Lögberg-Heimskringla - 02.09.1994, Page 1

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Inside this week:
Heimskringla
The lcelandic Weekly
Lögberg Stofnaö 14. janúar 1888 Heimskringla Stofnað 9. september 1886
The Walking Pioneers...................2
All About Recycling....................3
First European Mother in North America"
dedicated in lceland.................4
Poet gaining recognition...............5
George Johnson— the Order of Canada ....6
A Whale of a Visit.....................7
108. Árgangur Föstudagur 2. september 1994
108th Year Publications Mail Registration No. 1667 Friday, 2 September 1994
Númer 29
Number 29
r lcelandio
News
M yg| *
They Practíce on Kerlingar Mountains;
■ The Canadian National Ski team arrived
in lceland at the end of July for practícing
on Kerlingarfjöll ski slopes until the 8th of
August. The group consists of eight skiers,
four trainers and one assistant. The reason
for this choice lies with one of the skiers
who practiced in Kerlingarfjöll tast summer.
He was impressed with the facilities and
the result was that the team decided to
practice in lceland. Peter Bosinger, a
member of the Natonal Team, was happy
with the conditions and said that thís was a
good change ''somethíng altogether new".
The team has practiced in Oregon, U.S.A.,
in Europe and in South America, where the
team will practice later this summer. The
managers of the ski-school in Kerlíngarfjöll
received the group and brought them
there, with a stopover at Laugarvatn, where
the group dined on trout, and at Geýsir
where they went for a swim. Valdimar
Örnólfsson, a spokesman for the ski-school
at Kerlingarfjöll, said that skiing was good
right now and that preparatíon of tracks
was in full swing. He was happy that a
good ski-team, such as the Canadian one
should choose to practice there even
though it was no surprice as facilities are
excellent.
In Commemoration of Fishermen:
■ The président of lceland, Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir, unveiled a sculpture by
Grímur Marinó Steindórsson on the
"Seamen's Day", at the Stykkishólmur har-
bour. The sculpture is titled "On The Way
Home", and shows a sailboat with out-
stretched sails, made from rustfree steel,
This piece of art is in commemoration of
fishermen. Qn a basalt rock near by is this
inscription from a poem by Jón from Vör:
"The coast is a church to us\ the ocean and
the mountain\ the gospel of the day\ man
is fragile\ in life and in death".
Sea-urchin:
■ Last year lcelanders exported sea-urchin
and sea-urchin roe worth about one hun-
dred miliion krónur. Japan and the U.S.A.
are the maín buyers. These two nations
consider the sea-urchin and the roe a deli-
cacy. A few restaurants in lceland have
been offering díshes with urchins and roe,
and some fish stores have tried to offer it
to their customers. Utilizing sea-urchin for
food began only four years ago in lceiand.
Sea-urchins feed on see weeds and kelp
and the taste is similar to that of fresh
^elp. lt ís rich in calcium. The shell has
also been used for chicken food, as well
as for jewellery and crafts.
GUNNUR ISFELD
THE HUMAN SQUL
'ý::
The hwman so«j
is nefther mortj notéve,
rsor beginning rrw endíng.
it is etemai, unfeöUhded
as space itsetf,
neither guííty nor innocent,
btatisitseiftíod.
mopgun né kyöid,
ÖUTTÖRMUR |. GUTTORMSSON
SKÁlO/POfT
1878-
Memorial Honours Bard of Riverton
Riverton, Manitoba’s most
famous son was honored July
30 when a memorial; to the
intemationally known and acclaimed
poet Guttormur J. Guttormsson was
unveiled in the town park.
The afternoon ceremony at the
park was short and dignified with
short speeches by Oli Narfason of the
Icelandic National League and George
Johnson, the former lieutenant gover-
nor of Manitoba. This was followed
by a reception at which Salóme
Þorkelsdóttir, Speaker of the Alþing,
brought greetings from Iceland, com-
ments from Helgi Austmann,
President of the INL, which, together
with the Guttormsson family and sup-
porters through the community raised
the money for the monument. A per-
formance by the poet’s granddaughter,
Heather Ireland was particularly ele-
gant and appropriate and Magnús
Elíasson gave an eloquent recitation of
Guttormur’s poems. The century farm
award century sign and certificates
were awarded to Guttormur’s farm,
where Gilbert Guttormsson still lives
and the program concluded with
songs in Icelandic by Riverton stu-
dents. Refreshments followed and
were enjoyed by a large and apprecia-
tive crowd.
Guttormur, who was bom in 1878
and died in 1966, either here or in
Iceland. Indeed, Heather Ireland tells
of taking a taxi in Reykjavik and the
cab driver upon learning she was
Guttormur’s granddaughter, refused
any fare. When she insisted on paying
said forcefully that it was his cab, he
would decide who paid and who
didn’t and no granddaughter of
Guttormur’s was going to pay.
Even so, the program offers a brief
biography of the poet this beautiful
monument honors: Guttormur “was
born in Canada in 1878, at Icelandic
River (now Riverton), to Jón
Guttormsson and Pálína Ketilsdóttir
who left eastem Iceland in 1875 with
their small son Vigfús. Pálína died in
1885 and in 1889 Jón married
Snjólaug Guðmundsdóttir. Jón passed
away in 1894 when Vigfús was 20 and
Guttormur was 16.
In 1903 Guttormur moveef to Shoal
Lake where he met and married
Jensína Julía Daníelsdóttir on April 14,
1904. In 1911, they and their two
daughters, Arnheiður and Pálína,
returned to the Icelandic River and
built a new home in 1916. Two more
daughters, Bergljót and Hulda, and
one son, Gilbert, completed their fam-
ily.”
Guttormur’s body of work is large
but skills were not limited to the poet-
ry for which he is best known today:
“As the index to the book Aurora indi-
cates, he was a pioneer, a naturalist, a
Cont’d p. 5
Gimli Unitaríans off to a dramatic new start
Sixty-two people gath-
ered in Gimli’s historic
Unitarian Church on
Sunday, July 17, for that
community’s first Unitarian
worship service in thirteen
years. The first of three ser-
vices planned this summer,
the event marked the retum
of this liberal faith to the cra-
dle of Unitarianism in
Westem Canada.
In his sermon, Stefan
Jonasson, the Unitarian
UniVersalist Association’s
district executive, stressed
that personal relationships
are more important to the
spiritual quest than creeds,
doctrines and church build-
ings. “People passing by here
today will see the building
and think that they’ve seen a
church. But it is the people
who are the church, not the
building. Today we have
returned the essential ingre-
dient — the people — to this
magnificent and historic
place.”
Don McKinnon, who
brought greetings as presi-
dent of the denomination’s
Western Canada District,
predicted “that within the
next couple of years this
church will be holding regu-
lar services all year round.
We salute this new begin-
ning.” McKinnon noted that
Gimli Unitarians have been
inspired by the example of
the Unitarian Church in
Arborg, which has experi-
enced a dramatic renais-
sance in recent years.
For this year, further ser-
vices are planned for the first
and third Sundays of August.
Next year, the Unitarians
intend to hold regular ser-
vices from June through
September.
The old Unitarian Church
on Second Avenue has long
been a commanding Gimli
landmark with its towering
spire. Constmction began in
1904 and the church was
dedicated on Qctober 29,
1905. The building has been
owned by the Unitarians
ever since, although activity
declined precipitously in the
1950s. It was rented for a
time to the Gimli Alliance
Church, the Gimli Christian
Fellowship and now the A-
Sprire Theatre. The Gimli
Unitarian Church is the old-
est Unitarian church build-
ing in all of Canada that is
still in Unitarian hands.
Submitted by Stefan Jonasson,
Winnipeg and Marj Tretiak, Gimli