Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2018, Síða 7

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15. september 2018 • 7
Melanie Johannesson has lived in
Riverton all her life. Born to Robert and
Morene (Palsson) Triska, she comes
from a long line of Icelandic, Ukrainian, and
Polish immigrants who settled on the Icelandic
River and in the surrounding area. Melanie is
married to Gary Johannesson, and they have
three children. Over the past while, she has
turned to journaling and publishing a Facebook
blog about her personal journey. Melanie has
now agreed to share her story with the readers of
Lögberg-Heimskringla. It is a journey of being
lost and found, ill and well. It is a journey of self-
discovery and growth.
Melanie sometimes expresses surprise that
she has become a writer, as she seemed to have
little interest in her high school English class. I
think that her interest may have roots in the past.
Her afi, Steingrimur Palsson, and her amma,
Inga (Johnson) Palsson, farmed for many years
in the Geysir area. Melanie remembers Afi Steini
reciting poetry and reading voraciously. She also
recalls her great-uncle Pálmi Pálsson’s house
with walls lined with bookshelves
Thorgrímur Palsson, Steini’s father, was
born in Skagafjörður in Iceland, immigrating to
Canada with his parents in 1883. He took out a
homestead and married Guðrún Jakobsson. They
named their homestead Grenihlíð, and through
the years Guðrún recited poetry by the hour to
entertain family and friends.
Amma Inga Johnson was born in Riverton to
Valdimar and Sigrún (Gislason) Johnson. Langafi
Valdimar, born in Skaftafellssýsla in Iceland,
was well-known in his adopted homeland for
his love of literature, reading, and poetry – both
in Icelandic and English. Nelson Gerrard’s
book, Icelandic River Saga, mentions Valdi’s
journal, in which he tracked local conditions and
happenings in Iceland over the course of years.
I am sure that digging deeper I would have
discovered many more of Melanie’s ancestors
who were deeply attached to books and writing.
After all, Icelanders do feel it is our birthright.
Melanie has worked as a hair artist for years.
In February 2016, a lump was discovered in her
breast. It was found to be cancerous. She was
tested for the BRCA gene mutation linked to
breast and ovarian cancer, and she discovered
that she had BRCA2 mutation. My own specialist
told me that this genetic mutation is more
concentrated in women of Icelandic and Jewish
descent. Several members of Melanie’s family
had developed such cancers.
Melanie did all of the things that are
considered standard treatments for her cancer
over the next 18 months, and she is currently
cancer-free. She has also grown in new ways,
looking for a different kind of healing.
In upcoming issues of L-H, Melanie will
share her feelings and her journey in a column
entitled Mel’s Moments. She hopes her columns
will be of interest to the community, and that
there may be some who take hope from them and
grow in their own journey.
Introducing Mel’s Moments
Judy Richardson
Arborg, MB
Dr. Guðrún Björk
Guðsteinsdóttir, prof-
essor of English
literature at the University of
Iceland, will be this year’s
Beck Lecturer at the University
of Victoria, where she will also
serve as a visiting professor
during the fall semester.
Guðrún Björk is also director
of the Literature, Culture, and
Media Graduate Program at
the University of Iceland. Her
main research interests include
Icelandic Canadian literature,
cultural politics, multicultural
literature, narratology, and
cross-cultural mediation
and adaptation of literature
(including translation and
teaching as well as storytelling
through audio-visual media).
Dr. Guðrún will address
the theme “Weird Visitations”
in her first lecture on
Sunday, September 23, 2018.
“Conviction that there is
more to life than can be easily
explained by science and
technology has been persistent
among Icelanders and their
descendants in Canada,” she
maintains. “This lecture will
consider how contemporary
authors of the Icelandic diaspora
draw upon stories of ghosts and
other weird visitations in their
works.”
She will speak on “Giants
and Trolls” at her second
lecture on Sunday, October
28. “In rough lava-fields,
in cliffs, and in rocks rising
from the sea in Iceland, the
faces and forms of giants
sometimes emerge distinctly,
accompanied by stories
explaining how they turned
to stone. Although seemingly
embedded in Norwegian as
well as Icelandic landscape,
giants or tröll go back to the
shared northern European
legacy and faith recorded in
the Eddas as þurs and undergo
interesting transformations in
the Icelandic Canadian literary
heritage.”
Her final lecture,
“Huldufólk: Elves and
Faeries,” will be delivered on
Sunday, November 25. “Of
shared European ancestry,
like giants and trolls, elves –
or huldufólk and álfar, hidden
people and faeries – have
worked powerfully upon the
imagination of Icelanders
on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean, and have become an
important Icelandic Canadian
identity theme.” Guðrún says,
“I will briefly consider some
of the complex associations,
meanings and manifestations
of the hidden people in the
European, including the
Icelandic, background, as
well as in Icelandic Canadian
writing.”
All lectures will take place
at 2:00 p.m. in Room A212
of the University of Victoria’s
Clearihue Building. Admission
to the Beck Lectures is
free and open to the public.
Individuals needing disability
accommodation are asked to
call ahead to (250) 721-7320.
In her role as visiting
professor, Guðrún will
teach the course, “A Legacy
of the Icelandic Folklore”
(GMST 369, Special Topics
in Scandinavian Studies),
throughout the fall semester.
Guðrún received her
bachelor’s degree in English
and Danish from the University
of Iceland in 1982 and then
her master’s degree in English
literature from the University of
Alberta in 1985. She earned her
doctorate in English literature
from the University of Alberta
in 1993. She was chairman
and is currently vice chairman
of the Nordic Association for
Canadian Studies in Iceland
and secretary of the Association
for the Advancement of
Scandinavian Studies in
Canada. She joined the faculty
of the University of Iceland
in 1987 as a sessional lecturer
and was promoted to assistant
professor in 1989 and associate
professor in 1995. She has been
a full professor since 2010. She
is a co-editor of An Intimacy
of Words (2015), a festschrift
in honour of the distinguished
linguist Pétur Knútsson.
Since 1988, the Beck
Lectures have brought a wide
variety of speakers to the
University of Victoria to talk
about Iceland, its people, and
their language, literature, and
culture – both modern and
medieval. The Beck Lectures
were established through the
creation of a special fund by
Richard and Margaret Beck,
who made provision in their
wills to establish this unique
lectureship. It is managed by
the Department of Germanic
and Slavic Studies of the
Universoty of Victoria.
PHOTO : HÁSKÓLI ÍSLANDS
Dr. Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir
BECK LECTURES: ICELANDIC FOLKLORE FOR THE DIASPORA
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