Lögberg-Heimskringla - 29.05.1992, Side 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 29. maí 1992 • 5
who, with a weekend crew, are building
a road for a new family summer house.
Desolate, sunny, rocky slopes surround
us, as we head to a deserted lake to fínd
the cheerful workers. This is a trackless
waste, butbeautiful, and I think often of
my ancestors, travelling these slopes by
pony to the Alþing, the summer Parlia-
ment.
At night in Akureyri, we stop at a
cheerful, modest hotel, a boarding
school in winter. I am glad to have
Rannveig translate the menu and teach
me the money. Alone in a hall, I have my
hand pumped enthusiastically by the
bellboy when I say (in halting Icelandic)
“I am a western Icelander. I speak no
Icelandic. I am eager to learn about my
forefathers.” Our eyes lock, feeling kin-
ship.
In this quaint northern town, I see
many faces that look very like those of
my father’s family and like me, a certain
Icelandic type: fair, broad faced, with
high rounded cheeks. Now in the hotel,
I listen for voices: German, occasional
American, but mostly Icelandic. I watch
the animated faces and listen to the
quietbut expressive Icelandic voices in
the tones remembered from my child-
hood, and again feel kinship. They are
very kind and gentle in their manner,
compared with the assertive American
or agressive German. I look forward to
exploring this town tomorrow, with all
its pride in its writers. I look forward to
the shops and museums, already a pa-
triot.
Now, at 11 p.m., boys playsoccer in
the brightness outside the window, and
we darken the room to bring sleep.
A street in Akureyri
Travelling from Akureyri to Mývatn
(4th Day)
A forenoon of shopping (window-
shopping) with Rannveig. Everything
has an Icelandic label. How can only
120,000 active people write and print
books and magazines, can food, bottle
liquor, build houses, make shoes, create
roads in the wilderness? This feels like
the early American West: growing, bus-
tling, pushing to create an economy.
But the museums are devoted to be-
loved writers: Matthíasjochumsson, and
“Nonni.” Here was the intellectual
center of Iceland, the home of minis-
ters, poets, and political activists.
In the afternoon we start for Mývatn
across the desert. This is truly the land
God forgot, the original trackless waste,
where the astronauts trained for moon
landing. Bare, grey lava-fields and slopes,
dark grey mountains of stone, no green
or color, no buildings or cars for miles
on end: the legacy of lava. A lone sheep
THE ICELANDIC FESTIVAL OF MANITOBA
ÍSLENDINGADAGURINN
SCHOLARSHIP
T
he Wilhelm Kristjansson Memorial Scholarship
of $500 is offered by the lcelandic Festival of
Manitoba to a student who has completed one or
more years of post secondary studies (university or
community college) and who will be continuing his/her
studies the following year.
o
o
The following criteria will be considered:
complete post high school academic results
qualities of leadership and community service
Please send a letter of application and a copy of your official
transcript, which includes your marks forthe 1991/92 school year,
along with a letter of reference from a teacher or community leader,
on or before July 10, 1992 to:
Dennis N. Stefanson
39 Keats Way
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
R3K OS2
The scholarship will be awarded at the lcelandic Festival of
Manitoba in Gimli, Manitoba, on Monday, August 3, 1992.
grazes on sparse moss.
At dinner time we pull into a family-
run hotel at Lake Mývatn. On the family
piano, a photo of a girl gazes ot with
exactly my face when I was young. She
was killed in a plane crash at 23, they
say. Another guest stares at me and I at
her, for we are doubles, almost.
At a deserted gas pump, Rannveig
runs into an old school chum, who
invites us to spend the evening at her
summer house. Their driver picks us up
in their jeep, as no car can traverse the
rocky road across the wasteland, cov-
ered with lava. Aftera bumpy half hour,
we arrive at a green area and a lake;
beside the lake is a large, low, modern
house. Inside are the most beautiful
paneling, lighting, and furniturc that I
have ever seen: Oriental carpets, hand-
some leather couches, low hearths,
weavings, paintings, Japanese in archi-
tecture, eclectic in fumishings, all done
by an Icelandic architect who had stud-
ied in Germany. The host and hostess
are urbane, well-travelled, well-read,
fun, and very affectionate to their child-
hood friend. Our host has made much
money inbusiness, since the war, in cars
and machinery. He loves to talk about
Icelandic history. He believes the
economy must diversify beyond fishing,
must borrow some foreign capital to
hamess the hot water and steam.
At midnight, in bright light, we are
waved off laughing to the hotel. There
the old woman and her sister give us
rolls and tea in the kitchen, and chat
cozily in Icelandic with Rannveig. To
everyone it must be explained just who
I am: my lineage on both sides. They fix
me with delighted stares: “Ah, that’s
who you are! We know you now!”
All Icelanders speak freely and easily
to each other, almost intimately, even
with strangers (if Icelandic). They main-
tain eye contact, use no hand gestures,
and give careful attention and quick
replies. No one interrupts, no one domi-
nates; softly their voices rise and fall,
with much animation, humor, and low-
key drama. All seem to feel equal, as at
the beginning of the nation. It is enough
thatallarelcelanderstogether. Asinmy
childhood, I listen uncomprehending
to the murmuring voices, content.
Continued next week.
My solution
When I wrote the letter to you
about the Icelandic Computer Pro-
gram I was assuming that you had
such a program in your own compu-
ter. You in tum printed my letter in
the paper, which
I appreciate.
Several people
have already re-
sponded, the
problem for me is
that they all talk
about a
“WordPerfect”
with Icelandic
program (IS).
As I said in my
letter, I use “Pro-
fessional Write"
versíon 2.1 pro-
gram from Soft-
ware Publishing
Corporation,
U.S.A. In the be-
ginning I tried and
compared both
WordPerfect and
Professional Write
programs, and
found the latter
much easier to
leam, so that is
whatlboughtand
have been using
for the last 6
years.
AsWordPerfect
is totally different
from Professional
Write, and it is
quite a task to leam a new program.
I can’t justify the expense and time it
will take to buy and leam WordPerfect
for the few letters I might write in
Icelandic.
Yesterday, the enclosed article
appeared inThe Toronto Star. I think
it is very interesting, and it may be
my solution.
Best regards,
Thor H. Teitsson.
Markham, Ontario.
Computer program
called breakthrough
They sald they had created a program, called
LOUIS, that would make it possible to separate two
essential parts of any computer program, the user
interface and the applicatíon program.
“This could open up a whole new worid,” Univer-
sity of Iceland professor Jóhann Malmquist, Co-
leader of the research team. told Reuters.
LOUIS would enable programmers to adapt a
program origínally made for IBM personal comput-
ers, for example, to fitan Apple Macintosh computer.
The idea leading to the breakthrough was con-
ceived by an 18-year-old high school student two
years ago and has been in developraent since then.
IL cuts down ihe number of user inlerface func-
tions that an application programraerraust use firom
mer can then apply the sarae basic program to
different systems, changing only the interface.
“Tliis allows software developers to move into
several markets at the same time,” said Grimur
Laxdal, marketingdírectorof Softís, a company forraed
to develop and market the LOUIS program.
The company says the program wlll make it easier
to move to pen-based eomputing.