Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.06.2014, Blaðsíða 46

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In fact, 1,200 Icelanders fought in the trenches of
World War I. They were so-called Western Ice-
landers, Icelandic immigrants in North America,
who mostly enlisted for Canada. About a third
of these men were born in Iceland and most of
them spoke Icelandic natively. All in all, 144 died
and hundreds suffered injuries in the extremely
bloody battles on the Western Front.
For many in Iceland, joining the war was
thought to be a strange decision. Member of Par-
liament and lawyer Skúli Thoroddsen, for instance,
wrote harshly about his countrymen in Canada:
“Everyone who joins the war voluntarily should be
considered a lunatic. They should be stopped and
not be allowed to join the killing game.” Participat-
ing in the war became something of a taboo.
But it seems the Icelandic Canadians saw
things differently. At least one saw the decision
to join Canada in the war was a way of “paying
back” the country’s hospitality, which had af-
forded many Icelanders a better life. “Now Ice-
landic blood has been shed for the new moth-
erland and now we love it not only with talking,
but with blood—blood as warm as the blood that
leaked out of the soldier’s heart who died for us,”
physician Björn Jónsson wrote about the “brave
Icelandic heroes” who died in the war. “The war’s
misery, the wounds and the tears, have bought us
real patriotic love in this country.”
Commemorating these soldiers, historians
based in Winnipeg, Canada in the early 1900s
published a book which contains many chilling
accounts of ordinary people stuck in an inexpli-
cable conflict.
WWI Icelanders:
Christine Fredrickson was born Kristín
Friðriksdóttir, in Hegranes, Skagafjörður on
July 9, 1896. She graduated from the Strath-
cona Hospital in Alberta summa cum laude in
1916 and joined the Canadian Army Medical
Corp. She took care of wounded soldiers and
contracted the Spanish flu in 1918 and died on
October 28 that year.
Guðmundur Kristinn Bjarnason was born in
Reykjavík on May 28, 1900. He joined the Ca-
nadian military at 15 years of age in 1915. He
died from a sniper’s bullet in France on Sep-
tember 2, 1918.
Born in Hallson, North Dakota, on July 6, 1895,
Friðrik Rósbjörn Halldórsson joined the Cana-
dians in 1916. He died in Battle of Hill 70 on
August 15, 1917. Both the Canadian Corps and
the German Army suffered heavy casualties,
with more than 30,000 soldiers being killed or
wounded in 10 days.
“Icelandic Blood
Has Been Shed”
About 1,200 Icelanders fought
in World War I
46 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 08 — 2014LEMÚRINN
Lemúrinn is an Icelandic web magazine (Icelandic for the native primate of Mad-
agascar). A winner of the 2012 Web Awards, Lemúrinn.is covers all things strange
and interesting. Go check it out at www.lemurinn.is
Words
Helgi Hrafn Guðmundsson
This year marks 100 years since the outbreak of World War I, one of the deadliest
conflicts in history, which took the lives of millions of people around the globe.
Although Iceland was not directly involved in the war, as the Danes—who ruled
Iceland at the time—remained neutral, hundreds of Icelanders actually fought in
the war.