Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.10.2018, Page 1

LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 1 October 2018 • Number 19 / Númer 19 • 1. október 2018
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014 ISSN: 0047-4967
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INSIDE
Clues in St-François, Québec
/ pages 8-9
Did Vikings
discover
Montréal?
A selection of articles on our
favourite pastime / pages 4, 6,
10 and 11
Icelandic Roots
Mystic Seaport Museum
examines the mystery / page 7
The Vinland
map saga
PHOTO COURTESY OF MERRILL ALBERT
PHOTO: DOUGLAS HANSON
Professor Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir
had a good turnout for her first Beck
Lecture, “Weird Visitations.” Those
who came heard a terrific lecture on a lot
of strange creatures and beliefs in Iceland’s
past. Those who didn’t come or couldn’t
come, you have my sympathy because this
was a lecture that should not have been
missed. And that is even when you leave out
her interesting comments about some of the
weird creatures in my short stories.
Guðrún started with spirits and ghosts.
Stories, she said, survive by appropriation
and adaptation.
Einar O. Sveinsson published The Folk
Stories of Iceland (1940). That was revised
by Einar G. Pétursson. There is the gift of
second sight, ófreski-skuggin. This belief in
dreams appears to be constant. People still
believe in dreams and their symbolism.
I was most interested in the idea of an
attendant spirit or fylgja. I first heard this
term from Lauga Magnusson in Winnipeg
but knew people in New Iceland who
believed in it, including my parents. These
guardian spirits go back to ancient times.
They did no harm unless their owner was an
evil person or in an evil mood, and then only
to other people. Evil attendant spirits did not
widely exist until 17th or 18th centuries and
they were never attached to families until
late 18th century. All attendant spirits had
one thing in common: they went in the front
of the person to whom they were attached.
Guðrún gave as an example a well-
known incident in Icelandic Canadian oral
history – that is, the mail-delivery saga
of Halfdan Sigmundsson’s deliverance.
Halfdan was hired as a mail deliveryman
and he was noted for his ability to run
long distances. He would deliver the mail
starting from Clandeboye twice a month.
This responsibility took three to four trips
a month. In 1882, he left from Gimli in
extreme cold, darkness, high winds, and
a heavy snowstorm. During this run he
collapses from exhaustion, unable to rise,
and he recites a prayer and then falls asleep.
He is awakened by a voice and sees a light.
He resumes walking toward the light and
reaches Pétur Pálsson’s house and is saved.
Guðrún then compared this story to a
telling in a short story, “Guest,” in Kristjana
Gunnars’s book, The Axe’s Edge. Kristjana
uses translation, adaptation, and fiction to
retell the story and weaves it together with
local information about how to survive
on the lake in winter, with an expansion
on knowledge and manners that Icelandic
immigrants brought with them. This places
the story in a broader context. It is no
longer just a story about Halfdan, but about
the Icelandic settler’s mindset, sustained
by the three strains of religion that existed:
Heathen, Catholic, and Lutheran. She
showed us a picture of Halfdan’s
house in Riverton, taken around 1903.
She then discussed some of my short
stories from The Divorced Kids’ Club. In
one story, a young woman skates along
the lakeshore searching for help and sees a
light that she follows.
She discussed ghosts and the difference
between North American ghosts and
Icelandic ghosts. Those of us who have been
part of the Icelandic Canadian community
know that there are no Caspers. Icelandic
ghosts that came back from the grave
came back in bodily form. Surprisingly,
the advent of Christianity didn’t hinder the
belief in ghosts. An amusing detail was that
if someone dug into a grave, a ghost would
complain that its feet were cold.
I paid close attention when she talked
about the ghosts in my stories in What the
Bear Said. These are ghosts that have come
to North America with the settlers and they,
too, have to adapt to their new circumstances.
Heathen hoard dwellers are evil and
hostile, and when their hoard of treasure is
threatened, they throw it into the sea or a
waterfall. Christian misers are one kind of
ghost who guard their treasure jealously.
The Catholics offered many measures
to deal with ghosts. After the Reformation,
there was an explosion in the number of
ghost stories. Sendings appeared after the
witch burnings of the 17th century. This,
too, is something I was aware of while
growing up in Gimli. Vengeful attendant
spirits – skotta and móri – were still being
talked about in the late 19th century.
There was more – much more – but it
cannot all be crammed into an article. During
the question-and-answer period someone
asked about vampires and zombies. Guðrún
replied that Icelanders were very practical.
They didn’t drive silver stakes through the
heart of someone they didn’t want walking,
haunting, causing mischief. They drove
steel spikes through his feet.
Guðrún is a professor of English
literature in the Faculty of Languages and
Cultures at the University of Iceland and
the director of the Literature, Culture,
and Media Graduate Program. She does
research focused on Icelandic Canadian
literature, cultural politics, multicultural
literature, narratology, and cross-cultural
mediation and adaptation of literature. She
is teaching a full-term course on the legacy
of Icelandic folklore, as well as giving
three public lectures. The lectures are free
and open to the public
Dr. Helga Thorson, the chair of the
Department of Germanic and Slavic
Studies, and the director of the Richard and
Margaret Beck Lecture Series, introduced
Guðrún and explained that three years
ago an agreement had been made with the
University of Iceland for a member of the
faculty to teach for a term each year at the
University of Victoria.
“Weird Visitations” explores Icelandic ghost lore
W.D. Valgardson
Victoria, BC
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evening of lights
Tribute Dinner in Honour of
Past Presidents, Directors,
Editors, & Volunteers
of Lögberg-Heimskringla, Inc.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Cocktails: 6:00 p.m. (cash bar)
Dinner and Program: 7:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Winnipeg South
1330 Pembina Hyway | Winnipeg, MB
More information inside...
PHOTO: W.D. VALGARDSON
Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir