Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.03.1994, Blaðsíða 1

[ Lögberg )
HeimsKringia
The lcelandic Weekly
Lögberg Stofnaö 14. janúar 1888 Heimskringla Stofnaö 9. september 1886
108. Árgangur Föstudagur 25. mars 1994
108th Year Publications Mail Registration No. 1667 Friday, 25 March 1994
Inside this week:
Big decisions facing Gimli............3
Björk wins two awards.................4
Back to the Ancestral Homeland........5
Notes from New York...................6
Sigurdson appointed...................6
lcelandic Lesson......................7
Númer 10
Number 10
lcelandic
Glimpses from the history of First Lutheran Church:
News
At the Dentist's...
■ Tinni is at the dentist's. Tinni is a four-
year-old foal who needs to have some
dental work done on his front teeth.
Tinni, who has not been trained much,
was tied and had horse shoes fitted on
him. He got tired and upset over all the
fuss and tried jumping a fence but
instead broke his upper front teeth and
one in the lower jaw. Tinni is owned by
Guðrún Edda Bragadóttir, but her father,
Bragi Ásgeirsson, who is a dentist, is
shown above trying to save Tinni's teeth.
Tinni was anaesthetized, x-rayed, and is
having a mould taken of his teeth, in the
hope that he can be fitted with a good
bridge.
Across Mýdalsjökull on a wind-jet...
■ Five students from a Reykjavík college
have been working on making an unusual
sleigh "rokþotu" or wind-jet on which
they intend to cross Mýrdalsjökull glacier
in the beginning of March. This will be
their contribution to the 25th anniversary
celebration of their college. This wind-jet
is on four skis and propelled by wind. The
students used mainly aluminum and other
light metal in making the sleigh. They
expect this to be a great adventure and
have spent much time preparing for the
trip. They have taken the sleigh on a trial
run on the glacier. Last year they tried to
cross Langijökull glacier, but were
stopped by bad weather.
A Grandmaster in Akureyri
■ Ivan Sokolov, Yugoslavian grandmas-
ter, received I7 I/2 points out of I8 possi-
ble at a simultane-
ous exhibition held
in Akureyri. Smári
Ólafsson got a draw
against Sokolov,
but he is the high-
est rated chess
player in Akureyri
and is I4th intemationally. Jón Ámi Stein-
grímsson, eight years old and pictured
here with Sokolov, was the youngest par-
ficipant in the meet.
Cod Simpletons!
■ Anna Gunnarsdóttir and Guðlaug Bjc
dóttir, both skipper's wives, join in the v
of salting cod. Seen here each holdir
V“golþorskur" (cod simpleton).
GUNNUR ISFELD
ln The Beginning
by Ingthor Isfeld
Pastor, First Lutheran Church
Winnlpeg
It seems to be a common
experience that as we
grow older and the
future gets shorter and the
past longer we start to take
more interest in where we
came from and how we
ended up where we are.
How did we come to be
members of First Lutheran
Church? In some instances
it is a short story and the
answer is simple, but for
many of you it is a very long
story. Various and strange
historical coincidents have
conspired to bring you here.
You may not know about
this, but you might have
ended up in Greenland,
Denmark, Brazil, Alaska in
other states of the U.S. or
you might just live on a farm
in Iceland.
It is difficult to find the
beginnings and rather arbi-
trary to pick a starting point.
But I have chosen to start in
the year 1783. Why 1783?
On June 8, 1783 began on
the Icelandic highlands the
most awesome volcanic
eruption known in historical
times. One hundred and
thirty five craters on a 16
mile long rift in the surface
of the earth erupted at once.
This eruption lasted until
February the next year. The
amount of lava that flowed is
the largest known in one
eruption in historical times,
or 15 cubic kilometres. (lkm
wide, 300 m deep, 50 km
long) A sulphur cloud
spread all the way to
Mongolia and poisonous
gasses affected the atmos-
phere and the weather over
large areas of the globe. In
Iceland 50 per cent of the
livestock perished and with-
in two years about 11,000
people, or one fifth of the
population, had died from
hunger and diseases. This
natural disaster threw a lot
of fear into the people.
In 1821-22 there was an
exceedingly hard winter and
in 1845 there was an erup-
tion in Mt. Hekla. The win-
ter of 1858-59 was very diffi-
cult for the people in the
north eastern part of the
country, and was referred to
as “Blood Winter” because
so many farmers ran out of
hay and had to destroy their
livestock.
After that winter there
was much talk about emigra-
tion. The Danish govern-
ment seriously considered
moving all the people in
Iceland to Denmark. But
physical hardship was not
the only reason people
wanted to emigrate. There
was a deep longing for free-
dom and independence
among the people, who felt
by Jón Ásgelrsson
The Icelandic-Amer-
ican Society in New
York held its Þorra-
blót on March 12th, at the
Holiday Inn, in White
Plains. It was in every way a
successful event. Many
people had felt that the
location would be a draw-
back for attendance, as it is
about an hour’s drive from
Manhattan, but they proved
to be wrong. There were
about 260 people in atten-
dance and 50 to 60 people
took advantage of the spe-
cial rates the hotel was
offering and stayed over
night.
The program started
with a short address by Mrs.
Edda Magnusson, the
League’s president, and
introduction of the hon-
oured guests, Mr. Tomas A.
Tómsson, ambassador and
his wife; Mr. Kornelius
Sigmundsson, consul gener-
al and his wife; and Margrét
Jónsdóttir Ward, vice con-
sul. She then specially wel-
comed Mr. Neil Bardal
from Canada, former presi-
dent of the Icelandic
National League in North
oppressed by the Danes and
the establishment in Iceland.
In the pingeyjarsýsla District
in the North an organization
was formed to plan emigra-
tion.
One of the early ideas
was to move to Greenland.
That was close and Icelandic
people had lived there cen-
turies before. But such a
move obviously did not
make much sense. At this
time a great many Germans
were emigrating to Brazil
and people could go by ship
to Denmark and from there
get onto a ship in Hamburg.,
Germany to go to Brazil.
The first Icelander lcnown to
have reached Brazil was a
man by the name of Kristján
America, as well as Mr. Jón
Ásgeirsson president of the
National Ixague in Iceland.
The þorri-food was from
Meistaranum Inc. and spe-
cially prepared by Þórarinn
Guðlaugsson and served by
Öm Garðarsson. The food
was obviously well received
and much appreciated by
the guests. Some used
Icelandic brennivín, cour-
tesy of the ambassador and
his wife, to help rinse eveiy-
thing down. A few of the
guests seemed somewhat
unsure of themselves, such
as the American woman sit-
ting next to this writer, who
did not quite know what to
do with the sheep’s head,
ram’s testicle and a piece of
shark on her plate, but she
put on a brave face and did
notcomplain. Attheendof
the meal, however, she was
obviously not as “stuffed” as
I and some other native
bom Icelanders, which is
understandable.
Following the meal,
everyone chimed into a
vigourous singing of
Icelandic national sing-
song, and a sparkle of joy
could be seen on many a
face. The sing-song was led
ísfeld and his family. That
was in 1863. Two small
groups went to Brazil, but it
was far and dealing with the
Brazilian government
proved to be very difficult.
Many of those who got to
Brazil took ill from tropical
diseases.
In the middle of the cen-
tury Mormonism came to
Iceland via Denmark and a
steady trickle of people who
were converted to the
Mormon religion emigrated
to Utah, mainly from
Southern Iceland. The
Mormons had missionaries
in Iceland from 1851-1914.
Meanwhile there was
a severe earthquake in
by the Icelandic band
“Hálft í Hvom” brought in
for the occasion. Following
the sing-song the band
played for the dance. There
was great action on the
dance floor whether the
band was playing; Bjössi on
the milk truck, an Elvis
tune, The Cook, or whatev-
er.
The evening concluded
with a lottery draw with
winnings such at s.s. fish,
vodka, trips, etc.
Mr. Sigtryggur Jónsson,
president of the Þorrablót
committee in New York
and his people can be
proud of his event.
The Icelandic League in
New York was established
55 years ago and it has
enjoyed good leadership.
Last year was a fruitful year,
and tiiere is every indication
that this year will be the
same. Many members
intend to travel to Iceland
on the 50th anniversary of
independence and a group
trip is being organized from
New York on June 15th.
The League is fortunate to
have Mrs. Edda Magnusson
as its president for one
moreyear.
Continued on page 2
Þorrablót in New York