Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.1967, Blaðsíða 9

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 1. JÚNl 1967
9
Winnipeg, 50 47’ 96 58’ (8-21-4-E);
Baldur, a village north of Rock
Lake, 49 23’ 99 15’ (12-5-14-W);
Bifrost (Bifröst), a municipality
50 50’ 97 10’; Bjarnason Island, on
Lake Manitoba, 50 58’ 98 50’;
Geyser, a settlement south of Riv-
erton, 50 56’ 97 05’ (34-22-3-E);
Gimli, a town on the south west
shore of Lake Winnipeg, 50 39’
97 00’, also a municipality 50 40’
97 03’; Grund, a locality north of
Rock Lake, 49 30’ 99 15’ (10-6-14-
W); Gunnar Rock, on Lake Winni-
peg, 51 16’ 96 26; Hecla, a village
on Hecla Island, 51 08’ 96 40’;
Hecla Island, on Lake Winnipeg
(called Mikley ‘Big Island’ among
lcelanders), 51 06’ 96 43’; Hnausa,
a hamlet on the south west shore
of Lake Winnipeg, 50 51’ 97 00’
(21-4-22-E); Hnausa Reef, on Lake
Winnipeg, 50 57’ 96 48’; Husavick,
a hamlet on the south west shore
of Lake Winnipeg, 50 33’ 97 00’
(21-18-4-E); Icelandic River, flows
north east into Lake Winnipeg,
the mouth of the river is at 51 01’
96 57’; Lundar, a village east of
Lake Manitoba, 50 42’ 98 06’ (1-
20-5-W); Reykjavik, a post office
south west of Fairford, 51 12’ 98
55’ (25-25-11-W); Siglunes, a
municipality, 51 10’ 98 30’, also a
post office on the east shore of
Lake Manitoba, 50 54’ 98 30’ (24-
22-10-W); Solmundsson Lake, east
of Southern Indian Lake, 57 22’
96 50’; Sigurdsson Island, on Be-
rens River, 52 21’ 97 03’; Thor-
sleinson Lake, east of Southern
Indian Lake, 57 15’ 97 30’; Vest-
fold, a post office north west of
Teulon, 50 35’ 97 44’ (34-18-3-W);
Vidir (Víðir), a settlement north
west of Riverton, 51 01’ 97 18’;
Vogar, a settlement south of Dog
Lake, 50 56’ 98 40’ (33-20-9-W).
(The chief sources are here:
Place-Names of Manitoba, publ.
for the Geographic Board by The
Department of the Interior, Otta-
wa 1933 and Gazetteer of Canada,
Manitoba, publ. by authority of
The Canadian Board on Geo-
graphical Names, Ottawa 1955.
The former contains English
translations of place names and
other items of interest concerning
their origin).
Outside Manitoba, in other
Canadian provinces there are
hardly any topographical
names of Icelandic origin
which have been officially re-
cognized. In Nova Scotia there
is Markland (Woodland), a
district south west of Yar-
mouth, 43 48’ 66 09’ and in
Saskatchewan there is Laxdal
Lake (?), north of Pinehouse
Lake, 55 57’ 106 13’. In North-
ern Canada there is Stefáns-
son Island (named for Dr. Vil-
hjálmur Stefánsson and
shown on all major geograph-
ical maps), approximate loca-
tion in 75 00’ 110 00’. In North
Dakota there are Akra, Ey-
ford, Gardar (Garðar), and
Hallson.
Icelandic names of schools
in Manitoba are not included
in the publications of The Ca-
nadian Board on Geographical
Names. Some of the schools in
question are nevertheless
identified with such official
names as Arbakka, Arnes,
Geyser, Gimli, Grund, Hecla,
Hnausa, Lundar, Vestfold,
Vidir. Others have what one
might perhaps call semi-offi-
cial names. These are Bardal,
Bjarmi, Bru, Framnes, Egil-
son, Hola (Hóla), Isafold,
Kjarna, Laufas, Leifur, Lundi
(sic!, now Riverton), Mimir,
Nordurstjarna, Odda, South
Arnes, Thor, Vestri. (These
names are taken from offcial
documents).
The place names listed above
are most of them purely Ice-
landic, as for instance Gimli;
then there are hybrid names
like Sigurdson Island; ..one
name Icelandic River appears
to be a translation of the pure-
ly Icelandic place name ís-
lendingafljói. (The Icelandic
version is still used by some;
the two Icel. names Lundur
and íslendingafljót preceded
the name Riverion, see Fram-
fari 1877, Vol. I, No. 1 and
102 ° lOCf' 9^ 96’’ 94'
A rough sketch showing officially recognized place names of Icelandic
origin in Manitoba.
Place-Names of Manitoba).
It has already been indi-
cated that when selecting
place names, the Icelandic
immigrants often took into ac-
count the topographical fea-
tures of the new land; in
other instances place names
had a historical significance.
In some cases both factors
combined would give rise to a
certain name. The name Lund-
ar (from Icel. “lundur”
‘grove’) does not only imply
the existence of trees on the
eastern shores of Lake Mani-
toba; according to our sources
the man who originally se-
lected the name had in mind
“the name of the farm in Ice-
land from which his bride
came.”
(Place-Names of Maniloba, 52;
Lundar is not a mistake for Lundi
as is stated in this source. It ap-
pears that names like Arbakka,
Hnausa, and Lundar are shortened
forms of such genitival com-
pounds as Árbakkapóslhús (Arb.
P. O), Hnausabyggð (Hnausa dis-
trict), and Lundarbyggð (Lundar
district).).
Officially recognized names
constitute only a small portion
of the total stock of AI topo-
graphical names. Icelandic im-
migrants to North America
were used to a great variety
of such names. It is no exag-
geration to say that names
have been given to almost
every hill and certainly to
every creek in the inhabited
area of Iceland; further the
custom of naming farms is an
ancient one. This explains the
great number of “unofficial”
place names which were in
use, at least for a while, in
every AI settlement or com-
munity. In one of the earliest
Icel. settlements in Canada,
Markland in Nova Scotia,
farms were given such names
as Djúpavaín (Deep Lake),
Hléskógar (Sheltering Woods),
and Klapparlækur (Rock
Creek).
When the Icelandic settle-
ment on the western shores of
Lake Winnipeg was founded,
the farms in the settlement
were given Icelandic names;
to these were added names of
various topographical features
on each farm. As they had
done in Iceland people would
talk about flóinn (the bogs)
and so on. Some of these
names are still in use, espe-
cially farm names in the vi-
cinity of Gimli, Arborg, and
Riverton (in Manitoba). It has
been noticed that even resi-
dents of non-Icelandic origin
in these areas may occasional-
ly refer to some of the Ice-
landic farm names.
For the rural districts west
of Lake Winnipeg and Hecla
Island (Mikley) on Lake Win-
nipeg some 170 farm names
have been listed. These can-
not be included here, but the
chief elements (without their
adjectival or genitival modi-
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fiers), about fifty in number
follow:
akur (field), auðnir (deserted
farm or habitation), á (river), ás
(hill), brekka (slope), bakki (a
bank of a river, or of a lake), borg
(a dome-shaped hill), ból (farm),
dalur (dale, valley), ekra (acre,
cornfield), endi (the fringe (the
end) of a mountain side or hill
side), fell (hill), fjón (most likely
from Fjón, Danish Fyn), garður
(fenced spot), gerði (fence, fenced-
in-place), hagi (pasture land),
heimar (regions), hnausar (uneven
ground), hof (heathen temple),
hólar (hills), hóll (hill), hólmur
(islet), hvarf (’ a point on the
horizon’ or ’ a place behind’ i. e.,
behind something which keeps it
hidden), höfn (harbour), jaðar
(outer regions, outskirts), kjarni
(kernel, lit. choice land), land
(tract of land), lón (lagoon), lund-
ur (grove), mýri (morass), mörk
(wooded area), nes (point), ós
(estuary), sandar (sandy plains),
skáli (hall), skógar (woods), skóg-
ur (woodland), staðir (plains),
staður (place, older ’ a church
establishment ’), sleinn (rock),
feigur (a level piece of land, ’ a
strip of field ’), tunga (’ tongue of
land ’, point), vain (lake), vellir
(plains), vigur (Icel. name of a
spear-sahped island, vík (inlet).
Even though the settlers
tried in some instances to
transplant to the new land
names of places in Iceland
from which they had come,
the above list clearly indi-
cates that they were careful
not to go beyond what the
topography of the new en-
vironment warranted. It is
noteworthy that only a few
names refer to a hill or an
elevation (fell, hóll, hvoll),
since such phenomena are
quite scarce on the Canadian
prairies. A further examina-
tion of the “hill” names shows
that even these were not
haphazardly chosen. An occa-
sional semantic change (a
change of referent) enabled
the settlers to place Hlíðar-
endi (’ mountain side — end ’)
on a gentle slope by the Ice-
landic River and to use fell
(hill, mountain) for a minor
elevation.
The place names in the first
major Icelandic settlement in
Canada have been selected
here as an illustration of a
certain type of cultural — lin-
guistic transplantation. A sur-
vey of other Icelandic settle-
ments in North America
shows that at one time or an-
other Icelandic place names
were in use there, although
they were not as numerous as
in the Lake Winnipeg settle-
ment. (cf., for instance, Guðni
J. Oleson: Argylenýlendan,
Saga íslendinga í Vesiurheimi
IV, 5 and 17; Icelandic place
names in Alberta are men-
tioned in Foreldrar mínir,
Reykjavík 1956, 168; for Icel.
place names in Saskatchewan
see W. J. Lindal: The Saskal-
chewan Icelanders, Winnipeg
1946, 15 and 133; the place
names in question were ‘un-
official names’).
One example has been
mentioned where it appears
that the official place name
Icelandic River was originally
a translation from the Icel.
íslendingafljót. The reverse is
true in the case of many other
(unofficial) names which are
obviously Icelandic transla-
tions of English names. Thus
the Icelandic people on the
eastern shore of Lake Mani-
toba would invariably refer to
Álftavatn (Swan Lake), and
Álfíavaínsbyggð (Swan Lake
District), also Grunnavatn
(Shoal Lake), and Grunna-
vatnsbyggð (Shoal Lake Dis-
trict). The translation from
Icelandic into English occured
in an area where government
surveying, which brought
with it a certain number of
place names, had not been
carried out before the arrival
of the Icelandic settlers. Such
was the case in the Lake Win-
nipeg settlement where ís-
lendingafljót was translated
into Icelandic River. On the
eastern shore of Lake Mani-
toba government surveyors
had created the ‘official’ place
name Swan Lake before the
Icelandic settlers came there
and translated it into the ‘un-
official’ Álftavaln.
Finally, mention should be
made of an Icelandic loan-
word which occurs in certain
topographical names in Mani-
toba Icelandic where it has
been noticed that people fre-
quently speak of The Narrows
(narrow straits on Manitoba
lakes) as narrósinn using the
Icel. noun ós (estuary) in an
entirely new context.