Lögberg-Heimskringla - 23.09.2005, Blaðsíða 4

4 « Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 23 September 2005
Getting ready to flytja...
David Jón Fuller
Managing Editor
Since childhood, I’ve been
fascinated by fossils. Part
of that is the sheer excite-
ment of dinosaurs — after all,
what six-year-old doesn’t get
a thrill out of the Cretaceous?
Part of it came from growing
up in Manitoba and Alberta. In
Winnipeg, many buildings are
built with stone in which you
can see the remains of ancient
crustaceans. Alberta, of course,
has no shortage of dinosaurs on
display, whether it be in Drum-
heller or the Calgary zoo.
As I get older, I’ve started
noticing fossils in other places
— such as language. Icelandic
(or Old Norse) words show up
from time to time in English,
though some are so common
we don’t think about them:
saga, egg, viking. Others are
more recent, introduced by
Icelandic immigrants to North
America. And some you just
trip over without realizing it.
One example: a misunder-
stood song lyric that stuck in
my head for years. I first heard
folk singer Bobby Watt, a Scot
transplanted to Canada, at the
Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1992.
He sang a song called “The
Flittin’ Day,” which I assumed
meant, “the day that passes too
quickly,” ie, in some Scottish
way, “the fleeting day.” I didn’t
pay attention to the fact that he
was singing about packing and
moving to a new home.
Well, fast forward a few
years to when I was struggling
to learn Icelandic, and among
the many words I absorbed was
the verb að flytja, which means
“to move or change address.”
At some point after that I lis-
tened to that old Bobby Watt
tune and had a moment of “oh!”
followed by “why didn’t I see
that earlier?” It also made a bit
more sense to hear hear him
singing about his “bairn,” that
is, child, which in Icelandic is
barn. (Inhabitants of the British
Isles still take a dim view of the
viking invasions, God save us
from the fury of the Northmen
and all that; but they shoudl at
least admit they got a few use-
ful words out of it.)
Other Icelandic words
sneaked into English more re-
cently. In North Dakota, I’m
told, words like rusl (garbage)
and dudler (bag) cropped up in
Icelandic families. (Dudler is a
bit of a mystery — maybe it’s
from tuðraP.) In Churchbridge,
the subject of this issue’s fea-
ture, one woman recalled us-
ing kommóða for “bureau” as
a child, because she found the
English word hard to remem-
ber.
I’m thinking more of that
“Flittin’ Day” right now, as I am
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
We were so surprised to
hear of yoii leaving Winnipég'
for Iceland.
You have been a most
ambitious reporter, touching
base with so many Icelanders
all over Canada and the USA.
This has added so much inter-
est to Lögberg-Heimskringla.
We were pleased to have met
you personally. Time was
much too brief.
Wishing you and yours the
very best and all of our bless-
ings. It is our loss and Iceland’s
gain to have you return.
Sincerely,
Siggi and Mattie Sigfusson
Lundar, MB
* * *
I I
I Bankers (SlTraders 1 iNSURANCC »ROK€RS INC.
Jeff Kristjanson
Private Insurance Broker
HOMF. * AUTO • COMMERCIAL
10203-139 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5N 3W2
Telephone (780) 451-5755
Fax (780) 451-5110
www.bankersandtraders.com
Dear Editor:
I am making a strange
requést. I hope you can help
me.
My grandfather along with
his wife (my grandmother) and
his mother-in-law moved to the
Markerville area from North
Dakota in 1891. They stayed
on the farm for about 15 years
where they raised five children
to adulthood. They moved into
Red Deer to permit their chil-
dren to attend high school.
I am told that there was
an article and picture of my
grandfather, Þorarinn Guð-
mundsson in the publication
Almanak 1912 (I don’t know
the month). Evidently, annu-
ally from 1895 to 1954 the/U-
manak in Winnipeg published
information on various Ice-
landic communities in North
America.
First Lutheran Church
580 Victor Street
Winnipeg R3G 1R2
204-772-7444
www.mts.net/~flcwin
Worship with us
Sundays 10:30 a.m.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
Would you have any idea
of where I might obtain a copy
of this article? Your assistance
will be appreciated.
Regards,
Victor T. Janssen
Edmonton, AB
P.S. My grandfather was
called “Thor Gudmundson.”
If any L-H readers can
help Mr. Janssen locate the
Almanak article he is looking
for, please contact the editor
at david@lh-inc.ca or (204)
927-5645.
Correction
The article “Canada-US
picnic in Blaine” in the Au-
gust 26, 2005 issue of L-H
should have been credited
“adapted from an article by
Jerry Gay of Blaine and sub-
mitted courtesy of the Junc
2005 ICC of BC Newslet-
ter.”
Deadline
for next
issue:
September 26
both moving into a new house
with my wife, and we will both
be going to Scotland soon for
our honeymoon. I wonder what
new (or old) words I’ll encoun-
ter there?
* *
I’d like to extend a warm
welcome to our new Layout
Editor, Allan Lorde, who be-
gins at L-H with this issue.
Allan is a graduate of the Red
River College Graphic Design
program, and is also an accom-
plished illustrator. We’re very
happy to have him aboard and
look forward to a long working
relationship with him.
MacPherson
new Fund
Coordinator
WINNIPEG, MB — The
Lögberg-Heimskringla Future
Fund Capital Campaign has a
new Administrative Coordinator,
Lorne MacPherson. He replaces
Angela A. Smook, who left to
take up a teaching position in
North Carolina. The announce-
ment was made by Campaign
Chair Dr. Ken Thorlakson.
MacPherson was a great
helpmate to his wife, the late
Lillian Vilborg MacPherson dur-
ing the three years that she was
Managing Editor of Lögberg-
Heimskringla.
MacPherson has had diverse
career paths, including practic-
ing law, banking and filmmak-
ing, but his longest stretch was
fundraising for educational in-
stitutions and serving as the Fi-
nancing Development Officer at
the University of Alberta before
studying law.
He says fundraising is “not a
science, but an art” and its prin-
ciples have not varied over the
years. He looks forward to help-
ing the L-H Future Fund reach
its goal.
Heimskringla
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