Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.06.1970, Blaðsíða 2

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LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 4. JÚNI 1970
Vilhjalmur Stefansson's
Writings On lcelandic Subjects
The Contributors
To The Present Issue
Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards have per-
milled that a few chapters from their forthcoming
English translalion of Landnámabók be included
in the presenl number of the Lilerary Supplement
of Lögberg-Heimskringla. The scholarly reputa-
tion of the iranslators and the important place of
Landnáma in the history of the Icelandic people
combine to make the publication of these chapters
a veritable literary event. A short time ago Páls-
son and Edwards put out an English iranslation
of Gautreks saga and other legends, and Pálsson's
translalion of Hrafnkels saga is to appear shortly
in the Penguin Classics series. Previous saga trans-
lations by Magnússon and Pálsson are referred to
elsewhere in the present issue.
Dr. Richard Beck's highly informalive essay
on Dr. Vilhjálmur Stefánsson has been reproduced
here with the kind permission of the editors of
Polar Notes.
Kristine Kristofferson is a well-known novel-
ist in Manitoba, and Roberi Johannson is a grad-
uale studenl and inslruclor in the Departmenl of
English at the University of Manitoba.
Friðjón Slefánsson occupies a place of disiinc-
tion among contemporary Icelandic prose writers;
the Literary Supplement now presents one of his
short stories in an English translation by Caroline
Gunnarsson.
The Icelandic National League of North Am-
erica and the North American Publishing Com-
pany in Winnipeg recently came to the agreement
that, instead of coniinuing the publicaiion of the
Tímarit, the Icelandic National League would sup-
porl the publication of two special issues of Lög-
berg-Heimskringla every year — one in English
and one in Icelandic. With the appearance of this
number of the Liierary Supplement the agree-
ment between the tv/o organizations has been car-
ried into effeci. — H. B.
Conlinued from page 1.
ation of the University of
North Dakota on November
6, 1958, Stefansson had this to
say about the year of his ar-
rival at the University: ‘I
worked my way through
same as Max (well) Anderson
spoke of doing and I arrived
here in 1896. I had forgotten
it but Chief Justice Grimson,
who is here, says that I was
here ahead of him and he
came here in ’97, so I must
have arrived here in ‘96.’ Con-
sequently, I have used this
date for his arrival there, in
place of 1897 or 1898, which
have previously been com-
monly used, especially the
latter date, by Stefansson
himself and others writing
about him. This interesting
and strikingly personal ad-
dress was published in
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
Faculty Conference and Con-
vocaiion, University of North
Dakota, November 6, 7, and
8, 1958 (Grand Forks, North
Dakota, July, 1959).
Many of Stefansson’s poems
written during his college
days appeared in The Siu-
dent, the monthly publication
of the University between
1898 and 1902. Raymond P.
Holden referred to this aspect
of Stefansson’s writings in his
article, ‘Explorer and Man of
Letters’ (Polar Notes, No. IV,
November 1962), and in an in-
formative and perceptive arti-
cle, ‘An Explorer’s Adven-
tures in Verse’ (Polar Notes,
No. VIII, November 1967).
The poet and translator Paul
Bjamason published an
article ‘Two Sonnets by the
Arctic Explorer Vilhjalmur
Stefansson’ (The Icelandic
Canadian, Winnipeg, Autumn
1964), with observations about
his poetry during his college
years. Bjarnason, a long-time
resident of Westem Canada,
was bom and brought up in
the Icelandic settlement in
North Dakota, and was a boy-
hood companion and later a
schoolmate of Stefansson at
the University of North Da-
kota and remained his de-
voted friend and admirer for
life. Finally, the present writ-
er contributed in 1966 an arti-
cle, based on a first-hand ex-
amination of Stefansson’s
poems in the University of
North Dakota Sludenf, in Ice-
landic on ‘Ljodagerd Vil-
hjalms Stefarassonar’ (The
Poetry of Vilhjalmur Stefans-
son) to the annual of the Ice-
landic Nationlal League of
América (Tímarii Þjóðrækn-
isfélagsins, Winnipeg). A
number of poems were in-
cluded in the article, among
them ‘Philosophy at Twenty’
(originally published in the
March 1901 number of The
Siudení), which many con-
sider to be Stefansson’s finest
poem, and which certainly is
the one best known to his
fellow-Icelanders. T h e Ice-
landic translation by the late
Dr. S. J. Johannesson of Win-
nipeg, a leading Icelandic-
Canadian poet, has appeared
in Icelandic publications on
both sides of the Atlantic. It
is included in a new volume
of Dr. Johannesson’s poetry,
original and translated, sel-
ected by the writer of this
article and published in the
fall of 1968 in Reykjavik, Ice-
land, commemorating the cen-
tenary of the poet’s birth.
Stefansson’s schoolmates at
the University, Grimson and
Bjarnason, referred to above,
both told me that he had been
considered the outstanding
poet there in his day. His
youthful poems, in terms of
mastery of form and language
as well as in vigorous thought,
show an uncommon promise.
He himself frequently stated
his reasons for turning his
back on writing poetry, as
noted by Holden in his article
‘Explorer and Man of Letters’
(for Stefansson’s latest state-
ment on the subject, see his
autobiography, Discovery, p.
32). However, his love of po-
etry remained with him
throughout hfe, and he be-
came in the fullest sense of
the word ‘a poet of action.’
While this brief discussion
of Stefansson’s poetry has
been something of a digres-
sion from the main theme of
this article, it is not entirely
um-elated to it, especially in
view of his English transla-
tions of Icelandic poetry dis-
cussed below.
Stefansson’s interest in Ice-
landic literature is strongly
expressed in a number of
articles on the subject which
he wrote during his college
years at the University of
Iowa (1902-1903) and at Har-
vard (1903-1906). They ap-
peared in the Winnipeg Ice-
landic weekly Heimskringla.
These articles were written in
Icelandic and have been dealt
with by Dr. Thorvaldur John-
son of the University of Mani-
toba, a noted scientist, in an
authoritative article entitled
‘The Young Vilhjalmur Stef-
ansson’ (Lögber g-Heims-
kringla, Winnipeg, September
12, 1963).
After some general intro-
ductory remarks about Stef-
ansson and his career, Dr.
Johnson notes that Stefansson
had first come to the atten-
tion of the Icelandic reading
p u b 1 i c on this continent
through the publication in
Heimskringla (January 11,
1900) of his poem ‘The Last
Hour,’ The editor of Heims-
kringla had read it in the Uni-
versity of North Dakota Stu-
dent and had been so impres-
sed by its quality that he re-
printed it. One of Stefans-
son’s longest poems, it is in-
cluded in full in my article
on his poetry in the Annual
of the Icelandic National
League. Professor Johnson
goes on to say, using Stefans-
son’s first name, as the Ice-
landers generally do: ‘Vil-
hjalmur, himself, soon threw
further light on his interests
at that time. In the Christmas
number of Heimskringla, De-
cember 25, 1902, he published
two articles that dealt with
instruction in Scandinavian
literature, including that of
Iceland, in Universities in
North America. The first of
these articles records in detail
the f a c i 1 i t i e s for teaching
these subjects in 13 American
and Cariadian universities.
The instructors are mentioned
with commeois on their com-
petence and the subjects they
taught. The second article
deals with the situation at the
University of North Dakota
where some c o u r s e s were
given in Scandinavian litera-
ture, but did not include Ice-
landic literature as the li-
brary contained no Icelandic
books. The chief purpose of
the article was to call the
attention of Icelanders to the
fact that a society had been
formed at the university . . .
with the specific intention of
forming an Icelandic library.
This society had the strong
backing of Professor Tingel-
stad, then in charge of Scandi-
navian studies. These two
articles were written while
Vilhjalmur was a student at
the University of Iowa which
at that time gave the best in-
struction in Scandinavian lit-
erature, i n c 1 u d i n g three
courses in Icelandic litera-
ture and language. It might
be added that when Vilhjalm-
ur wrote these articles he was
23 years old,’ Professor John
Tingelstad’s w h o 1 e-hearted
support of the Icelandic li-
brary at the University of
North Dakota was character-
istic of his friendly interest
in Icelanders and his appreci-
ation of Icelandic literature.
The articles by Stefansson
mentioned above were writ-
ten while he was a student
at the University of Iowa
where, as previously indicat-
ed, Scandinavian studies held
a very prominent place. The
professor in that field at the
University of Iowa during
those years was the eminent
Norwegian scholar, Dr.
George T. Flom, who was not
only a warm friend of Ice-
land but also a speciahst in
the Old Norse language and
in Old Icelandic literature.
Very likely he stimulated
Stefansson’s interest in Ice-
landic literature and in in-
struction in Icelandic langu-
age and literature in other
universities.
Let it further be noted that
the Icelandic Student Society,
through public support for its
cause, succeeded in establish-
irig a considerable Icelandic
library at the University of
North Dakota, and thus laid
a solid foundation for the
relatively 1 a r g e collection
which the University now
possesses in that field. And it
is gratifying to recall that the
young Vilhjalmur Stefansson
played a part in that forward-
looking enterprise, along with
his fellow Icelandic students
of the day.
His two articles already
discussed were followed by a
number of o t h e r s dealing
with Icelandic literature, as
recorded by Dr. Johnson:
IIow keenly he was interested
in the subject of Icelandic litera-
ture at the time may be seen
from further articles he sent to
Heimskringla in 1903. He had ar-
rived at Cambridge, Mass., in the
summer of 1903, after graduation
from the University of Iowa on
June 17, with the evident inten-
tion of studying tbeology at Har-
vard University. There he found
two other brilliant young Ice-
landers, Rognvaldur Petursson
a n d Thorvaldur Thorvaldsson,
who, with their own enthusiasm
for Icelandic literature, were
doubtless a further stimulus to
him. Thorvaldur, in faet, beeame
his roommate until his untimely
death in 1904.
In Heimskringla of September
3, 1903, Vilbjalmur published a
long book review of three books
dealing with Icelandic iiterature:
one in English and two in Ger-
man. AU three books dealt ehiefly
w i t h modern Icelandic poetry.
The Eniglish book, Three Visiis
ío Iceland, by Mrs. Disney Leith,
contained a general account of
Iceland and also a few of her
translations of Modern Icelandic
poetry. The German books, more
bulky and scholarly, one by Karl
Kuchler, the other by J. C. Poes-
tion, gave r a t h e r exhaustive
treatments of Icelandic poetry
with special emphasis on nine-
teenth century poetry. The de-
tailed account of the views of
these authors shcrws that Vil-
hjalmur must have had a rather
exceptional command of Ger-
man. . . .
In Heimskringla of October 22,
1903, Vilhjalmur reviews another
book by Mrs. Disney Leith, Ori-
ginal Verses and Translaiions,
which contains translations by
the more important nineteenth
century poets. Five of these
translations are published in the
artiole.
*
Dr. Rognvaldur Petursson,
a life-lorig friend of Stefans-
son and a man versed in both
Icelandic literature and his-
tory, became a noted and in-