The Arctic Circle is in motion
The sun goes round and round. It’s cold, it’s warm. The crops are good, frost steals them. A person cries, smiles, loves, hates, lives.
They say: there’s not enough of this and that. Work must be done.
The Arctic Circle is in motion.
They come from afar, look, feel something, go away. The water flows in the river, time is spent, children become fathers, mothers. There is talk of development. Work is done. The river flows through wood, ice. Cars travel the roads. Trains on rails, machines in the air. More people.
City, municipality, congregation.
The Arctic Circle moves people in time and place.
A person lives.
At the edge of cold, a person lives.
The land of the Arctic Circle lives.
Land of the Arctic Circle
--------------------------Mountain of the
Midnight Sun
--------------------------Finland’s Klondike
--------------------------From sleigh rides to the
age of the Concorde
--------------------------The nearest real hotel
--------------------------Santa Claus Land
--------------------------A city called by many
names - and the heroes
take the spoils
--------------------------
(Extract from Jorma Etto’s introduction in the book: Rovaniemi. Napapiirin maa [Rovaniemi: the Land of the Arctic Circle], 1968)
