Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.11.2018, Blaðsíða 5

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15. nóvember 2018 • 5
Unbelievable! Wow!
Incredible! I’m glad I
arrived early for Guðrún
Björk Guðsteinsdóttir’s second
Beck Lecture on “Giants and
Trolls” at the University of
Victoria on Sunday, October
28. I grabbed a chair in the
front row. My niece, Kim, got
the seat beside me. As large as
the room was, it was packed
and by the time the lecture
started, not only were the
regular chairs filled but so were
extra chairs along the wall. If I
were the head of an Icelandic
club, I’d be doing everything
I could to get Guðrún to come
and give these lectures. I don’t
know if she can fit any in but no
harm asking. Her Richard and
Margaret Beck appointment
is just for one term and it will
soon be over. As well as the
public lectures she is teaching
a credit course called the
Legacy of Icelandic Folklore
(GMST 369, Special Topics in
Scandinavian Studies).
Helga Thorson, the head of
German and Slavic Studies at
the University of Victoria, and
the head of the Beck lectures,
pointed out that this is the
thirtieth anniversary year for
this lecture series. It was created
when Dr. Richard and Margaret
Beck left their house to the
university so it could be sold
and the money used to provide
lectures on Iceland. Over the
years, Dr. John Tucker, Trish
Baer, and I ran the lectures;
then I retired, followed recently
by Dr. Tucker, and Trish Baer
has moved on to other things to
do with her Ph.D. in Medieval
Studies. Helga promised us that
after Guðrún’s third and final
public lecture there would be
an event. I’m hoping that it will
involve coffee and cake.
Guðrún oriented us toward
what she was going to say.
(She follows the rule of the
good lecturer: tell them what
you are going to tell them, tell
them it, then tell them what
you told them. This was also
Shakespeare’s strategy.) She
was, she said, going to tell us
about giants and trolls, then
she was going to tell us about
giants and trolls in the writing
of W.D. Valgardson and David
Arnason, and then about
Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason’s
The Young Icelander.
She quickly summarized
where the giants and trolls
came from. Thank goodness
this all was simultaneously
being shown on a screen at the
front of the room. She packed
a lot into a short time. Ymir
was spontaneously created
when Múspelheim (fire)
and Niflheimir (ice) met in
Ginnungagap. This also created
the cow Auðhumbla, which fed
the giant. Other giants were
conceived while Ymir slept.
They multiplied and their great-
grandsons tore Ymir apart to
create the world.
The world of the old faith
will end in Ragnarök, according
to the prophetess in the poem
Völuspá, by the forces of the
giants who storm the world
Ásgarður, kill the gods, and
swallow the sun and moon.
Giants were evil according
to Heimskringla, yet the frost
giant Surtur is on Iceland’s flag.
Troll was a synonym for
giant. Trylla meant to obey
magical power that is inherent
or learned; to craze, madden,
make wild, animalistic.
Ordinary beings could become
an evil troll, undead, elves,
dwarves, giants – all can be
referred to as trolls. Ármann
Jakobsson traces the original
meaning through medieval
times and the Icelandic sagas.
He says that trolls function
as metaphors. He had a book
called The Troll Within You
published in 2017.
Giant trolls start appearing
in the 11th century in kennings.
The stories become more
pervasive until the 14th
century. Most giant troll stories
were composed in medieval
times. There are numerous
bishops’ sagas that describe
bishops exorcising trolls. That
is exorcising – not exercising.
According to lore, the
male trolls became extinct,
which was why ogresses were
inclined to abduct men in hope
of maintaining the species.
They also liked human flesh.
Belief in the existence of trolls
was gone by 1600; only the
stories remained. A fascinating
aside that Guðrún made was
that ogresses didn’t like eating
someone who had just been to
church and had communion.
They didn’t taste good. Hearing
this, I thought that if I believed
in trolls, it would be a real
incentive to go to church and
take communion. When I go
to church in Gimli and take
communion, and then leave the
church, I will think about this.
I will also think about it when
I cross the bridge at Arborg,
which has a troll under it, or if I
go to the snake dens at Narcisse
where a troll lives on snakes.
She then discussed a
number of my stories in What
The Bear Said, which is a book
of folktales of Lake Winnipeg.
The tales are based on fragments
of folktales brought by the
original Icelandic settlers. She
pointed out that in these stories
ogres and trolls had to adjust to
the New World just as much as
the settlers.
She then talked about David
Arnason’s The Demon Lover
(2002). According to David’s
stories, Winnipeg is teeming
with ogres and trolls and the
ogresses are more enterprising
than the ogres. In one story, a
candidate running for mayor of
the city promises to get rid of
ogresses and their habitats if he
gets elected.
Then she talked about
Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason’s
(1866-1882) The Young
Icelander. First, she explained
the background: who it was
about, Eiríkur Hansson, and
the Icelandic settlement at
Mooseland Heights in Nova
Scotia (1874-1882). It depicts
two very different foster
mothers. A Mrs. Patrick fosters
Eiríkur and tries to impose
on him the old order of the
British Empire, tries to make
him forget his past, changes
his name. He runs away, is
captured, beaten, and locked
up, but he manages to get away
again and flees to Manitoba.
The second foster mother has
taken in a young Icelandic girl
but helps her integrate, helps
her keep her ties to Iceland, lets
her keep her old name, helps
her get an education.
This is a very brief
summary of the lecture. When
the lecture was over, people
stayed and the question-and-
answer session went on for
some time. What a great gift
that Richard and Margaret
Beck gave to our community.
Like Eiríkur, we need to fight
to save our history and our
identity. We are as Canadian
as Canadian can be, but just
like the apples in the orchards
on Salt Spring, we are all one
kind but each of us – Icelandic,
Danish, German, Norwegian,
Finnish, English, Ukrainian,
Aboriginal – has our own
history, our own look, and our
own flavor. Every year we see
that at Folklorama. Our flavor
comes from our secular history
but also from our mythology
and folktales, from Grýla and
the Yuletide Lads, from Surtur,
from our pagan and Christian
histories.
The crowd – and it was a
crowd – how would anyone
have guessed that on a drippy
day at the end of October,
there would be so many people
enamored of trolls and giants
that they would come in large
numbers to hear about them?
The third and final Beck
Lecture by Guðrún Björk
Guðsteinsdóttir – “Huldufolk
– Elves and Faeries” – will
be presented on Sunday,
November 25, 2018, 2:00 to
3:30 p.m., at the University of
Victoria’s Clearihue Building,
Room A212.
GIANTS AND TROLLS EVERYWHERE!
W.D. Valgardson
Victoria, BC
The room was packed for Guðrún’s second Beck Lecture. Ymir suckles from the cow Auðhumbla in a painting by Nicolai Abildgaard, 1790.
PHOTO: WD VALGARDSON PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir
PHOTO: WD VALGARDSON