The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Blaðsíða 4

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 194S
cA J4ome 3oX j\otclic Culture 3n 7jhe %Ve3t
EDITORIAL
That which has inherent worth is of
timeless value. It may be spiritual such
as religious beliefs, Christianity itself,
which, as Dean Inge says “is not a re-
ligion but religion in its most universal
and deepest significance”. It may be a
conception or principle of life such as de-
mocracy, unchanging in its essentials
but beautifully variant in its outward
forms. Or it may be a culture, rooted in
the past, yet of the present, a culture
retained in a language and a literature
which are the living embodiments of
that culture.
Man wants to guard whatever is prec-
ious and dear to him and is willing to
make sacrifices for it. It may be his own
or it may be something which he has in
common with others. If of the latter
type he may join with them in asking
for sacrifices to preserve it. In that case,
however, two essential requirements
should be present: its inherent value and
the permanence of the form in which
it is to be retained or the institution in
whioh it is to be housed. If so then the
battle of the day for its preservation has
little meaning. Being of enduring value
it is as the seed in the ground which
may lie dormant only to sprout as it
feels the rays of the spring sun. It may
flourish, wither away, but phoenix like
rise up again.
★
Nordic culture, which now may be
called Icelandic culture, as it is in Ice-
land and only there where it has been
preserved and nurtured, is in that third
category. Its inherent value is beyond
dispute; the permanence of its abode
in its island home is assured and need
cause no fears. Can a home for it be
found in the Wiest?
Icelandic culture was brought over
in the hearts and the minds of the thous-
ands of immigrants from Iceland who
settled in America. It has temporarily
been retained through the spoken lang-
uage in the home and the church, in the
reading of' newspapers, modern literat
ure and the sagas. Aside from these
more outward and hence more vulner-
able forms, a feeling of loyalty, a pride
of birth and a sense of real values have
been transmitted to children and child-
ren’s children, so strong, that no outside
influences have as yet appreciably dis-
turbed them. Will that endure or is it
necessary to find a permanent home
for Icelandic culture from which those
very qualities of heart and mind will
perpetually draw strength and vitality.
Viewed in retrospect, the cold, cruel
facts, if you will, appear ominous. A
mere seventy years, the allotted life
span of a human being, the years from
1875 to 1945 tell the story. In 1875 a
colony on the shores of Lake Winnipeg,
more a colony of Iceland than of Can-
ada, with a form of local administra-
tion all its own, every word spoken in
Icelandic, thoughts based upon exper-
iences in Iceland, every hope born in a
Nordic bosom; in 1945, English the lang-
uage of the street and in most of the
homes, services in the “Icelandic church-
es” half in English, half in Icelandic,
the language of every organization, save
one, almost entirely in English, over
eighty per cent of the marriages “mix-
ed”. The conclusion is inescapable: a
Lome has to be found for Icelandic cult-
ure — a home that will endure and not
suffer through the ravages of time or the
inexorable consequences of place and
circumstance.
The only permanent home in the West
for Icelandic culture is a Chair in Ice-
landic language, history and literature
at the university in the province where
the largest number of people of Iceland-
ic extraction reside.
★
Hope for the establishment of such