Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1950, Page 149

ÞINGTIÐINDI
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worthy wife who lost her life in the small-pox
epidemic and is buried at Sandy Bar.
At the second meeting Nov. 17, we studied
about the 3 original village sites in the Icel.
colony: Gimli, Sandvík (Sandy Bar) and Lun-
dar, changed to Riverton in 1914 with the
ccming of the railroad. This was intensely int-
eresting and we concluded by reading G. J.
G ’s immortal poem ‘Sandy Bar’. During this
lesson many stories about the Indians, never
printed, were brought up and the name, White
Mud River, now Icelandic River, brought to
mind. There is not scope in this report to let
you know how we apreciated, the interesting
and informative discussions about our own
community.
Next we studied about the Icel. pioneers in
L'tah. At one of our meetings we had a guest
a social welfare worker, who seemed most
interested in our work. We were telling her
about the Sacred Temple of the Mormons in
Salt Lake City. While taking her holidays this
lady went to Salt Lake City, and saw this
famous Temple, and she gave us a fine account
ot it. At this stage we used certain issues of
the Icelandic Canadian a great deal, as it con-
tained a large number of excellent articles on
the Utah pioneers, and especially on their
descendants; and we certainly feel a lot closer
to our kinsmen across the border in Utah, who
would be completely lost to us if it were not
for those articles.
We studied the Icelandic pioneers of Brazil.
As we had 2 non-Icelandic members, three of
our group undertook to summarize and
translate interesting facts from the available
material (Saga Islendinga í Vesturheimi, and
Tfintýri frá Islandi til Brasilíu, by Þ. Þ. Þ.).
First we studied the reasons for choosing
Brazil, and the conditions in Iceland which
•od to this emigration. At one of our meetings
Wc used the National Almanac, 1916, and are
*
grateful to the publishers for the loan of it.
IVe really enjoyed our ‘venture into Brazil’
but felt sorry that the few families from Ice-
land were so soon engulfed in the mixed
Pnpulation of Brazil.
We studied Washington Island next, and
here again we were helped out by the publish-
ers of the National Almanac (1900). This
article was stimmarized and enjoyed at the
last meeting of the second year.
The course for the next year was left un-
decided, but a resolution was adopted to try
to memorize and recite some Icelandis poetry
ai. some of the meetings. We would be most
happy to get an Icelandic film, as Riverton
has its own projector.
Third Year, 1949—50
The first meeting was held Nov. 2, and this
time the members voted in favor of studying
poetry and short stories by Icel. Canadian
writers: J. M. Bjarnason, Dr. S. J. Johannesson,
G. J. Guttormsson and Jón Runolfson. We
wcre fortunate in getting ‘Sextíu Æfintýri’
by J. M. B. and later his first book of poetry.
•At the December meeting we read all the
Christmas stories in this book. Poems of J.
M. B. were also read, and “Halley’s Hala-
stjarna” by ‘Þorskbítur’, which is very well
written and took us back to the star-gazing of
1911-12.
At thc Jan. meeting the life story of J. M.
E., by Dr. J. P. Palsson as read and discussed,
and some of us added incidents from our own
store of niemory.
At the February meeting (Feb. 1.), we had a
very ftdl program. Eleven members were
present, in spite of the ladies’ curling. Two
of the members arrived a little late and out
of breath as they came from a curling match.
We touchcd on the possibility of re-organiz-
ing the “deild Isafold”, and later an attempt
was made to call a meeting, but without much
success. Then there was some discussion of the
possibility of the study group taking over the
‘deild', but we were not clear on whether that
could be accomplished without injury to
either organization, and there the matter rests.
At this meeting two stories from ‘Sextíu Æf-
intýri’ by J. M. B. were read. ‘Ari litli fer A
skóla’, and ‘Drengurinn sem var altaf að gráta’
The author upholds the Icel. nationality and
heritage in all his stories, and we are proud
of this. Several of the author’s poems were
also read, all very good and with an element
of kindness running through them.
The real highlight of the evening was a
travelogue by Miss Skúlason, on her trip to
Miami, Florida, at the beginning of the year.
This was very interesting and many of us
wished we had been in the sunny south for
at least two wecks of this coldest January in 75