this is when he finds out he is a vampire and gets scared out of his mind.
He can't remember who he is because it's some weird vampire rule, which I either looked up somewhere or invented. This is the good thing about writing about supernatural creatures. I thought that it was the best thing for 'the vampire species' if they were to survive, like to stop the newborn vampire from knowing who bit him and to erase some of the human morals that Teitur has been taught since birth, so he can become a hunter.
TN: What does a Faroese vampire look like? In what way is Teitur different from a traditional vampire? What are his strengths and weaknesses?
RNH: I like the monsters who walk among us and look the same as us the best. So Teitur looks absolutely ordinary, but with some quite sharp 'fangs' and a pale complexion, because of his blood loss when he doesn't drink any blood. Although I always figured Teitur would have special powers, which he himself didn't know about, like in the scene where the house is burning, he is controlling the flames with his mind so they don't come near him or Rita. Concerning daylight – which many theories state as being destructive to vampires – Teitur definitely doesn't like it, but if he were to walk out without hiding in the shadows nothing would happen. He is just very sensitive to lights and doesn't like them.
TN: Who is Rita? Why does she decide to betray Teitur to the townspeople?
RNH: I chose not to explain much in the book about Rita, maybe because I wanted people to make their own thoughts about her, and of course because Teitur doesn't remember her himself. She was once his girlfriend; she actually still is, just that he has forgotten. In my mind he was crazy about her before and he did a lot of stupid things in her company, which he regretted terribly afterwards. Teitur was quite popular in school and one of the tough and pretty mean kids.
Rita is the one he turns to when he needs help in cleaning up after himself after the act of mindlessness on his first night as a vampire and so she is the only one who knows his secret. She betrays him for the sake of the others, because she can't let all the horrors pass her by. I think that the fact that Teitur kills his own mother and sister is what makes her decide. She forces herself to think that Teitur dying is what's best for everyone and so she tells her parents about him. Although it is hard for her, she gets the people to believe her, because, although it is incredible, they can see the evidence.
TN: Some recent books, like Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series for example, have recreated the vampire into a romantic figure complete with happy ending. Your vampire, however, is a tragic figure, both monstrous and sympathetic. Did you intend for your book to be a response to the "romantic vampire" trend?
RNH: As weird as it sounds, I had never even heard of Twilight when I wrote the story. I have always been fascinated by vampires and werewolves and other surreal creatures, and I like to experiment with what it would feel like for a human being to go through these extreme tests. The idea came to me one day when me and my family had gone to look at some whales being sorted out. I looked at all the blood that we were walking in and a picture of a tall boy with a frustrated mind came to my mind. I thought: poor vampire, who could see this. So the book isn't meant to be a backfire for the Twilight books and the likes; I just wanted to tell a story of an 'old-fashioned', traditional vampire's first and last days and of his anguish.
TN: The use of the image of the whale hunt in the beginning of your story is balanced brilliantly with the hunt for the vampire at the end. The scene where the children surround Teitur with their knives because they want his vampire fangs is especially chilling. What attracted you to this image? Did you begin writing your book with this image in mind? Or was it something you discovered during the writing process?
RNH: The words I am happiest about in my writing are the ones that suddenly burst out of me, the ones I don't even have to think about. I was about to write the end and I wanted to give Teitur some kind of a 'farewell present'/memorial speech or something and the thought just popped into my head. I thought it would be cool to have him feeling like a tourist attraction or an animal in the zoo.
TN: Are there any plans to translate your book into English or other languages? RNH: Well, I would certainly like to.
TN: What's next for you? Are we going to see any stories about Faroese werewolves?
RNH: Not werewolves, no. Though I wrote part of one story when I was little. My project right now is about a young man, Matthew Thomas. He is on death row and I write about his final visits and meal. It's written in a very claustrophobic and flowing way, as I try to form the words by his mind and moods. TN: Thank you for your answers! Good luck with your next project!
RNH: Thank you very much! :)
7 dagar í helviti (7 Days in Hell)
Author: Rannvá Næs Hoydal
Illustrator: Herdis Jakobsen
Language: Faroese
Tórshavn, Faeroe Islands: Bókadeild Føroya Lærarafelags, 2009
ISBN: 978-99918-1-705-7
Fantasy, 12+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tanja Nathanael is ABD, pursuing an English Literature doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi. She expects to defend her dissertation “Borders of Contact and Trespass: Northern Landscapes in Nineteenth-Century British Literature” in Fall 2018. Her research interests include nineteenth century British Literature—especially Old Northern antiquities as celebrated by the Victorians—and Children’s Literature, including broader connections to world and international literatures within these areas. She also maintains research interests in science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tales as they pertain to British identity. She is currently serving on the international committee of the Children's Literature Association (ChLA) and on the FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures Advisory Board for The International Federation for Languages and Literatures (FILLM).