Lögberg-Heimskringla - 30.03.1979, Blaðsíða 2

Logberg-Heimskringla, föstudagur 30. mars, 1979
FOOTNOTES
—By Sharron Arksey
It has been a common joke on our floor this winter that
we might as well be living in Iceland, because Canada
is nothing but ice and snow anyway.
The pun is, of course, made more pointed by the
presence on this floor of Logberg-Heimskringla, Can-
ada’s only Icelandic language newspaper. But the com-
ment has been heard elsewhere many times during this
; this long, long winter.
i However, an I write these words cautiously, it
does begin to look as if “the ice man goeth”. I say
cautiously because I sometimes think overt optimism
! is nothing more than an incitement for Mother Nature
1 to show herself at her worst.
“You think spring is coming? Ha, ha,” she says, as
she dumps another foot of snow on our already ice-bo-
und country.
— ° —
Judging by the number of letters to the editor we have
have had recently, I would say that, if any active read-
ership is characteristic of a good newspaper, Lögberg-
Heimskringla is doing its job.
A newspaper by tradition as well as definition does
more than just inform. It activates.
While a line must be drawn between informed
opinion and sensationalist criticism, any newspaper has
a responsibility to present its readers with food for
careful thought, and not just for ritual digestion.
By encouraging such thought and actively urging its
verbalization in the form of Letters to the Editor and
other modes of discussion, we can help to keep the Ice-
iandic culture in North America alive.
— 0 —
“Why didn’t, you publish a paper last week?”
This question has been asked several times in the
past few weeks by readers who either didn’t receive
the paper at all or else got it so late that subsequent
issues preceded it.
One hates to flog a dead horse, so I will not go into
a monologue on the Canadian Post Office. However, we
have not missed any papers since the Christmas break,
neither have we been late in sending the weekly mail
to the Winnipeg Post Office.
Since we can gladly absolve ourselves of all blame,
we have nowher else to turn except the much
maligned P. O.
A few words might be in order, however, about the
mechanics of mailing Lögberg-Heimskringla. The pa-
per is written and designed in Winnipeg, then sent to
Arborg for typesetting and paste-up work. From there,
it goes to Steinbach for the actual printing.
The finished product is delivered to our offices on
Thursdaý mornings. The papers are individually ad-
dressed, then sorted and wrapped according to the Po-
stal Code. They are sent to the Post Office Thursday
afternoon and handed over to the employees there. Our
part in the job is over.
Papers destined for Iceland are packed and picked
up for transport to the Winnipeg airport. They fly to
Chicago, then are placed on board another plane for
Iceland.
It is discouraging when reports of mail lost or late
comes into the office, but we keep trying. And hope
springs eternal... maby that three cent increase com-
ing up next month will make all the difference in our
postal service.
— 0 —
Curling fans who watched the Silver Broom in
Berne, Switzerland, just may have noticed a handsome
flag waving in the bleachers, proclaming for all the
world to see that its holders came from Gimli,
Manitoba.
Canadian Vikings transplanted for short while in
Alpine soil.
EXPLORATIONS
INTHE DESERT
Continued
A similar system of cairns
has always existed in Ice-
land, and about six Beina-
kerlingar are known, this
one being the oldest and the
only one not rebuilt many
times over. In support of the
Freyja connection the doctor
offers the following items,
none a proof by itself but
forming together a fairly
suggestive evidence: — In
Hynduljóð, Poetic Edda, lOth
verse, Freyja compliments a
young Ottar Unnsteinson
for his arduous search for
her affection:
Horg hann mer reisti
hlaðinn steinum,
(he raised me a cairn or alt-
ar, piled of stones). As a
further indication in this di-
rection he quotes a verse, a
Beinakerlingavisa, to bishop
Gisli Jónsson where the
cairn is referred to as Hars
mey, the Lady of the High
One, that is Frigg or Freyja.
And in verses by Jón Arna-
son of Viðimri around 1880
the Bone Crone is called
Vala, which means seeress, a
quality of the goddnesses re-
ferred to. Páll Vidalin, a-
round 1725 has the Old Lady
say in a series of Bone Crone
verses:
Ellimóð sit enn nú her
eg á fornu miði.
(Worn with age I am still
í|pÍÍ|É||é3&
sitting here .on an ancient not undermine or contradict
sighted track). the conclusions reached a-
Dr. Björn, in a verse of his bove. The persistence of a
own, compares his find to a heathen custom, such as the
compass-rose and paraphras- one suggested, does not re-
es a well-known hymn: quire relics of antiquity for
its proof, for various reasons
Hin fegursta ‘rósin’ er fundin Tlie most obvious one in this
fornhelgum áttum bundin case is disintegration during
mosa búin og beinum ihe warmer periods from set
blómstrum fjalla og steinum. ( Uement to the fifteen hundr-
(The most beautiful rose ís eds- ^he thesis presented
found, to ancient hallowed does explain the practice of
sightings bound, done in this custom, and places it
moss and bones, highland firmly in fhe culture of the
flowers and stones.) nation.
Carbon dating results have "fhe Maiden of the Moun-
now February 1979 been re- tains has been with us for a
ceived from the Saskatchew- lon§ time.
an Research Council Radio- “———^———
carbon Dating Laboratory.
They give the results of 355-
400 years before 1950 or
from 1555 to 1635 A.D. This
is twice the age of the bones
at Beinhóll on Kjölur, but
does not reach back into pre
christian times.
The dating of the bones to
a more recent period does
NEW SERIES
Watch next week for the be-
ginning of a new series by
Dr. Björn Jónsson of Swan
River. The series, written in
the Icelandic language, will
detail findings made by Dr.
Jónsson on Iceland’s coat of
arms.