Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.04.2015, Síða 1

LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 15 April 2015 • Number 08 / Númer 08 • 15. apríl 2015
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014 ISSN: 0047-4967
VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.LH-INC.CA
In Iceland, male choirs are
found in almost every town /
page 16
Thank God for
the fish
The conditions faced by early
settlers explored through
fiction / page 14
Saga Fest is a new music and
arts festival with a strong
emphasis on sustainability /
page 7
New festival
asks, "What's
your story?"
Icelandic men
love to sing
INSIDE
PHOTO: SCOTT SHIGEOKA
PHOTO: STEFAN JONASSON
PHOTO COURTESY OF DOREEN KERBY
July 31, 2015
Links at the Lake Golf Course
Gimli, MB
In Support of Lögberg-Heimskringla
Taking early bird registrations!
Watch for Details
If it had been a baseball game, it might have been billed as a doubleheader. This year’s Páll Guðmundsson Lecture
Series, sponsored by the Department of
Icelandic Language and Literature and
the Icelandic Collection of the University
of Manitoba, featured two of Iceland’s
contemporary literary giants: Gyrðir
Elíasson and Pétur Gunnarsson. The
Icelandic Reading Room was comfortably
full on Thursday, March 19, with spring in
the air and a rush of anticipation among
those filling its seats.
In introducing the evening, Dr. Birna
Bjarnadóttir, who holds the university’s
chair in Icelandic, noted that the arrival of
the golden plover has long been seen as
the harbinger of spring in Iceland. “Here
in Canada,” she went on, “it falls upon
two distinguished naturalists and authors
to welcome spring.” She proceeded to
name several individuals – her university
colleagues, Sigrid Johnson and Peter John
Buchan, graduate students, and members
of the Icelandic community – who had
contributed to the evening’s arrangements,
before calling upon Ambassador Hjálmar
W. Hannesson, Consul General of Iceland
in Winnipeg, to bring greetings.
Ambassador Hannesson began by
saying, “We are proud of our old and
difficult language and we try to keep it
pure.” Observing that storytelling was
central to the historic Icelandic experience,
and continues to flourish at the present time,
he expressed the hope that the University
of Manitoba would continue to be a centre
of literary scholarship, graduating both
bachelor's and master's level students.
Birna Bjarnadóttir offered a thumbnail
sketch of both of the evening’s speakers
before declaring, “we’ll start from within
the heart of literature” – an obvious
reference to poetry.
... continued on page 5
Visiting authors expand our literary horizons
Stefan Jonasson
Edmonton’s annual Þorrablót dinner was held at the Dutch Canadian Centre on Saturday, February 28.
The buffet included the traditional Icelandic
dishes of rúllupylsa, hangikjöt, rúgbrauð,
and vínarterta. Our guest speaker was Dr.
Natalie Van Deusen, the Henry Cabot and
Linnea Lodge Professor of Scandinavian
Studies at the University of Alberta.
... continued on page 4
Dr. Natalie Van
Deusen highlights
Edmonton Þorrablót
Michelle Braakman
Edmonton, AB
Birna Bjarnadóttir, Hrafnhildur Ragnarsdóttir, Pétur Gunnarsson, Ambassador Hjálmar W. Hannesson,
Consul General of Iceland in Winnipeg, Gýrðir Elíasson, and Anna Birgis Hannesson
PHOTO: KAREN BOTTING
Dr. Natalie Van Deusen and ICCE president Joedy Englesby
PHOTO: BEVERLY ARASON-GAUDET