Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.07.1993, Page 1

[ Lögberg
neimsKringia
The lcelandic Weekly
Uogberg Stofnaö 14. janúar 1888 Heimskringla Stofnað 9. september 188G
Inside this week:
North Dakota honours native daughter.......
Icelandic farm boy hits the top............
Two Centennials ... Two Celebrations.......
Iceland's position on marine ecosystem.....
Saskatchewan doctor showered with honours
107. Árgangur Föstudagur 16. júlí 1993
107th Year Publications Mail Registration No. 1667 Friday, 16July 1993
....2
...3
4, 5
...6
...7
Númer 27
Number 27
Remembering
a Poet
By 011 Narfason
Guttormur J. Guttormsson
Aurora offers lcelandic poetry to
English audience
lcelandic
News
lcelandic actress
offered top Disney
role
■ Hollywood-based lcelandic actress
María Ellingsen has been offered a
leading role in a new Disney film, The
Champions.
The film, which will star Emelio
Estevez and tells of a group of under-
privileged youngsters whose exploits
on the ice hockey rink lead them to
international stardom. It is a follow-up
to another Disney film, The Mighty
Ducks.
Ellingsen's proposed role is that of
assistant coach to the team the
youngsters must play to lift the world
championship-lceland.
It could only happen in Disney-
world.
Twins land role of Bam
Bam in Universal
Studios' Flintstones
■ Identical twins Marínó and Hlynur
Sigurðsson have been chosen to play
the part of Bam Bam in The Universal
Studios' The Flintstones.
As detailed in daily Morgunblaðið,
the twins' father Sigurður Sigurðsson,
who resides in Yorba Linda in south-
em California where he is employed
as a computer specialist, said the
family happened to see a newspaper
advertisement seeking prospective
candidates for the rote.
Subsequent talks with studío rep-
resentatives and a trial audition led to
the lcelandic brothers being chosen
to fill the role in the movie, scheduled
for release ín 1994.
The twins' sisters Sandra Ósk and
íris Anna have also been offered parts
as extras. Filming has begun.
John Goodman (Roseanne) and
Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk the
Kids) are to play Fred Flíntstone and
Barney Rubble, with Brían Levant
(Beethoven) to direct the feature.
Well the young people of lceland
are certainly on the move.
Foreign visitors
replace cod?
Each foreígn visitor to lceland
brings in roughly the equivalent of
export revenues generated by one
ton of cod, according to sources in
the tourism sector.
Although the number of overseas
9uests is projected to double over
the next two decades, increased mar-
keting, product development and
recreational facilities are required to
make a "catch" of 50,000 additional
tourists feasible.
By Uz Bigourdan
When Vancouver resident
Heather Ireland was grow-
ing up in Winnipeg, she
knew her grandfather was a renown
Icelandic Candadian poet, but she
could not appreciate his work
because of the language barrier.
That recently changed with her
publication of Aurora, a collection
of 44 of Guttormur J. Guttormsson’s
poems in the original Icelandic text
and in English translation.
“I had a dream of making his
poems more accessible to
Canadians,” Ireland, a singer with
the Vancouver Opera Association
and a freelance mezzo soprano said.
I was determined to do it, and
though translating poetry is contro-
versial, I feel justified because I can’t
understand the original text.
Ireland wrote to many people
and gathered nine translators to
interpret the 44 poems in the book,
published in Vancouver but avail-
able locally at McNally-Robinson
and Mary Scorer bookstores.
The translation is in keeping with
research and study of Icelandic
Canadian literature being done
in the Icelandic department at the
university of Manitoba by associate
professor Viðar Hreinsson.
“Aurora was the only poem
he himself translated out of
Icelandic.”
Guttormsson was a unique
Icelandic writer. He was born in
Canada, in Riverton, Manitoba, for-
merly Icelandic River in 1878 to
newly immigrated parents. But his
work was very well-received in
Iceland.
Guttormsson received important
Icelandic awards for his poetry, and
was invited to visit the country in
1938 and in 1963 as an official gov-
emment guest. He published seven
volumes of poems and few were
translated until Aurora.
He spoke and wrote in English ,
but his poetry was always in
Icelandic, she said.
Ireland remembers spending the
summers at her grandparents’ farm.
“He would stand out on the farm
and stare out and his poetry would
come to him. He had a study in the
farmhouse with all his books now in
the Icelandic Collection at the
University of Manitoba. He was self-
taught through reading.”
Compiling the book was an
awakening for Ireland. “Aurora, the
dawn, was what he was all about.”
Poems talk about the early
settlers, the trials and tribulations
of Manitoba winters, with humor
and a little philosophy.
One poem is dedicatred to
Iceland and another to Canada.
Guttormsson died in 1966. His
most famous poem was Sandy Bar.
Courtesy ol the Lance
The Icelandic National League is
pleased and honoured to act as
sponsórs in a project to raise a
Memorial Marker in memory of
Guttormur J. Guttormsson.
Deemed by many to be New Iceland’s
greatest son, he was from a very humble
setting and with very little formal
schooling attained International acclaim
as writer-poet-playwright and man of
imusual intellect.
His work was recognized and appre-
ciated not only in the Icelandic commu-
nities in North America but in many
countries and especially in Iceland
where he was presented with the Order
of the Falcon, Iceland’s most prestigious
award and honoured at several notewor-
thy events.
Guttormur’s versatility and adeptness
set him apart; much of his writing was
light and humourous, (such as “the
Westem Icelander”) yet he could convey
unusual depth and sensitivity such as in
his best known work “Sandy Bar”.
His articles and poetry in the
Icelandic papers and his books of poetry
were eagerly looked forward to and
sought after in the lean years. His pen
provided food for the soul. When little
else in the line of entertainment or
recreation prevailed, his writings
enriched the mind and mellowed the
heart and endeared him to all.
His work has eamed him a niche in
the great halls of immortality and will
live on as long as the written word
exists.
The members of Guttormur’s family
have pledged their generous support and
the committee in charge will be working
in close co-operation with them.
We invite all who are interested to
support this project.
Information may be obtained from
and contributions sent to The Icelandic
National League, 699 Carter Avenue,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2C3 or
phone 284-3402
SPECIAL FEATURE...
Watch for a special feature
on Cuttormur in the
íslendmgadagurinn issue of
Lögberg-Heimskríngla.