Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.07.1996, Blaðsíða 1

Heimskrmgla
The lcelandic Weekly
Lögbcrg Stofnað 14, januar 1888 Hcimskringla Stol'nað 9. scptember 1886
It’s summertime
And the livin’ is easy, or at least it will be for
the next couple of weeks for the staff and
associates of Lögberg-Heimskringla who will
be taking their annual summer break. The
next edition will appear in four weeks. In the
meantime, enjoy this special festival issue.
110. Argangur Föstudagur 26, juli 1996 Numer 28
110th Year Publications Mail Registration No. 1667 Friday, 26 July, 1996 Number 28
Islendingadagurinn!
Keeping
the cultural
flame alive
Icelandic words and names can be quite a
mouthful to people who are unfamiliar with
the language. That is, of course, almost every-
one, since there are not an awful lot of Icelanders
around.
Many Icelandic immigrants to North America
anglicized their names for the sake of conve-
nience — Jónsson to Johnson, Guðmundsson to
Goodman, for example. My own grandfather
changed his name fforn Eyjoífsson to Oleson be-
cause he thought that Eyjolfsson was too difficult
to spell for English Canadians. No one has ever
been able to spell Oleson. either. on their first try,
but that’s another story.
When I first started taking the pasted up pages
of Lögberg-Heimskringla to the bus depot in
Winnipeg to be shipped out to Vopni Press in
Portage la Prairie for printing, the fellows at the
shipping desk used to look at it oddly. L-H’s
name had to be entered as sender and Lögberg-
Heimskringla is, admittedly quite a mouthful for
someone unfamiliar with it and if you want to
spell it correctly, you have to take a careful look.
To their credit, the shippers never got it wrong
once.
But if Lögberg-Heimskringla is a mouthful,
what can we say about íslendingadagurinn? Now
that’s a mouthful and a half. Manitobans who are
not of Icelandic descent have given up trying to
pronounce it correctly and have taken instead to
making a joke of their inability by deliberately
mispronouncing it — Eees-land-ding-a-dong-a-
run seems to be the current favorite.
There is nothing sinister in that. It is all good
natured and the Westem Icelanders don’t take any
offence from it — just don’t spell our names
wrong! It is a sign, in fact, of just how well the
ethnic mix has worked in North America. We, as
Westem Icelanders, have our Icelandic festival
every year in Gimh, and numerous other celebra-
tions are held across the country in a triumphant
testimony to the fact that we remember who we
are.
At íslendingadagurinn in Gimli, many other
people come as well, even if they can’t pronounce
the name. They come to catch a glimpse of lce-
landic culture in North America, to have fun, to
eat good food and enjoy good company. We come
for all of those reasons, too, but more importandy
to make sure that we remember who we are and
where we come from, to make sure that our cul-
ture, our tradition, our language, will not be lost
in the greater ethnic mix.
Continued on page 11.
Fjallkona Dee Dee Westdal