Lögberg-Heimskringla - 24.04.1981, Qupperneq 7

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 24. APRÍL 1981-7
Stephan Stephansson tribute
Continued from page 6
. . .wealth that is gathered by
taxes or tolls
Or tariffs - is counted as vain
Where no man's success is another
man’s loss,
Nor power the goal and the gain.
The first of commandments is
justice to all
And victory causes no pain.
An idealist, certainly. Stephan G.
truly believed that man's innate
goodness could triumph over all.
Not all his verses dwelt on such
heavy matters. Stephansson's abili-
ty to adapt to life in North America
is also illustrated through his
poetry. Although he followed tradi-
tional Icelandic poetic forms and
meters, and often hearkened back to
the saga figures in his verses,
Stephan G. could not, nor did he
wish to, ignore his life as a
homesteader and as a west
Icelander. Some of his most
beautiful poems are those which
described the prairies and the
Rocky Mountains. Perhaps in this
next segment from "En Route",
Stephan G.'s adoption of and sen-
sitivity to the prairies is shown best:
At dawn, when we woke, there
were blankets enough
on the couch where we lay in a row,
For blizzards of midnight upon
us had spread
A foot of soft, eider-down snow:
But the air was as bitter as
death, while the sun
Rose slowly with shivering ire;
The cold scorched our throats,
it was flame to our flesh,
And burned in our lungs like a fire.
The bluish-white tide of the snow
had engulfed
Each hillock and hollow as well,
And the frost-haggard trees were
like pallid, grey ghosts
From the pale, frozen forests of hell.
Stephansson wrote virtually all
his verses in Icelandic, for he was
writing solely for an Icelandic and a
west Icelandic audience. He never
gave any thought to expanding his
horizons beyond his ethnic boun-
daries, for he never considered
himself anything other than a west
Icelander. As a poet, he used tradi-
tional forms of poetry to often por-
tray non-traditional subject matter;
in this way, his verses illustrated a
blending of two worlds, two
cultures. That Stephan G. was
neither an Icelander nor a Cana-
dian, but was a product of the two is
an experience common to all im-
migrants: their roots lie elsewhere
but by choice they live in another
land.
If he was at times unpopular with
other west Icelanders, Stephansson
was a hero back home. In 1917, the
people of Iceland had him return for
a visit, at which time he was named
Poet Laureate. Today, a memorial
cairn overlooks the valley where he
was born. His poems are studied in
the schools, and his name is held in
awe and reverance by all Ice-
landers. Recognition in his adopted
land has come more slowly, though.
In 1953, the féderal government
erected a cairn to him in the park at
Markerville, and in 1975 the Alberta
government designated his home as
a Provincial Historic Site.
The Stephansson house is itself an
expression of Stephan G.'s ability to
adapt to life in the Canadian west,
for his home was a pretty little Vic-
torian cottage. This adoption of a
Canadian architectural style did not
disturb Stephan; he knew in his own
mind who he was and to build and
live in such a "Canadian" house did
not mean he had compromised his
cultural values. The log house,
though, had fallen into a bad state of
disrepair by the time it was turned
over to historic sites. The house,
built on a loose rock foundation,
had sunk, resulting in the rotting of
the bottom logs and of the siding.
There was a hole in the roof which
rotted one of the interior log walls
and damaged the floor joists.
Historic Sites, before doing anything
to the structure itself, photo
documented the house and removed
the furniture to its warehouse for
cataloguing and eventual restora-
tion. Once that was done, the
linoleum was stripped from the din-
ing room walls, and the undercover-
ing of paper removed to reveal the
hewn log walls. Then, the linoleum
on the floor was lifted and this is
what we found: hundreds of papers,
some in English, some in Icelandic,
some dating from as early as the
1880s and others from as late as
1910; some were in pristine condi-
tion, others were badly water
damaged. In any case, a remarkable
archival find. When the papers
were removed and catalogued, the
floor boards revealed that
Stephansson had changed the in-
terior of his house, extending a
room here, knocking out a wall
there.
Then, work on the outside of the
house began. Firstly, the house had
to be jacked up and the overburden
of earth removed. The old siding
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had to be removed so that the rotted
logs at the bottom could be replac-
ed. Log craftsmen cut new timbers
in exactly the same style as
Stephansson had done the originals.
That completed, a foundation had to
be dug and cribbing built for the
footings. Concrete was then
pumped into the cribbing, and the
house lowered onto its new founda-
tion, but not until his original rock
foundation was replaced on top of
the concrete in the same position
around the house as they had been.
This past winter, a new. roof had
been put on the house, and new
sidi'ng, especially ordered to match
the original, has been added. This
coming year, Historic .Sites intends
to finish the exterior and the interior
of the house and restore the fur-
niture. For we would like very
much for the Stephansson House
Provincial Historic Site to be open to
the public next year, in 1982. I
should like to take this opportunity
to personally invite all of you to
come down to Markerville to visit
the site for the formal opening
ceremonies. Stephansson was a man
ahead of his times and a great poet.
He deserves a place of honour in
Alberta's and Canada's history.
Thank you.
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