Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.07.2013, Side 1

LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 15 July 2013 • Number 14 / Númer 14 • 15. júlí 2013
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014
Photo: Judy Sólveig WilSon
Author tells
more tales
A woman's ventures in
Brazilian jiu-jitsu / page 9
A wild romp through Iceland
/ page 8
INSIDE
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca
Photo: MattheW trinetti
A marriage born on Icelandic
Airlines / page 2
Photo courteSy of thórir and erla
gröndal
From Iceland
with love
Nanaimo
Journal
The 124th Íslendingadagurinn festival of Icelandic culture in Gimli, Manitoba promises an experience
rich in culture and rife with unexpected
excitement – along with some rather loopy
fun, as well.
The first Icelandic festival in North
America was celebrated in Milwaukee in
1874, with numerous others springing up in
Hnausa, Manitoba, in Markerville, Alberta,
in Blaine, Washington, in Wynyard,
Saskatchewan, and one established in
Winnipeg in 1890 that moved to Gimli
in 1932. The Gimli festival developed
from a simple one-day affair into an
entire four-day long weekend, unmatched
anywhere in the North American Icelandic
community.
Sleepy little Gimli-by-the-Lake,
where the present writer spent many a
boyish summer delivering newspapers,
taking swimming lessons, and inventing
devilish pranks to play on his pals, swells
from its hamlet population of 3,000 to
attract more than 50,000 visitors over the
August long weekend. Hotel rooms are
booked years in advance for this weekend,
with standing reservations at the spiffy,
clean and modern Lakeview Resort in the
centre of town being guarded like precious
heirlooms by the many families attending
each year.
While red carpets are not part of
Icelandic rural tradition, there are plenty
of VIPs that make the annual journey to
commune with their fellow Icelanders
and Icelandophilic compatriots. Previous
attendees from Iceland have included
Independence Party leader Bjarni
Benediktsson (2012), former finance
minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon (2011),
and ex-foreign minister Ingibjörg Sólrun
Gisladóttir (2010).
This year, however, festival president
Janice Arnason and her organizing
committee have set their sights high, laid
their nets low and deep, and managed to
pull in the Big Fish. Sigmundur Davíð
Gunnlaugsson, the new, freshly-minted
Prime Minister of Iceland, taking over
from Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir after national
elections in the spring, will be present
to give the Toast to Iceland, a highlight
amongst the many speeches delivered
at the traditional program to be held on
Monday, August 5 in the Gimli Park.
Snorri Helgason, a talented singer-
songwriter from an Icelandic music scene
that seems to have an abundant supply
of these, will be arriving in the prime
minister’s slipstream to bring his lyric
gifts to the festival stage
The focus of ceremonial attention at
Íslendingadagurinn is the Fjallkona, a
term customarily translated “Maid of the
Mountain” although a woman of mature
years is usually chosen for the role. The
Fjallkona is the emblematic personification
of the Icelandic nation, her white lace-
embellished headdress and green cape
representing the snow-crested peaks and
verdant valleys of the Icelandic landscape.
She wears a gold crown embossed with
the Icelandic coat of arms.
The one so honoured this year is
Maxine Stefania Helgason Ingalls, from
Hecla, Manitoba.
Icelandic food delicacies from
Amma’s Kitchen such pönnukökur,
kleinur and skyr will tempt the palates
of visitors to the Gimli Pavilion at the
centre of the park, where arts and crafts
will be displayed and sold in booths on
the adjacent grounds. And of course, a
big Ferris wheel and other carnival rides
will be available for youngsters (of all
ages) whose life revolves around shouting
“Whee!” at regular intervals.
Those of athletic inclinations will want
to test their Viking mettle in the somewhat
undignified, but always entertaining
spectacle of wet-pillow swinging and
unexpected dive-taking known as
Íslendingadunk, held at the Gimli pier
before an enthralled audience of gleeful
onlookers and Schadenfreude enthusiasts
on Saturday afternoon.
As one longtime participant put it: “It
might seem difficult to keep your balance
at first, because they grease the pole you
are sitting on over the water, but once you
get the hang of it, it’s as easy as falling off
a log.” Indeed.
... continued on page 11
Prime Minister of Iceland to visit Gimli
The Icelandic Open Golf Tournament inaugurates the festivities at the Icelandic Festival in Gimli each year, but not everyone
plays by the rules. The merry divot-duffers on the right are having loads of fun while on the left, Ragnar and the late Júlíus let
a simple putting infraction escalate, forgetting their VIking mother's words: "It's always fun until someone loses an arm."
PhotoS: donald g.gíSlaSon
August 2, 2013
Links at the Lake Golf Course
Gimli, MB
Register online at
www.lh-inc.ca
or by phone 1-866-564-2374In Support of Lögberg-Heimskringla
Donald G. Gíslason
Vancouver, BC