在蘇格蘭尋找獨立的血脈依據(1)

“Sving til venstre.” Jurgen issued instructions in his pleasingly Nordic voice, firm but encouraging. From behind the wheel, David nodded his head, and turned the car to the left. We were only a mile outside Edinburgh, but thanks to David, my Norwegian-American boyfriend, and Jurgen, the Norwegian speaker on David’s GPS, I already felt deep into Viking territory.

“Sving til venstre.”（挪威語“左轉”——譯註）于爾根(Jurgen)用他悅耳的北歐嗓音發出一句指示。握着方向盤的戴維點了點頭，將車向左轉。我們離開愛丁堡才一英里，但因爲有戴維——我的挪威裔美國男友，還有于爾根——戴維的GPS裏那個說挪威語的男人，我感覺自己已經深入到維京腹地。

Scotland is perhaps not the most obvious place to look for traces of Nordic culture. But in the months leading up to the nation’s vote on independence from England last September, there was talk of it everywhere. Although it had been six centuries since any part of Scotland was in Norse hands, many nationalists were suggesting that Viking heritage formed part of the separate identity that lay behind an independence bid, which, although it failed at the polls, has grown stronger since the referendum.

一般人大概不會想來到蘇格蘭尋找北歐文化的痕跡。但在去年9月獨立公投前的幾個月裏，舉國上下都在談論這個話題。斯堪的納維亞人佔領蘇格蘭的歷史，最近的也要追溯到六個世紀前，然而許多民族主義者提出，維京文化的血脈是蘇格蘭身份認同的一部分，進而成爲獨立的依據，公投以失敗告終，但這種認同在公投後卻變得越來越強烈。

And it wasn’t all historic either: The Scottish Nationalist Party assured voters that Scotland’s similarities to its Scandinavian neighbors — its small size, its environmental awareness and its Norwegian-style oil reserves — would guarantee prosperity. And perhaps even justify membership in the Nordic Council, an intergovernmental body that fosters political, economic and cultural cooperation among the five Nordic nations and three autonomous regions.

歷史並非唯一因素：蘇格蘭民族黨(Scottish National Party)還希望選民們放心，蘇格蘭和斯堪的納維亞鄰國的相似之處——較小的規模，環保意識以及挪威式的石油儲備——足以保障它的繁榮。甚至有資格進入北歐理事會(Nordic Council)，這個跨政府組織的職責是促進五個北歐國家和三個自治領的政治、經濟和文化合作。

As a recent transplant to Denmark, I was still trying to figure out Scandinavian identity myself, so this claim intrigued me. What did it take, besides a penchant for bicycles, brooding television series and salted licorice, to become Nordic? To find out, David and I would start in the capital, then drive as far into Scotland’s formerly Viking lands as we could.

作爲一個丹麥新移民，我還在努力尋找自己的斯堪的納維亞認同，因此這樣的主張對我很是吸引。要想成爲北歐人，除了熱愛自行車、鬱鬱寡歡的電視劇和鹹甘草糖，還需要做什麼？爲了尋找答案，戴維和我將從首府開始，驅車一直深入當年維京人的土地，走得越遠越好。

We began at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The first Viking invasions into the British Isles were recorded in the late eighth century; monks’ chronicles make frequent, terrified references to northerly marauders who raped and pillaged their way through the Highlands. But at the museum, the image of those rampaging Norsemen was changing: Not only were they not all raiding, bloodthirsty warriors, but they also weren’t even all men. Tools, jewelry and a reconstructed burial site on display all testified to the gentler side of Viking life, and proved that the Norse (male and female) set down roots in Scotland, engaging in agriculture, trade and family life. “Relations with local people,” read the optimistic text on one case, “weren’t always hostile.”

我們的起點是在愛丁堡的蘇格蘭國立博物館(National Museum of Scotland)。據史料記載，維京人最早入侵不列顛羣島是在八世紀末；心驚膽戰的修士們時常在編年史中提起這些北方強盜，他們一路姦淫擄掠，殺向蘇格蘭高地。然而在博物館裏，北歐人的殘暴形象正在發生改變：他們並非全都是嗜血尚武的匪徒，甚至不全是男人。館中展出的工具、珠寶和一座重建的墓葬都在證明，維京生活也有祥和的一面，還表明斯堪的納維亞（的男人和女人）曾在蘇格蘭紮根，開展農耕、貿易和家庭生活。“和當地人的關係並非總是敵對的，”在某個陳列櫃上可以看到這樣充滿正能量的文字。

On that day last August, they were rather the opposite. Near a barbershop full of men whose lumberjack beards marked them as either Scandinavian or Brooklynite, we found Timberyard. With its rough wooden floors and jars of fermenting vegetables on display, the restaurant would have fit as easily onto a lonely, windswept expanse of the Stockholm peninsula as it did in the Scottish capital. The food, too, was identifiably Nordic, from the chewy sourdough served with house-made butter and lovage salt that started the meal, to the foraged woodruff tea that ended it. In between came delicate dishes strewn with local herbs and flowers: nearly raw scallops shaved thin and adorned with wild garlic petals; mackerel grilled so that the char cut through the fish’s oiliness, served with yogurt and juicy nasturtium leaves.

而在8月底的那一天，我看到的根本是敵對的反面。一間理髮店裏滿是蓄着伐木工大鬍子的男人，這說明他們要麼來自斯堪的納維亞，要麼是布魯克林人士。在理髮店的附近，我們找到了林場餐廳(Timberyard)。粗獷的木地板，一罐罐正在發酵的蔬菜，讓人很容易把這裏想象成風聲鶴唳、滿目寂寥的斯德哥爾摩半島，而不是蘇格蘭首府。至於菜式，從餐前嚼勁十足的酸麪包配自制黃油和歐當歸鹽，到餐後的野生車葉草茶，都是明顯的北歐風味。中間是灑滿當地花草調味料的精緻菜餚：幾乎全生的扇貝薄片，裝點着野蔥花瓣；鯖魚的表面炙烤成焦黑，瓦解了魚肉的肥膩，再佐以酸奶和多汁的旱金蓮葉。

“It’s hard not to be influenced by it,” Ben Radford, the chef, said of the northerly elements in what he calls his “modern Scottish” cuisine. “Culturally, we’re very similar. And we’re working with the same ingredients, letting them shine through, so that each flavor is apparent, crisp and clean.”

“很難不被影響，”本·拉德福德(Ben Radford)大廚這樣評價本餐廳的北方元素，他稱之爲“現代蘇格蘭”菜。“文化上我們很相近。我們用一樣的食材，讓它們發揮自己的本色，這樣一來，每一道調味都是鮮明、清脆、乾淨的。”

In Glasgow, two recent graduates take the affinity even further. Through their consulting firm Lateral North, Graham Hogg and Alex Hobday help towns in the upper reaches of Scotland develop their Nordic potential as transportation and green energy hubs. “We have the same climate, the same landscape, even the same dark sense of humor, so we can take the Nordic countries as a model for economic development,” Mr. Hogg said. “We’re trying to get people to think of Scotland not as the end of Europe, but as the gateway to the North.”

在格拉斯哥，兩個剛剛大學畢業的年輕人將這種文化親緣又往前推進了一步。格雷恩·霍格(Graham Hogg)和阿歷克斯·霍布戴(Alex Hobday)創辦的諮詢公司Lateral North正在幫助蘇格蘭北部地區的城鎮開發自己的北歐潛能——成爲一個運輸和綠色能源樞紐。“我們有一樣的氣候，一樣的地貌，連黑色幽默都一樣，”霍格說。“我們希望大家不要把蘇格蘭當作歐洲的盡頭，它應該是北歐的入口。”

It was time to head toward that gate. There are a number of Viking-related spots in the Western Highlands. But Mr. Hogg had said we would find the most striking examples of Scandinavian-style Scotland in Orkney and Shetland, so we fired up the GPS and headed north. “Rett frem,” Jurgen said, directing us straight ahead with what I interpreted as approval.

那麼，該去門口瞧瞧了。在西高地有一些維京文化相關的去處。但是霍格說，要在蘇格蘭尋找最強烈的斯堪的納維亞風，得去奧克尼(Orkeny)和設得蘭(Shetland)，於是我們打開GPS向北行進。“Rett frem，”于爾根指示我們向正前方行駛，在我看來這是在認可我們的決定。

Several hours later, Norway appeared on the horizon. In truth, it wasn’t really Norway, just a series of Nordic-style houses — pointy, clean-lined and painted in bright, saturated colors that stood out against the churning North Sea — that wouldn’t have been out of place in Bergen. We had reached John O’Groats, the purportedly northernmost (there is some contention) point of mainland Scotland. It consists of little more than a few souvenir shops and a parking lot big enough for all those tour buses to turn around in.

幾個小時後，挪威出現在地平線上。事實上並不是挪威，只是一些北歐風格的房子——尖頂、線條清晰、粉刷了明亮、鮮豔的顏色，跟涌動着的北海形成巨大反差——這一派景色，放到卑爾根也沒人會覺得有什麼異樣。我們抵達了約翰歐格羅茲村，號稱蘇格蘭大陸最北端（尚存爭議）。除了幾爿紀念品商店和一片大小夠旅遊大巴掉個頭的停車場，這裏什麼都沒有。

But Natural Retreats, a hotel development company, has made the place much more appealing by taking a Gothic-style inn and adding several Nordic-style wooden houses onto the side. Each building is called a toft, a Norse-derived word for farmhouse or homestead. The tofts are painted different colors and contain apartments, which comprise the accommodations. The rooms are spare and tasteful, with the streaming light and clean lines that are the hallmarks of Scandinavian design. “It’s quite straightforward,” said Adam Gough, Natural Retreats’ head of technical services, when asked about Nordic style. “There is a lot of history and strong links with Scandinavia.”

然而，從事酒店開發的自然療養(Natural Retreats)公司給這裏增添了不少吸引力，他們建了一座哥特式旅館，在旁邊又加了幾座北歐式木屋。這些小屋叫做toft，一個自北歐的“農舍”或“家宅”變化而來的詞。所有toft都刷了不同的顏色，裏面有提供食宿服務的公寓。這些房間既寬敞又有品味，良好的採光和清晰的線條彰顯着斯堪的納維亞設計的特質。“很直截了當，”自然療養公司技術服務主管亞當·高夫(Adam Gough)這樣評價北歐風格。“有很悠久的歷史，跟斯堪的納維亞有着緊密的聯繫。”

But neither Scandi chic, nor the newer, kinder version of the Vikings had made it to the nearby town of Wick, which gets its name from the Old Norse word for bay. Asked why the hotel where she worked was called the Norseman, the receptionist admitted that she wasn’t sure. “Because they came here raping and rampaging through the hills?” she asked. “You know, doing Viking things.”

然而，無論是斯堪的納維亞流還是更新潮、柔和的維京風，都沒有影響到附近的威克(Wick)，這個地名取自古諾爾斯語“海灣”一詞。在一個叫Norseman（北人）的酒店，我們問前臺爲什麼叫這麼個名字，她說她也不太清楚。“因爲他們曾經到這些山裏來姦淫擄掠？”她說。“就是維京人常乾的那些事。”

It wasn’t hard to see why she persisted in that image. Wick, which Robert Louis Stevenson once referred to as “the meanest of mean towns,” has little in the way of tourist attractions except for a ruined castle that was probably built in the 12th century, presumably by the Norse earl, Harald Maddadson. One of the oldest and best preserved in Scotland, the castle’s tower still reaches four stories up, and its defensive ditches and perilous cliffs keep it cut off from the mainland. It is a stirring place, desolate and imposing, and not at all hard to imagine as the kind of stronghold from which one might have set out marauding.

不難看出爲什麼她會保持這種印象。在曾被羅伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森(Robert Louis Stevenson)稱爲“世上最破的破鎮子”的威克，唯一值得遊客駐足的是一座古堡廢墟，可能是在12世紀由諾爾斯伯爵哈拉爾德·馬達遜(Harald Maddadson)所建。這是蘇格蘭最古老、保存最完好的城堡之一，至今仍有四層樓高，防禦壕溝和險峻的峭壁將城堡和大陸隔開。這是個讓人心潮澎湃的地方，荒涼而威嚴，不難想象它作爲劫掠者的據點的樣子。

Did people in this part of Scotland feel Viking? As we stood on the ferry to the Orkney Islands, watching mainland Britain disappear, we pondered the question. “What I can’t tell,” David said, “is whether they actually identify with their Nordic past, or if it’s just a marketing ploy.” We had our first answer of a sort after landing at St. Margaret’s Hope, a pretty, stone-clad town that was a welcoming entry to Orkney’s main island. Rebooting Jurgen after his stay in the ship’s hold, we drove to Highland Park distillery in the market town of Kirkwall, the Orcadian capital. The northernmost whiskey distillery in Britain (there would be many claims to the northernmost on this trip), Highland Park makes a line of high-end Scotch whiskies named after Vikings real and imagined: Eibar, Thor, Loki.

生活在這一帶的蘇格蘭人，會覺得自己是維京人嗎？當我們站在前往奧克尼島的渡輪上，望着漸漸消失的不列顛大陸，心裏想着的就是這個問題。“我說不好的是，”戴維說，“他們究竟是真的對自己的北歐歷史有認同，還是隻是一個營銷伎倆。”在聖瑪格麗茨霍普登陸後，我們算是找到了第一個答案，作爲奧克尼主島的入口，這個滿是石壁房屋的漂亮小鎮十分招人喜歡。我們重新啓動了剛從船上下來的于爾根，向集市城鎮、奧克尼羣島首府柯克沃爾的“高原騎士”酒廠(Highland Park)進發。那是不列顛最北的威士忌酒廠（我們此行會經過很多號稱“最北”的地方），出品頂級的蘇格蘭威士忌，皆以真實或虛構的維京人物爲名：Eibar、Thor、Loki。