Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.02.1994, Blaðsíða 4

4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 4. febrúar 1994
Envoy from ðcolandl
discussed. After that, it was on
the road for a long day’s tour
of the Interlake. Sunday it was
the church service at First
Lutheran and a visit to Her-
itage days being held at the
Scandinavian Centre in Win-
nipeg, followed by a quick trip
to the airport and a flight
home.
The tour of the Interlake
was arranged by Neil Bardal
and enjoyed the hospitality of
the INL chapters in Arborg
and Gimli. Neil Bardal provid-
ed the transportation and
acted as driver for Einar and
his wife, Elsa Pétursdóttir. INL
historian Nelson Gerrard
joined the group in Riverton to
act as guide and Lögberg-
Heimskringia tagged along to
see what could be seen.
A warm, friendly and well-
attended reception at Arborg
gave the ambassador and his
wife their first taste of
Interlake hospitality, featuring,
in the best Icelandic tradition,
lots of coffee, cakes, pön-
nukökur and other delicacies.
The same tradition manifested
itself at every stop, the couple
showed great fortitude, not to
mention politeness, in being
able not only to persevere, but
to do it with obvious enjoy-
ment. Neil was able to keep up
with them, to no one’s sur-
prise, but the tagalong joumal-
ist from L-H was badly out-
classed* and had to give up
eating and drinking by the
middle of the afternoon. This
can perhaps be explained by
the differing circumstances of
each member of the group.
Neil obviously needs a good
deal of sustenance to maintain
his figure. Einar and Elsa, hav-
ing spent their livés in the
diplomatic service, have
learned how to pace them-
selves with grace and dignity.
Journalists, on the other hand,
when they come across free
food and refreshments, lose all
control and embarrass every-
one around them.
There was also good con-
versation in Arborg as the
guests from Iceland moved
around the room and talked to
those who had come to meet
them. It was interesting to
note that the ambassador and
his wife were as comfortable
speaking with a retired fisher-
man or a farmer as they had
been the day before when
mixing with the assembled
dignitaries in the legislative
building. They may also —
although this is only specula-
tion on my part, have enjoyed
it more, as well.
As the day began in
Arborg, it ended in Gimli at a
reception at the Betel Home.
There were the coffee and
cakes, the friendly atmos-
phere and good company and
brisk, animated conversation
followed by a brief tour of the
town — a pleasant end to a
pleasant day.
Between Arborg and Gimli,
however, lay the heart of the
journey, a tour through the
Riverton area and Hecla
Island in the company of
Nelson Gerrard. That revealed
how genuine is the interest
held by Einar and Elsa (the
use of their first names here is
not the presumption of a
crass, tagalong journalist;
rather it is what they request-
ed people to call them instead
of using their formal titles). As
Nelson pointed out the his-
toric sites and described their
background, told the stories
associated with this point of
land, that particular building
or stretch of lake and gave a
lively account of the general
history of the settlement, they
— indeed, all of us — listened
with interest. The questions
that they asked him indicated
that they already had a good
knowledge of the history of
New Iceland and were anx-
ious to leam more, and even
after we left Nelson at his
remarkable combination of
home, workshop and muse-
um, the conversation still
turned around to the subject
of Westem Icelanders.
The Interlake can look
bleak in winter, particularly
on a grey, overcast day such as
this one was. The stunted
poplar and scrub oak are bare
of leaves; even the evergreens,
with covering of snow, look
more stark than picturesque
and the snow on the fields
and the ice on the lake, where
fishermen were out spreading
their nets beneath its frozen
surface, emphasize what a
hard countiy this can be, even
today with all our modern
technology. The visitors from
Iceland spoke reverently of
the accomplishments of the
pioneers who, with little more
than their bare hands and a
few tools carved an enduring
community out of this wilder-
ness, and admired the courage
and strength that it took to do
this.
Einar also spoke often of
contemporary Western Ice-
landers — his phrase — the
descendants of the immi-
grants and of the affection
and kinship still felt for them
by many in Iceland. As we
here in North America fear
losing our ties to Iceland, so
they fear losing their ties with
us and seek ways to cement
the relationship while respect-
ing our status as Canadian or
American citizens.
One possible way is a pro-
ject being proposed in Iceland
to compile a central registry of
all North Americans of Ice-
landic descent. A committee
is being formed to look into
the feasibility of such a large
project and if it goes ahead it
is hoped one of the purposes
it will serve will be to enable
Iceland to extend to visiting
Western Icelanders more of
the rights and privileges of an
Icelandic citizen and act as a
concrete symbol of the fact
that over there they still care
about us over here.
Einar Benediktsson has
served with distinction in
many of Iceland’s most
important diplomatic posts,
culminating in his appoint-
ment last year as Ambassador
to the United States and
Canada. Seldom in that dis-
tinguished career can he have
been more effective than on
his brief visit to Manitoba.
The warmth, wit, intelligence
that he and Elsa demonstrat-
ed, and the sympathy and
understanding they showed
for the odd dichotomy of
identity that Western Ice-
landers sometimes experi-
enced helped everyone they
met feel closer to their roots.
Eveiyone they met, including
this tagalong, wished them a
few more days to stay and
hoped that they will come
back again soon.
T.O.
The Ambassador and his wife in the Chapel in Betel.
Coffee, cakes and a welcoming committee in Gimli.