Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.01.2018, Blaðsíða 1

Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.01.2018, Blaðsíða 1
LÖGBERG HEIMSKRINGLA The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 1 January 2018 • Number 01 / Númer 01 • 1. janúar 2018 Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014 ISSN: 0047-4967 VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.LH-INC.CA Jennifer Lawrence will star in Burial Rites / page 2 Agnes revealed PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN Yrsa Sigurðardóttir reflects on an Icelandic tradition / page 5 Jólabókaflóð PHOTO: JENNA BOHOLIJ New ambassador builds more than diplomatic relationships / page 10 Building boats PHOTO: JÓHANNA GUNNARSDÓTTIR Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson will be the first goði ever to visit North America. Allsherjargoði Hilmar – that is, the high priest or chief goði – is an incredibly talented composer and, for many years, Matthew Patton, curator of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival, has wanted to commission Hilmar to create a major piece for his festival. This year he succeeded. Hilmar has created a 45-minute orchestral and choral piece based on the creation of the universe. It is interesting that the creation story in the Pagan tradition begins with Ginnungagap, a gaping abyss or yawning void, which is amazingly similar to our big bang theory. So, what is a goði? To explain what a goði is (plural: goðar), we have to look back a long ways. On a midsummer day, 1,087 years ago, 36 of the 39 Icelandic goðar met at a farm that had been confiscated from a murderer. The farm sat on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, so it was partly in Europe and partly in North America. Here they decided that they must find a mechanism for 39 “clans” to live together peacefully without a king. Each of the 39 groups had fled from Norway, or the Norwegian settlements in the Celtic world, to Iceland to escape the perceived tyranny of King Harald Fairhair, who was attempting to bring all of the goðar in Norway and the goðar in the settled territories under his domination. To them, Harald was an equal and they could not bow down to an equal. Harald’s combined army in Norway had defeated their combined army and Harald was sending his armies into the Celtic settlements in an attempt to bring them under his control. Some sought refuge in Iceland, bringing all of their followers, freemen, servants, slaves, and all of their possessions, including livestock, almost 1,500 kilometres (nearly 1,000 miles) across the treacherous North Atlantic to Iceland. The 36 goðar who met at Þingvellir on that day in 930 did something very extraordinary: they agreed that the 39 groups would create a government with an elected lawspeaker to replace the king and therefore they would become the first people in the world, from that point on, to live by the rule of law and they would become a country, Iceland. So, what is a goði? The Germanic world began in Scandinavia but spread to include much of Western Europe, including the Anglo Saxons in Britain. Their culture was informed by a belief system that we today call Paganism. They were divided into hundreds of small groups and the leader of each of these groups, according to the Proto-Germanic Dictionary, was called a guda – gudan meaning preist. The word gudan may be related to Wōtan (Óðinn in Icelandic), the highest of the gods. They were leaders of a warrior society and their values were courage, truth, honour, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, indu- striousness, self-reliance, and perseverance. While the goðar were priests, they also led their followers in all secular matters from commerce to war. Oath-breaking, murder, or adultery could earn you a place in Hel, where a terrible serpent would suck the blood out of you and you would be stored until the terrible twilight of the gods, when you would fight on the side of the forces of darkness. The greatest honour was to die courageously in battle, where you would be swept up by a beautiful Valkyrie, who would carry you off to Valhalla where you would be restored to life and health and become an adopted son of Óðinn, leading an idyllic life of fighting all day and feasting all night, preparing to fight on the side of light at the apocalyptic war, Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods. There were hundreds of goðar throughout the Germanic world. The Romans could never understand how people with no large cities could stand up to the power of the greatest empire in the West, boasting the largest and most sophisticated city in the world, and commanding 20 percent of the world’s population. They did not understand that a common belief system, based on courage and honour, would not allow them to be bullied by their powerful neighbor. In Iceland, Christianity replaced this belief system in 1000 CE – democratically, by a single vote. Pagan worship continued to be allowed in private, but after this Iceland would be Christian. At the time of the summer solstice of 1972, Iceland officially recognized its ancient religion once again and the current leader of Ásatrúarfelagið (The Pagan Society) is Allsherjargoði Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. Come to the WSO New Music Festival and be present for at the world premiere of Hilmar’s magnificent creation, The Creation of the Universe. You may have the opportunity to meet the first goði ever to visit North America. HILMAR ÖRN HILMARSSON, HIGH PRIEST AND COMPOSER, COMING TO WINNIPEG Peter Johnson Winnipeg, MB PHOTO: HAUKUR ÞORGEIRSSON / CC BY-SA 3.0 Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson INSIDE

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