Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.12.1994, Síða 15

Th£
©aekward ©rothers
Weleomo Thorri
by Peter Eyvindson, Continued
Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 16. desember 1994 • 15
Christmas
Card from
lceland,
1970
Come, my brothers! Let us help Bjarni
celebrate the festival of the first day of
Thorri.”
So the three brothers marched out of
the house dressed only in their shirts and
with their underwear half on and half off.
Around and around the house they
hopped barefooted and barelegged.
Gudrun poked her head out the door
and yelled at Bjarni.
“Bjarni!” she asked. “What are they
doing?”
“Welcoming Thorri,” Bjarni explained.
“Welcoming Thorri?” Gudrun laughed.
“What nonsense!” she thought.
“Get in here, Bjarni,” she said. “You
can welcome Thorri by the fire."
So in the comfort of their cozy home,
Bjarni and Gudrun watched the
Bakkabraedurs with amusement. Until,
suddenly, Gisli knocked on the window.
“What about the feast?” he said.
“What feast?” asked Bjarni.
“Every festival has a feast, doesn’t it?”
Gisli asked Bjarni.
“Yes! I believe he is right,” smiled
Bjarni, “Gudrun, we must have a feast.”
“A feast?” Gudrun argued. “Why would
we want a feast?”
But when she saw Bjarni smiling at her
like that, so strangely, and winking too,
she thought she understood what he
meant.
“Oh, yes!” she laughed. “Invite the
brothers in! Ha! I shall prepare them a
feast. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! A feast they will
never forget!”
She ran to the cupboard and brought
out a platter heaped high with nothing
but pieces of hard dried fish. Usually she
soaked her fish overnight and boiled it in
a pot all morning before she would serve
it to Bjarni.
“But for the festival of Thorri,” she
explained to the Bakkabraedurs in a very
sober manner, “we must eat our fish hard
and dry.”
Gudrun couíd hardly contain her laugh-
ter as she watched the Bakkabraedurs sit
down and solemnly begin to eat. But
before long, the platter was bare.
“Gudrun,” exclaimed Gisli. “What an
excellent feast! Maybe a little skimpy...
but still a very good feast. What else have
you prepared?”
“Well, I...” she stammered. And then
Gudrun remembered the stinky old whey
she had left over from making butter and
the whale blubber she was about to throw
out. “How about some whale meat pick-
led in sour whey.”
“Bring it here!” demanded Gisli.
“Come, Bjarni! Join us in the feast.”
Gudrun plunked a big blubbery mass of
rubbery whale meat on the table. With
knives and forks ready, the brothers dug
in. And Bjarni ate, too. To his surprise, it
wasn’t bad! In fact, they all found the
feast so enjoyable that they smacked their
lips and burped loudly.
“l’ve never tasted better,” cried Erikur.
“Thank you, Gudrun,” said Helgi as he
got up to go home. “We must do this
again.”
And so the feast of Thorrablot began.
Every year to welcome Thorri, Gudrun
was awakened by three barefooted and
barelegged men hopping around her
house. And every year Bjarni insisted that
she prepare the brothers a feast.
Every year she tried to make her feast
less and less agreeable.
Once, she found an old piece of shark
meat which she buried in the sand and
left to rot for a time.
Another year she went out behind the
barn to find a head from an old sheep she
had butchered in the fall.
“Perfect!” she said to herself. “If I singe
off the hair and boil it in a pot, it should
be most unpleasant.”
What did the Bakkabraedurs think?
“Gudrun,” exclaimed Erikur. “The way
you prepare your boiled sheep’s head is
magnificent.”
It didn’t matter what Gudrun prepared,
the Bakkabraedurs found her feast to be
more and more delicious.
Isn’t it strange how customs come to
pass? But every year since, good
lcelanders have celebrated Thorri, the first
day of the fourth month of winter by hav-
ing a feast called Thorrablot.
And oh, what they eat!
IjUixi Mi- iúua!
book rev,ew: Carveff from the Land
Museum Collection
The Eskimo
Diocese of Churchill
Hudson Bay
Written by Lorraine E.
Brandson
Reviewed by Gunnur Isfeld
Carved from the Land is a
new book on the market,
written by Lorraine
Brandson. Ms. Brandson has a
BA in Anthropology from the
University of Winnipeg, Mani-
toba. She now works as a curator
for the Eskimo Museum in
Churchill, Manitoba. The Mus-
eum is owned and operated by
the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Churchill Hudson Bay, which
began its missionary work among
the Inuit in 1912.
For some missionaries there
was a natural interest to acquire
and preserve items representative
of life in the North. These items
served as a basis for the muse-
um’s collection which was
opened in 1944, dedicated to
advancing understanding and
appreciation of “Eskimo” (Inuit)
culture; mainly through its dis-
plays of sculptures carved by the
Inuit themselves. Brother Jacques
Volant took an interest in the
museum from the beginning and
by 1948 was placed in charge of
the museum. He dedicated the
rest of his working life to this
responsibility. Ms. Brandson is
Brother Volant’s successor, his
factotum - the museum’s cata-
loguer, librarian, historian and
researcher.
This is a beautiful hard cover
book, richly illustrated with
excellent pictures of the Inuit art
and sculpture, taken by Mr.
Robert Taylor, R.C.H., Mani-
toba’s foremost naturalist and
wildlife photographer. On the
whole the book is a beautiful
work behind which lies much re-
search. I found it easy to read yet
giving detailed information of the
many facets of Inuit life and cul-
ture, tracing the Inuit history
from time immemorial to the pre-
sent. It is of interest to anyone
seeking knowledge of the Inuit of
Arctic Canada and a great testi-
mony to their adaptability, cre-
ativity, beauty, faith and
endurance under harsh circum-
stances.
Bishop Reynald Rouleau, of
Churchill Hudson Bay, has this
to say in his Foreword: ‘“Carved
from the Land’ of which Lorraine
Brandson is the author, is more
than a work of art. It is rather a
Cosmos, inhabited and living,
that she translates into words,
images and pictures. The
approach is global, cultural,
social, anthropological and spiri-
tual.
Ms. Brandson was the winner
of the Prix Manitoba Award in
1971.
She is the daughter of the late
Gestur Brandson and his wife
Beth Brandson.