Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.01.2018, Síða 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