Lögberg-Heimskringla - 05.11.1993, Page 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 5. nóvember 1993
An introduction to technology
EINAR’S ANECDOTES
Pastör Ingthor I. Isfeld
1030 a.m. The Service.followed by
Sunday School & Coffee hour.
First Lutheran Church
580 Victor St., Winnipeg, MB
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Captain Sæmundur
Sæmundsson and
Þorgeir's Boii
Sæmundur was a sea captain in
the north of Iceland around the
turn of the century. His sailings
were mainly along the North Coast
of Iceland, usually based on
Eyjafjörður. His career was cen-
tered on the fishing industry,
although he was known to have
commanded commercial vessels.
His boyhood followed the usual
pattern of experience in Iceland
during the late 19th century. He
was of poor circumstances. As a
child he was allocated to a farm
and given the task of hérding
sheep in the home pasture. The
farm was located back of
Eyjafjörður with a mountain range
between the fjord and the farm.
The pasture land was on the
mountain side area and the fjord
was hidden from view by the
mountains. Sæmundur had no way
of knowing what was taking place
in the fjord.
This was part of the era in
which Þorgeir’s Boli was one of
those myths which people believed
in. A hired hand had approached a
damsel in the next county, the
object being matrimony. Much to
his disappointment she turned him
down. It was believed he had
unusual powers. He is purported
to have obtained a skinned calf’s
head, some say a bull’s hoof and a
dog’s foot. Regardless, with his
powers he created an abominable
ghost with the likeness of a bull,
widely known as Þorgeir’s Boli.
One day as Sæmundur was
tending the sheep, he was startled
by a deep-pitched low throat
sound which came rolling over the
mountain tops. Convinced it was
Þorgeir’s Boli he was overcome
with fright and took to his heels as
fast as he could. Upon arriving at
the farm house he kept saying
Your European hoiiday, centered
around breathtakingly beautiful
lceland, not only puts you in the
very heart of things but saves you
a nice bit of change. too.
' FUBUSHFD EVERY FRIÐAY 8Y
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wm

Þorgeir’s Boli was coming
for he had heard him bel-
low on the far side of the
mountains.
The sound turned out to
have been the whistle of a ____
steamboat travélling in
Eyjafjörður. It was the first time
Sæmundur had heard a steam
whistle but not the last. He grew
up to be a seafaring captain of
renown and steamboats with
Þorgeir’s Boli whistles a part of his
lifé.
Ref. Icelandic national stories.
éM i*-
Miscellaneous
Incidents
Whoa! y'elled my cousin Fusi as
his Model T touring car head-
ed for the watering trough.
Momentarily he had forgotten to
step on the brake pedal of his new
mechanical beast. Wiping frog
splatter from his face, his local
neighbour came out more con-
cerned about his trough than the
well-being of his neighbour Fusi.
iM ÍM iM-
Choke Cherry wine was a popu-
lar cottage industry, and the
beauty of it was, the berries were

By Einar
Amason
MESSUBOÐ
Fyrsta Lúterska
Kirkja
easy and quick to pick. It
had one drawback, while
palatable it had no cheer
ing effect. Our people com-
ing from a frigid climate
had no way of knowing
how to ferment and distill
mash. They had to purchase it from
their Central European neighbours.
This was a problem because
women were not about to let their
husbands squander hard earned
cream cheques on illegally distilled
intoxicants produced by a local
cottage industry.
is- il’ i±
If there was a lake with fish in it
the Icelanders were home free.
Generally, where there was a lake
there were hay and grazing lands.
Give an Icelander hay and his
problems were solved, especially if
there is wild game in the area.
These items were in good supply
when Icelanders moved into the
Interlake country.
iM iM iM ■
Interlake Highlights
Sveinn Telegram, as he was nick-
named, became so well known
that his legend comes to mind
while rummaging in thought
through unrecorded Interlake his-
tory. He was a resident of a major
semi-town carrying the name of
Lundar to this day. Because of its
major size on the Winnipeg-
Gypsumville-Steep Rock railway
and one hundred per cent
Icelandic domination, it had room
for a news carrier but not large
enough for a printing press.
As d susceptible kid arriving
from an important but smaller con-
centration of mixed ethnical origin
people, scenic Oak Point, it left a
wide open situation for the local
compatriots to inform the new
arrival of Mr. Telegram. The sus-
ceptible kid had arrived to write
the government exam paper, a
Grade VIII secret document that
was only revealed at a zero hour
on a specific dáte throughout the
próvince. Needless to say, this hur-
dle before éntering the field of
higher education, namely High
School, was a disastrous failure,
not to be corrected for many years.
All was not lost for now the sus-
ceptible kid is still around writing
epistles for Lögberg-Heimskringla.
The very center of the