Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.08.2005, Síða 12

Newest ‘saga’ is more
anecdote than adventure
12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 26 August 2005
PHOTO: DAVID JÓN FULLER
Magnus Eliason voted to name Winnipeg’s first Folklorama.
Voting for Folklorama
Magnus Eliason and the birth ofan institution
David Jón Fuller
Winnipeg, MB
Folklorama, Winnipeg’s
annual multicultural festival,
has become an institution in the
city and a major tourist draw.
Last year, according to the Folk
Arts Council of Winnipeg, ap-
proximately 447,000 people
passed through the doors at the
various cultural pavilions.
Now held the first two
weeks of every August, the fes-
tival was originally conceived
as a one-time event. Magnus
Eliason, now 94, was elected to
Winnipeg city council in 1968.
Manitoba’s cen’tennial was
in 1970. In 1969, says Elia-
son, the Province of Manitoba
“asked the City of Winnipeg
to stage some major event in
1970.” Eliason served on the
committee in charge of plan-
ning it. “We had in mind to
have some major event, some-
thing just new or unique, and
how would we do that? In a
situation like that, most of the
committee members were inex-
perienced. This was new to us.
So we called in a man by the
name of Cecil Semchyshyn.
“He was quite an active man
in the Liberal party, but he was
well known in the North End
[of Winnipeg] culturally. So we
called him in to give us advice,
and he told us about an event
that had been held in Toronto
which brought in a number of
racial groups, and they staged
some kind of an event with a
parade and what-have-you.
“Any way, he thought some-
thing like that, that would bring
all the racial groups in Win-
nipeg together, that we would
then write them to participate
in an event. He thought that
was very appropriate.
“So I remember I spoke up
and I said, ‘That sounds like
an interesting idea. But what
would you call it?’ He said,
‘Well, I’d call it Folklorama
for lack of a better name.’ So
I moved that we stage such an
event — obviously we were
wanting Cecil Semchyshyn to
participate with us, to give us
advice in planning it — and we
call it Folklorama.”
Though the festival was
intended only to mark Mani-
toba’s centennial, Eliason says
response was so great that in
1971, the city received inqui-
ries about holding it again.
Folklorama was staged again in
1972 and it has been held an-
nually ever since. “And,” says
Magnus, “It has become one of
the major events on the North
American continent.”
Viking: Odinn ’s Child
by Tim Severin
Macmillan, 324 pages
$24.95 CAD
Reviewed by
Perry Grosshans
Winnipeg, MB
Tim Severin takes a rich,
detailed sailing voyage around
the Viking world, but orphans
his main character along the
way.
Viking: Odinn ’s Child is a
novel steeped in the lore of the
ancient Norse sagas. Through
the eyes of Thorgils Leifsson,
' Severin sails through various
events from the sagas with a
bit of creative imagery, linking
them together to weave a new
tale of historical fiction set in
the early 11 th century.
Thorgils Leifsson, son of
Leif the Lucky, is abandoned
shortly after his birth by Thor-
gunna, an Irish woman touched
with “the sight.” Thorgils’s
young life is far from ordinary.
He travels through Iceland,
Greenland and to Vinland, the
fartheSt Norse settlement in the
west. Under the tutelage of var-
ious craftsmen, wisemen and
parents, Thorgils leams about
the “Old Ways,” and becomes
a follower of Odinn in a time
when the “White Christ” has
begun to invade the beliefs of
the Norse.
By the time he tums 19,
he has been involved in sev-
eral major conflicts and blood
feuds, from Vinland to Ire-
land, and his life seems quite
blessed.
There is no doubt that Sev-
erin knows the sagas. For those
familiar with them, it is enter-
taining to see Thorgils interact
within these tales, such as dur-
ing the expedition of Thorvald to
explore Vinland (Grœnlendinga
Saga, chapter 5) and during the
massacre at Leif’s cabins by his
sister Freydis (Grœnlendinga
Saga, chapter 8). Viking reads
like a saga, with a multitude of
detailed characters and history
lessons throughout, such as
when Thorgils describes how
the Lawgiver’s Rock works at
Thingvellir, the site of the an-
nual Althing. Severin’s eye for
this detail is exquisite, and it is
no mean feat to take so many
characters and stories and join
them into one coherent story.
But ultimately, this detail is
also where Viking falls flat. At
times the book is a bit of a bur-
den to get through, because of
David Amason and John
K. Samson will perform at
separate events at the Winnipeg
Intemational Writers Festival.
The festival runs September 18
-25.
David Amason will read
at “Winnipeg: The Imagined
City,” an event linked to the
forthcoming book he co-edited,
on September 24 at 1 p.m. at the
Manitoba Theatre for Young
People.
John K. Samson will read
as part of “Prairie Poets Post,”
a mainstage panel at the same
venue at 2:30 p.m. on Septem-
ber 25.
Tickets for both events are
$ 12. Advance passes and more
information are available by
the intricate detail with trivial
things, which although very in-
teresting, doesn’t make for an
exciting read.
The story also centres more
on the events from the sagas,
which occur around Thorgils,
than with Thorgils himself. The
reader is hard pressed to make
any connection with this or-
phan. It is only in the last quar-
ter of the book, when Thorgils
comes to St. Ciaran’s mones-
tary, first as a slave and then as
an initiate, that one finally gets
a glimpse into his character,
beyond the young man gifted
with Odinn’s luck and the sec-
ond sight of his Irish mother.
Those familiar with the
old sagas and who want to see
their characters and events in a
slightly different light will find
Severin’s Viking interesting.
So will those who want to leam
about Viking history around the
beginning of the second millen-
nium.
Those looking for a roar-
ing, engaging, and bloody Vi-
king novel had best set sail for
other shores.
PHOTO: DAN MONICK
John K. Samson
visiting www.winnipegwords.
com.
Arnason, Samson at WIWF
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