Lögberg-Heimskringla - 05.02.1993, Page 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 5. febrúar 1993 • 5
Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir

y, v- -
Americans skirmished bloodily all
around.
After two or three years Þorfinnur
“announced that he had no wish to
stay there any longer” — not surpris-
ingly, perhaps. The settlers set off back
to Greenland, their ships laden with
valuable commodities.
After wintering in Greenland, they
sailed across the Atlantic to Norway,
“and sold their goods and were well
received by the noblest men in
Norway.” Finally after their years of
adventure, Guðríður and Þorfinnur
made their way home to Iceland,
where they settled at Glaumbær in
Skagafjörður.
Guðríður outlived her husband by
many years taking over the running of
the farm after his death. But once she
was freed of responsibility for her
children, she was able to put a fitting
end to her adventurous and pious life,
by making a pilgrimage to Rome, for
absolution of her sins. Using the con-
ventional term for pilgrimages, the
saga says that she “walked south.” A
woman past middle age, probably the
most widely-travelled woman of her
time, walked from northem Europe to
Rome and back, for the sake of her
etemal soul.
According to the saga, Guðríður
became a nun on her return from
Rome, and lived out her final years as
an anchoress at Glaumbær. During
that time of prayer and contempla-
tion, she must have looked back in
wonder on her own eventful life,
which was drawing to such a peaceful
close.
Guðríður did indeed found “a great
and eminent family line,” as prophe-
sied by Þorbjörg the seeress. Among
the descendants of Guðríður and
Þorfinnur are many illustrious person-
ages of Icelandic history, with a liber-
al sprinkling of famous and pious
bishops. In fact, most Icelanders liv-
ing today can trace their descent back
to beautiful, distinguished Guðríður
Þorbjarnardóttir her noble husband
Þorfinnur Karlsefni, and their
American-bom son, Snorri Karlsefnis-
son.
The celebration of the millennium
of Leifur Eiríksson’s discovery of
Vínland, and the commemorative
voyage of the Gaia, a replica Viking
ship manned by a Norwegian-
Icelandic crew, tumed a belated spot-
light on this spectacular chapter of
Icelandic history.
As the all-party committee of the
Alþing points out, little has hitherto
been done to inform Icelanders and
visitors of these historic events.
Iceland’s international airport bears
the name of Leifur Eiríksson, but
many of those who pass through the
terminal are none the wiser about
who Leifur was or what he did. Those
who visit the 19th-century turf farm-
house at Glaumbær, now a folk muse-
um, are given no hint that this farm
was the home of the first European
born in the New World, and his
mother, that “woman of substance”
Guðríður Þorbjamardóttir.
The Guðríður Þorbjamardóttir Bill
submitted by the parliamentary com-
mittee is aimed at consciousness-rais-
ing dissemination of knowledge, to
underline the age-old links of today’s
Iceland with the larger-than-life per-
sonalities of the Saga Age.
Anna Yates is a staff writer.
Quotations from the saga of
Greenlanders and saga of Eiríkur the Red
are based upon the Penguin Classics
translation by Magnús Magnússon and
Hermann Pálsson.
Raising a curtain on succgss
By Martin Cash
When Jon Siddall started his
window covering dealership
two years ago, people told
him he must be silly opening a business
at the start of a recession.
But Siddall, with no pretensions to
becoming a business mogul or any
claim to new insights into economic
theories, had a different analysis.
“I knew it would take me about two
years to get all my contacts together. If I
had started during the boom time I
'vould have missed the boom. Now,
when things pick up I’ll be in a position
to ride with the wave.”
Jon Siddall may not be Jack Fraser
(chairman of Federal Industries Ltd.)
but look what happened to his compa-
ny. After diversifying into several differ-
®nt sectors to avoid being hurt by the
jnevitable downturn in the cyclical
industries it was in, the billion-dollar
corporation also got clobbered by the
companies acquired to hedge its bets.
Even though Blind Ambition,
Siddall’s residential and commercial
blinds and drapery business, is not
breaking into any new markets or offer-
mg any new products or doing business
’n any revolutionary manner, Siddall’s
analysis is as appropriate to his busi-
ness as it is to a conglomerate like
Federal Industries.
When asked why he got into this
type of business, or any business at all,
Siddall, 32, said, “I guess I’m one of
those people who always wanted to
own his own business.”
The prohibitive capital investment
needed to start one’s own insurance
company cancelled out that type of
entrepreneurial effort for Siddall after a
stint in the insurance business as a
claims adjustor. But he worked in the
window covering business for five years,
fírst as an installer, then a commercial
sales person. “I guess you could say I
know the business from the ground up.”
In fact, Blind Ambition is a perfect
type of business for someone without a
lot of cash to invest to start up. “The
market is relatively accessible,” Siddall
said. “There’s no equipment and no
inventory necessary. Everything I sell is
customer built.”
Even so, he said it cost him twice as
much money to get going than he had
anticipated.
But that’s not to say Siddall has been
throwing his money around. Far from it.
Because he does not need to have a
showroom, Blind Ambition operates
out of shared space in a small west end
warehouse. If he is exhibiting any
sophisticated modem business manage-
ment skills, it is in the fact that he is
assiduously keeping his overhead low.
Even the-company’s van was
acquired with insurance money paid out
when Siddall’s own car was demolished
in an accident.
“What was meant was that I didn’t
have to sell my car,” he said.
Sales volumes may be modest, but
Siddall fully intends on being around
for the long term. He’s been successful
enough to hire a full-time residential
sales person and slowly but surely is
starting to advertise in upper middle
class neighbourhoods in anticipation of
some increased home sales and housing
renovations.
Meanwhile, he is his own commer-
cial sales person. He is happy with the
success he’s had attracting new cus-
tomers just by watching new businesses
start up or new commercial leaseholds
taking place.
“It’s surprising how much business
you can get just by keeping your eyes
open.”
Siddall sees the company’s growth
in the residential market where profits
are a little better than they are in the
commercial market. But currently he’s
hoping for more work in the commer-
cial market where there might be higher
volumes but the compctition is cut-
throat.
The price game is one Siddall has
chosen not to play. He said he may get
underpriced by the competition some-
times but he is mindful of the servicing
expense to a tight-budgeted company
like his if inferior product is used.
So far the former Red River
Community College business student is
managing his business well. He even
said that some of the administrative
functions are “sometimes fun.”
When asked what, if anything, was
most surprising to him about running
his own business, he said, “Really it’s
been a lot of fun and a lot of work. For
most of these two years I’ve been a one-
man operation and all the headaches
and moments of glory are mine.” The
toughest part, he said, is managing the
tender deadlines. “I seem to be con-
stantly inundated with deadlines, one
after another.”
Now that he has sales help as well as
a part-time bookkeeper and a seam-
stress who does all his drapery sewing,
he’s still working the same long hours.
But they are starting to pay off. Just
wrapping up his second full year in
business, Blind Ambitions already has a
good-looking order book for the third
year.
Siddall is a new entrepreneur whose
own ambitions dovetail perfectly with
the plans for the growth of his business.
Jon Siddall is the son of Mrs. Elenor
(Thorvaldson) and Mr. Robert K. Siddall.
Mrs. Siddall is the daughter of the late Mr.
Gunnar S. Thorvaldson (Solli) who was a
partner in the well known law fírm Aikins
MacAulay & Thorvaldson. He was an
MLA 1939-1949 and became a Senator in
1959. Jon Siddall’s great grandfather vvas
Sveinn Thorvaldson who was born at
Dúkur in Sæmundarhlíð in Skagafjörð-
arsýsla. The Thorvaldson family is well
known for their entrepreneurship. Jon
Siddall’s wife is Edna Switzer.