Lögberg-Heimskringla - 12.02.1988, Blaðsíða 4

4-LÖGBERG CENTENNIAL YEAR, FÖSTUDAGUR 12. FEBRÚAR 1988
Editorial
We are now into the lOlst year
since the publication of Lögberg
commenced, and that takes us into
the second century of publication of
both Lögberg and Heimskringla. It
is an achievement not equalled by
any other publication which is other
than English or French, at least we
are not aware of it. This in itself
should make us look back at the Ice-
landic heritage we have inherited,
and realize the strength of our fore-
fathers who out of poverty and ad-
versity came to this land and estab-
lished a base upon which we are
able to point out with pride to a
unique achievement. While we can
single out Lögberg-Heimskringla
quite readily because it is a visible
fact which enters our home each
week, there are many other
reminders not so visible and almost
taken for granted, and that is the
high profile of our people in the
wider community.
Invariably when your heritage be-
comes known the reaction is a com-
plimentary remark towards Ice-
landers. This becomes very evident
when you reach out and solicit ad-
vertising for our publication. When
you mention Icelandic there is a
warm feeling towards our people. It
is unbelievable until experienced
personally.
While our public relations as Ice-
landers is very gratifying and a pre-
cious image to foster. We should
also be conscious of our publication,
which is the link that binds together
the Icelanders, scattered as they are
into many areas on the North
American continent. It also retains
contact with Iceland through sub-
scribers and news items about the
land of our heritage. While it is the
smallest of independent nations, it
carries on with a trade influence
and international political impact
equal to that of large nations.
It is not to cry wolf that we are
leading up to a request for more
support. While we depend on finan-
cial gifts by individuals and organi-
zations to make up the deficit, or
difference between cost and income
from subscriptions and advertising,
we would like you to seriously con-
sider helping by sending us names
of people who you feel could be-
come subscribers. We in turn will
send them four consecutive copies
of our paper, free of charge and
without obligation. We also wel-
come most heartily subscribers who
may not have an Icelandic heritage
but would enjoy our paper on its
merits.
Think hard and support your
heritage by helping Lögberg-
Heimskringla and thereby strength-
en the link which holds us together.
Watch it, Icelandic is tricky
When you travel to Iceland there
are certain errors that may raise eye-
brows or even supress embarrassing
laughter. Take for example the tail of
an animal, bird or fish. In English we
use one common word; not so in
Icelandic. There are many, and when
you take into consideration declen-
sions you end up with a basketfull.
So if you take the words tagl, spor-
ður, skott, rófa, hali, stél and the four
cases in Icelandic grammar you have
6x4 or 24 different versions and if
you double that for the plural ver-
sions you have another 24 or a total
of 48, whereas in English there are
two, namely tail and tails.
ln Iceland they adapt existing
words or create new ones to maintain
the purity of the language, hence the
trunk of a car is named ''skotta'',
which literally means the tail of a fox,
rabbit or hare. Imagine the startled
surprise of the Icelandic hosts, when
the Western Icelander remarked, as
they were loading the baggage into
the car at Keflavik, "Opnaðu taglið"
instead of "Opnaðu skottið." Literal-
ly he said "Open the horse's tail."
Reaching into Icelandic folklore
back in Iceland, different people or
farms were said to have a "fylgja",
literally meaning "follower". It was
referred to by name, and Skotta was
popular. Occasionally the Western
Icelanders would talk about these fol-
lowers in Iceland, and if they were
annoyed at someone, they would
claim that the follower came to this
country with the individual or fami-
ly. Hence one would hear, "Skotta
came with him or them." Those of us
born in North America would hear
these remarks bandied about by the
older folk, but were never given an
explanation. However by inference
one gathered that Skotta was more
than a nuisance, actually Scotta could
do harm aád was to be avoided, but
they never seemed to be serious at
the time they mentioned these un-
desireable followers.
Now if you consider the word
skott, one is reminded of a fox tail,
which is nice and fluffy and comfort-
able when held to the face. Women's
fashions used to sport a fox skin to
be worn over the shoulder. It is prob-
able that in our childhood when the
old people were talking about Skotta
we thought of skott or the tail of a
fox, which gave us a rather kindly vi-
sion of the follower as being in the
form of a fox, with a nice bushy tail
and wise, but a mean rascal. The
whole thing seemed to fit together
perfectly.
Imagine the surprise when the
writer picked up a book on the Þjóð-
sögur or Icelandic legends, to see the
illustration of Skotta in the form of
a woman ghost with long flowing
hair reminiscent of a fox's tail. The
facial features are represented as
grotesque and the anatomy distorted.
A friend who passed away several
years ago claimed that he had seen
Skotta one night. He had purchased
a house that a distant cousin had built
but was no longer with us. Old
Fúsi had come from Leirá in the Bor-
garfjörð in Iceland and Skotta had fol-
lowed him to the Interlake country.
One night my friend had gone to bed
upstairs, blown out the coal oil lamp
During the spring of 1984 The
Parliament of Iceland passed legisla-
tion giving the Language Committee
legal status. The committee up to that
point had been active for almost 20
years, acting within the guidelines es-
tablished by the Ministry of
Education.
The legal status of the committee
became effective Jan. lst, 1985.
Members of the committee were
chosen in accordance with new
legislation.
The committee set themselves up
to commence work in accordance
with their mandate in conjunction
with the University of Iceland. Their
office is in a university building, with
a staff of three in the office.
Recently regulations were formu-
lated, defining the terms of reference
of the language committee and
responsibilities of the staff.
The main terms of reference are to
strengthen the Icelandic language
and to preserve it, in both the spoken
and written word.
We have been vaguely aware of the
fact, that Iceland has in the past
selected words to accommodate new
foreign terminology and at the same
time to preserve Icelandic as a lan-
guage dating back to the early years
of the settlement of Iceland.
The rapid development of new
technical terminology during this
and was almost asleep, when all of
a sudden he realized that a ghost-like
figure was passing over him and es-
caped out the window. He remained
firm in his belief, and no amount of
discussion could budge him.
The past is buried in the long years
since Icelanders first came here and
the ghost-like followers are no longer
mentioned. So when you visit Iceland
remember that skott is the trunk of
a car and skotta a ghostlike grotesque
figure.
century including the impact of ra-
dio, TV, and especially video cas-
settes would have had a serious ef-
fect on the language without guide-
lines which are now reinforced
through legislation.
Some of us may wonder why this
concern for the preservation of a lan-
guage in its purest form. It is a fact
that the Icelandic language is that of
days when Iceland was settled more
than a 1,000 years ago. Through cir-
cumstances of isolation and a unique
ability of the Icelanders, the history
of the nation has been preserved in-
cluding that of the Vikings. It forms
a strong base on which the English
language is founded. It is a live clas-
sical language that has survived over
the centuries and with little change.
It is in daily use and unique in that
only a mere 240,000 people can
speak, read and write it out the mul-
titudes on this earth.
It is a difficult language but a
powerful medium of expression for
those who have mastered it.
Hopefully the Icelanders will be
able to preserve it against the impact
of modern instant communication.
The information on the establish-
ment of the Language Committee
and its terms of reference is translat-
ed from Malfregnir. Further com-
ments are that o,f Lögberg-
Heimskringla.
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