Gripla - 2019, Side 37

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Hecla Island – or Mikley “Big Island” – was located on the northeast-
ern edge of the New Iceland colony. The first Icelanders arrived to Hecla
in 1876. Hecla was subject to periodic seasonal flooding, and many of
lakefront lots measured out by government surveyors proved completely
unsuitable for long-term habitation. The homestead system meant that the
island’s population was distributed around the island, rather than clustered
on the eastern shore, where a small fishing village sprang up in the early
1900s. Fishing was a cornerstone of the local economy.89
The Canadian government’s immigration strategy unintentionally cre-
ated conditions favourable for the development of what seems to have been
a scribal community of sorts, or at least a network of semi-retired scribes,
who brought their collections with them to Hecla Island. I have found evi-
dence of eighteen prose saga and rímur manuscripts having been on Hecla
Island during the period from 1876 to 1921 (the year of Albert’s death), of
which at least seventeen survive (see Table 6).
Benedikt Kjartansson (1860–1957) brought a riddarasögur manuscript
when he immigrated to Hecla Island from Borgarfjörður in 1900, which
he himself had copied, although its contents are unknown.90 Farmer-scribe
Grímólfur ólafsson of Mávahlíð in West Iceland (1827–1903), who im-
migrated to Hecla Island in 1893, also brought his manuscripts with him.91
His sons Jóhannes and ólafur are also associated with one privately owned
manuscript. the stay of Ágúst Magnússon (1863–1953) from Vatnsnes
in Northwest Iceland was brief: the winter of 1896–1897, and again in
1899–1903. Ágúst lived in the household of Jóhann Elíasson Straumfjörð
on Engey “Goose Island” and married Ragnheiður Straumfjörð in 1898.
Ágúst and ragnheiður moved to Lundar in 1903, where they remained.
of these individuals, two were also experienced bookbinders: Ágúst
Magnússon and Grímólfur ólafsson. Only Albert Jóhannesson is known
to have continued copying sagas on Hecla Island, but he may have found a
patron in Helgi and Margrét Tómasson, whose family carefully preserved
his manuscripts for at least three generations.
ALBERT JóHANNESSON AND THE SCRIBES OF HECLA ISLAND
89 Glenn Sigurdsson, Vikings on a Prairie Ocean: The Saga of a Lake, a People, a Family and a
Man (Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications, 2014).
90 Ingibjörg Jónsson, “Ferð til eyjarinnar,” Lögberg (30.10.1947), 5. The manuscript was still
on Hecla Island in 1947, but the author has been unable to locate it.
91 Two of Grímólfur ólafsson’s manuscripts were sold to the National and University Library
of Iceland (Lbs 3020 4to and Lbs 3021 4to).