Heimskringla - 20.12.1950, Side 1

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LXV ÁRGANGUR
WINNIPEG, MIÐVIKUDAGINN 20. DES. 1950
NÚMER 12.
PROF. SKULI JOHNSON:
Stepkan Q. Stepkanóóon (/853—1927)
An address delivered at the unveiling of a monument and the dedication of a provincial park
in his honour, at Markerville, Alberta, on September 4th, 1950.
Minnisvarði Stepháns G. Stephánssonar, skálds, reistur honum í Markerville, Alta., af
Sögunefnd Canada. Myndin er tekin við afhjúpunina er fór fram 4. sept. 1950. Flutti próf. Skúli
Johnson aðal-ræðuna um skáldið við það tækifæri og fer hún hér á eftir. Á myndinni eru þessir
(talið frá vinstri): Mr. Ófeigur Sigurðsson; Mr. J. H. Holloway, Chairman of the Provincial
Parks Board, Alberta; Mr. Dan Morkeberg, Chairman; Two guards of honor, names unknown;
Mr. Jacob K. Stephansson, son of the poet; Professor M. H. Long, member of the Historic Sites
and Monuments Board of Canada; Professor Skuli Johnson, guest speaker.
Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am deeply conscious of the honour
done me by the Historic Sites and
Monuments Board of Canada in invit-
ing me to address you on this memor-
able occasion. It is one of importance
in the history of Alberta, and indeed
of Canada as a whole; assuredly it is
unique in the annals of Icelandic men
in America. But as an old Icelandic
adage expresses it: a difficulty accomp-
anies every distinction: the honour of
participating in these proceedings puts
on my shoulders a heavy responsibility.
Fortunately the reputation of the
dead will not be permanently impair-
ed by my remarks. There is further
comfort in the reflection that no reas-
onable person will expect me to do
justice to so vast a theme as Stephan G.
Stephansson in the short time at my
disposal.
But the brevity of time might cause
me to make dogmatic assertions about
the poet, and my enthusiasm for him
both as an author and as a man might
lead me to indulge in exaggerations.
In order to guard against these faults,
I shall throughout seek a footing in
facts and illustrate the points I make
by appeals to his poetry. Needless to
say,' my citations, though they are as
adequate as I can make them, are in-
sufficient for a complete picture: they
present what the Romans would call
the scattered limbs of a poet (disiecta
membra poetae).
I.
There is nothing in the antecedents
or in the circumstances of Stephan G.
Stephansson to account for him. Of
humble peasant origin, he was reared
on a little farm-annex in northern Ice-
land, which was so poor that it long
ago went back into wasteland. He had
no formal education; his only reading
was in borrowed sagas and in the fam-
ily Bible. For sixteen years he laboured
as a pioneer in Wisconsin and North
Dakota and was little known. It was
when he migrated to Canada to be-
come a pioneer in Alberta that his
poetic powers really matured. The
prairie-land, the foothills and the
Rockies made him a poet of national
significance.
St. G. St. is essentially in the peas-
ant-poet tradition of Iceland. He has
a passion for the intricate forms that
mark the native Ballad-poetry of the
unlettered, and his love of the Iceland-
ic quatrain in all its diversities is
evidenced by his abundant output of
this kind of verse. Of his six volumes
perhaps a fourth is devoted to this lit-
erary genre. But St. G. St. steeped him-
self besides in the earlier lore and liter-
ature of his land, and for both matter
and metre, he often goes back to the
Eddas and the Scaldic poetry. His
knowledge of the Saga-literature of
Iceland is also amazing, and he is
especially fond of delineating potent
personages of the past who confronted
difficulties or who broke new paths.
Often too does he correlate an incident
of the past with some vital problem oi
the present. He thus puts the precious
ore that he has mined from the in-
exhaustible wealth of Iceland’s cul-
ture to use for his contemporaries, not
only in Iceland but also on this cont-
inent where he laboured so long and
arduously. He has a firm footing in
the past and in the present; he stands
on Iceland and America; indeed in his
intelligent interest in humanity, and
his passionate advocacy of the solution
of problems of world-wide importance,
this bard-colossus bestrides the earth!
II.
St. G. St. however regarded himself
as no world-figure but primarily as a
pioneering farmer. He was proud to
be a tiller:
I am a farmer; all I own
Is under sun and shower.
This idea influences much of his
thought; indeed it colours his concept
of life:
Life is a growth;
Progress is life’s true happiness.
Barrenness of spirit is the worst fate
that he can wish for his enemies:
Send me for foemen persons who
possess
A wintry spirit and hearts verdureless.
At times St. G. St. waxes lyrical over
the precious imponderables which his
farmer-soul enjoys:
What worth on fields and flocks you
place?
What worth on dollars any
Against the wealth, the verse and grace
Of summer-ev’nings many?
Again and again St. G. St. calls to
mind ideas familiar to us from the
Ayrshire ploughman:
External sheen to rank extreme
Ne’er raised a man up, but
A kingly nature crowns supreme
The crofter in his hut.
Framhald á 4. blaðsíðu
T JM Jólaleytið eru hugsanir okkar aðallega helgaðar heimilum
og fjölskvldum vorum, þá er það sem heimilis-fögnuðurinn
kemst á hæðsta stig. Við leggjuin alt í sölurnar til þess að öðlast
þá hluti sem nauðsynlegir eru til þess að við getum notið þeirra
ánægjustunda. Þeir hlutir eru: heimili, efnalegt sjálfstæði og
mentun fyrir börn okkar. Sá grundvöllur sem við leggjum í
dag, verður til framtíðar öryggis og vellíðunar fjölskyldum
okkar, um ókomin ár.
Representcrtlves
Winnipeq Branch
Phone 926144
Great-West
ASSURANCE COMPANY
HEAD OFFICE — WINNIPEC
w
son’s
Greetinós
As the Holiday Season draws
near, we sincerely wish our
friends and customers an
abundance of good health,
prosperity and happiness.
We hope it will be our privi-
lege to give you dependable,
efficient Bay service always.
TtolhíiittjíTDati (Ettmptttt|i.
• NCORPORATED 2?? MAY 1670.