The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Síða 14

12
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 194G
cA Chait 0/ Scelandic dgcinguage and J^itexatuxe
3n TJlie tinivexiitg Of) Aianitoba
In September 1877, Lord Dufferin, then
Governor General of Canada, paid an
official visit to the Icelandic .settlement
at Gimli. After comparing their new
homes and gardens and little clearings
on the West shore of Lake Winnipeg
with the farmsteads he had visited in
Iceland many years earlier, he said, “I
welcome you to this country . . . and
remember that in coming among us, you
will find yourselves associated with a
race both kindly hearted and cognate to
your own; nor in becoming Englishmen
or subjects of Queen Victoria need you
forget your own time-honoured customs
or the picturesque annals of your fore-
fathers. On the contrary, I trust you will
continue to cherish for all time the heart-
stirring literature of your nation, and
that from generation to generation your
little ones will continue to learn in your
ancient sagas that industry, energy,
fortitude, perseverance, and stubborn
endurance have ever been the character-
istics of the noble Icelandic race.” Ear-
lier in his address, he made this signifi-
cant observation: “I have not entered a
single hut or cottage in the settlement
which did not contain, no matter how
bare its walls, or scanty its furniture, a
library of twenty or thirty volumes; and
I am informed that there is scarcely a
child amongst you who cannot read and
write.”
Some sixty odd years later, Lord
Tweedsmuir, then Governor General of
Canada and a distinguished scholar, ad-
dressing himself to the peoples of various
origins, urged them not to lose or neglect
their inheritance. He suggested that their
particular contribution to Canada should
be, in part, based on those qualities and
customs which they had brought with
them from the lands across the sea.
It is now over one thousand years
since that small island, situated in the
North Atlantic, partly within the West-
ern Hemisphere and partly in the East-
ern Hemisphere was first colonized by
people who came direct from Norway or
who had sojourned for a time in North-
ern Scotland and Northern Irelaied and
others whom they brought with them.
Since the year 874, the population of
Iceland has varied from 20,000 to
130,000 people. During the intervening
centuries, its people have made a val-
uable contribution in the realm of liter-
ature, culture and representative forms
of government. Lord Stanley, spokesman
for the delegates representing the Brit-
ish Parliament at the Millennial cele-
bration of the Icelandic Althing in 1930,
made this significant statement: “We
as representatives of the Mother of Parl-
iaments come to salute the Grandmother
of Parliaments.”
The contribution to the literature of
Northern Europe in the middle ages was
predominantly Norse and is preserved
in the original form in the language
which was spoken and understood in the
Northern European countries, including
The British Isles, during many centuries.
This language is Icelandic. The most
effective form of speech in English, in
fact the language of the common man,
is to be found in the purely Anglo-Saxon
words. The roots of much of this portion
of our English language are found in
modern Icelandic. It is worth noting that
about 39 unversities and colleges in the
world, now offer instruction in Icelandic.
The establishment of a Chair in Ice-
landic Language and Literature in the
University of Manitoba, supported by
donations from people of Icelandic de-
scent, has been the cherished hope of
many people for years. It is the opinion
of many staunch friends of Iceland that
a Chair in the University would provide