Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.11.2018, Blaðsíða 15

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. nóvember 2018 • 15
them talking Icelandic or any
discussions we had being about
Icelandic subjects. However, a
process began to draw us into
the Icelandic community. There
were coffees at Walter Lindal’s
and, if I remember correctly, I
found myself discussing The
Icelandic Canadian magazine.
Somehow, I got involved in
the local Icelandic club. There
may have been meetings at
Will Kristjanson’s. Caroline
Gunnarsson became part of
my life. These were stalwarts,
promoters of all things
Icelandic. Walter and Will both
wrote important books about
the Icelandic communities.
Caroline was an editor.
Somewhere in there was
Professor Haraldur Bessason,
the head of the Icelandic
department at the University
of Manitoba. He was offering
a non-credit course in the
evenings. It was the sagas in
translation. My wife and I took
it. The Icelandic department
and the Icelandic library had
begun to play their part.
Terry and Lorna Tergesen
drew me into creating a
literary event at the Icelandic
celebration.
And there is where it all
starts to break down. You see,
my Gimli experience wasn’t all
that Icelandic. I loved perogies
fried with onions and served
with sour cream, holopchi
baked in tomato sauce, bowls
of bright red borscht made with
beets straight from the garden,
turkey, dressing, mashed
potatoes, pickerel fillets, sweet
and sour pickerel, Cantonese
food from Sam Toy’s café.
I loved going to Ukrainian
weddings and dancing the
polka and the butterfly. Add to
that, the airport two miles from
town with Air Force personnel
from all over Canada and,
eventually, from all over the
world, meant I was used to
hearing French being spoken in
Olsen’s bakery or Bjarnason’s
general store.
There were, of course,
Icelandic elements. Local
women knitted sweaters made
from Icelandic wool. There
was Betel, the Icelandic old
folks’ home. Tergesen’s store
was an anchor for all things
Icelandic. There were women
who, on special occasions,
wore the Icelandic dresses that
women wore during the time
of immigration. There were a
lot of Icelandic books around
because Icelanders are great
readers and writers. However,
if any of my classmates could
read Icelandic, I didn’t know
about it.
But the Gimli experience
was skating and hockey,
curling, eating pickerel fillets,
stuffed whitefish, smoked
goldeye – not cod, fresh or
dried – although some people
did still make hardfish. We
didn’t practice glíma, Icelandic
wrestling. Instead, we played
soccer on snow-covered fields.
We hunted rabbits and deer,
geese and ducks. Some of us
had trap lines for rabbits and
muskrats.
In Iceland, the Little Ice
Age put an end to growing grain
because the fall in temperature
meant that grain would not
ripen. Icelanders did not farm.
They grazed sheep and milk
cows. In Gimli, the settlers
had to become farmers and
freshwater fishermen. Farmers
broke land, learned to plough,
to seed, to harvest grain – rye,
oats, wheat, barley. I grew up
with my father fishing through
four to six feet of ice with nets
created for Lake Winnipeg.
In Iceland there were no
forests; Gimli was surrounded
by forests. Wood in Iceland
was rare and expensive; in
Gimli, we built with wood,
heated our houses with wood,
cooked our food with wood.
One of my childhood tasks was
throwing stove wood into the
basement in the fall. We lived
in a wood economy.
In Iceland there was a
homogeneous population. In
one of the travel books I’ve
read, an Icelandic farmer says
to a visiting Englishman that
he is the only foreigner he’s
ever seen in his lifetime and
he expects that he will never
see another. In Gimli, we dealt
with “foreigners” every day.
My mother and her parents
were foreigners, so were all
the Ukrainians, Germans, and
Poles. There were the summer
cottagers, many originally
from the United Kingdom but
also many Jewish immigrants
from Europe. There were the
local aboriginals.
There were few “real”
Icelanders – that is, Icelanders
who came from Iceland –
during the time that I was a
child. There were a couple of
ministers and a fellow called
Ragnar. The only person I
knew who went to Iceland to
visit was my great-aunt, Stina.
She was going to come back
and tell us about all the bishops
and poets and rich farmers
who were our ancestors. When
she came back, she never said
a word about her trip. Our
ancestors were indentured
servants, farm labourers and,
in some cases, had children out
of wedlock or were married
numerous times because their
wives died in childbirth. Her
dream of a past filled with
prestige and glory died like
the grass in a cold Icelandic
summer. We can’t claim to be
related to Snorri Sturluson or
any Viking heroes.
Stina’s belief in a golden
past when our ancestors weren’t
poverty-stricken sharecroppers
or indentured servants wasn’t
so strange. A characteristic of
Icelanders is an abiding belief
in a glorious, golden past
during the Viking age. The fact
that there were hundreds upon
hundreds of years of poverty,
of domination first by Norway,
then Denmark, makes no
difference. Icelanders, in their
heart of hearts, know that not
too long ago their ancestors
were raiding and pillaging,
driving their foes before
them, risking everything on
endurance, bravery, and good
luck. Never mind all those
hundreds of years of sheep
farmers.
Maybe that’s one of the
reasons I like Icelanders. They
are, on the surface, restrained
– so much so that there are
discussions and speeches about
whether or not Icelanders
actually have a sense of
humour. However, scratch the
surface or have a couple of
drinks with them and a romantic
streak is revealed. They don’t
see themselves as bus drivers,
fishermen, dentists, caretakers,
or stockbrokers. No sirree!
Beneath those daily facades,
they are Vikings. Those suits,
white coats, or overalls cover
up a Viking heart ready on
a moment’s notice to row a
longship into the North Sea in
search of wealth and fame.
Even those of us who have
only three-eighths Icelandic
blood share those distant
dreams and memories. That
belief in a golden age survived
centuries of oppression, dire
poverty, devastating epidemics,
starvation, volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, and fjords filled
with ice. Generation after
generation said, “Well, things
are pretty bad right now but
there was a time when we
ruled the seas, when we were
honoured guests at the king’s
table, when no one spun
greater stories than us.” That
attitude served us well during
the time of emigration. Faced
with starvation and oppression,
people emigrated to North
America. In the early years,
New World hardship replaced
Old World hardship. People
went hungry, died from
everything it was possible to
die from, struggled to survive,
sometimes failed, but they still
had those memories of the
ancient past to comfort them.
Maybe part of my interest
in all things Icelandic is that
I’m linked to this difficult
past. We celebrate and honour
the people who died and those
who survived the trip from
Iceland to the New World,
who survived Kinmount, who
survived the cold and poor food
and smallpox at New Iceland.
Hardship and overcoming it
shapes people, determines what
they believe, how they behave,
creates an identity separate
from those who did not share
the experience.
So, who am I? Where did I
come from? How can anyone
know who they are without
knowing their past? Without
kings and queens, without
wealth, without great cathedrals
or mansions, Icelanders chose
to determine their worth on
their behaviour.
“Cattle die and kinsmen
die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I
ween, will die, –
fair fame of one who has
earned.”
(From Hávamál)
My latest novel, In
Valhalla’s Shadows, has a
scene where one of the women
nicknamed the Norns, the
sisters who predict the future
and weave our fates, quotes this
stanza to the main character,
Tom Parsons. Reputation is
everything. My mother didn’t
quote these exact lines to me
when I was a teenager and did
something stupid, but she did
say, “Why would you do that?
You are a Valgardson.”
Pretty close. The quote,
as relevant as it was in
ancient times and during my
adolescence is even more
relevant today in the world of
social media. So is the novel.
evening of lights
Tribute Dinner in Honour of
Past Presidents, Directors,
Editors, & Volunteers
of Lögberg-Heimskringla, Inc.
SPONSORSHIP
The ljósanótt tribute dinner will be our Icelandic community’s opportunity to
say thank you for the incredible contribution these individuals have made to the
newspaper.

We are looking to leaders in our community to help sponsor this event so that
tickets for this celebration can be made available at a reasonable price so that as
many people as possible can attend. You can help in the following ways:
Óðinn Sponsor: at the $2,500 level will receive 16 tickets or 2 tables.
The table will be identifi ed with the Sponsor’s name, a special mention of the
Óðinn Sponsor in the ljósanótt program. Identifi cation will be displayed in a
video presentation. A charitable receipt for a portion of the sponsorship
amount will be issued.
Þór Sponsor: at the $1,500 level will receive 8 tickets or one table. The table
will be identifi ed with the Sponsor’s name, a special mention of the Þór Sponsor
in the ljósanótt program. Identifi cation will be displayed in a video presentation.
A charitable receipt for a portion of the sponsorship amount will be issued.
Freyr Sponsor: at the $1,000 level will receive 7 tickets. The table will be
identifi ed with the Sponsor’s name, a special mention of the Freyr Sponsor in
the ljósanótt program. Identifi cation will be displayed in a video presentation.
A charitable receipt for a portion of the sponsorship amount will be issued.
Baldur Sponsor: at the $850 level will receive 3 tickets. The table will be
identifi ed with the Sponsor’s name, a special mention of the Baldur Sponsor in
the ljósanótt program. Identifi cation will be displayed in a video presentation.
A charitable receipt for a portion of the sponsorship amount will be issued.
Iðunn Sponsor: at the $250 level will receive 2 tickets. The table will be
identifi ed with the Sponsor’s name, a special mention of the Iðunn Sponsor in
the ljósanótt program. Identifi cation will be displayed in a video presentation.
A charitable receipt for a portion of the sponsorship amount will be issued.
Lögberg-Heimskringla would be most grateful if you would consider becoming a
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Christkindlmarkt
CALL 204-989-8300 or email: ckm@gccmb.ca www.gccmb.ca
$2.00 admission, $5.00/family, parking available
Traditional German Christmas market with crafts, bakery,
café, German imports and entertainment
Fort Garry Place Mall - behind Hotel Fort Garry
November 30, Dece,ber 1 &2, 2018
Friday doors open at 12:00pm