Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Side 54

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LE NORD
and debt, and that many of them never lived to see the fruition
of their labours. Their greatest asset in the struggles and hard-
ships of the first years was the firm solidarity which existed
among them: they clubbed together to buy implements, and those
who were less successful were assisted by the others with money
and employment. Frequently they were also helped by other
Scandinavian settlers. For instance, the Norwegian colony in
North Dakota helped their Icelandic fellow-settlers on more
than one occasion.
The solidarity which existed among the settlers was also re-
flected in a number of social and cultural activities, which in
their turn became the first germs of a deliberate effort to pre-
serve Icelandic nationality and to establish co-operation between
the different colonies. When the 70 Icelanders in Milwaukee
celebrated the millenary of Iceland in 1874, they laid the
foundations of a tradition which has been continued in the so-
called “Iceland Day,” still celebrated on the second of August
in Winnipeg and other places where there are many Icelanders.
In the course of time, this festival has been an important factor
in maintaining solidarity among the emigrants and in keeping
up their national traditions. On several occasions, writers and
artists from the home country have been guests of honour, and
have sometimes been invited by Icelandic-Americans to come
over. As a link in the endeavours to maintain the connection
between Iceland and the emigrants, a festival has also during
recent years been held in Iceland itself, in honour of returned
or visiting emigrants.
The inclination shown by the settlers to join with each other
in taking up cultural and national tasks may seem surprising
when one bears in mind how hard was their struggle to keep
up a bare existence during the first difficult years. On closer
view, however, the matter is not so inexplicable. Though the
settlers were poor and had no schooling, a large proportion of
them took no little interest in books and possessed a considerable
knowledge of the ancient literature of their home country, a
trait which has long been characteristic of the Icelandic people.
When Lord Dufferin visited the New Iceland settlement in 1877,
he said in his speech to the colonists that he had not seen a single
home in the settlement, no matter how poor and humble it was,
which did not possess at least twenty or thirty books. The
settlers’ taste for reading was soon reflected in the foundation
of the first Icelandic weekly paper in America, the “Framfari,”