The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1954, Blaðsíða 15

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
13
THE FRONT COVER VERSE
The verse on the front cover is from
a poem by Bjami Thorarensen,
translated by Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefans-
son. It is selected primarily as an il-
lustration of the metre in the first and
some of the other poems of the Elder
Edda (Saemundar Edda hins froiSa). In
referring to that first poem, “Voluspa”
(The Sybil’s Prophecy), Edmund
Gosse, an Englishman of letters, who
at the turn of the century was librarian
to the House of Lords, says:
“The charm and solemn beauty of
the style are irresistible and we are
constrained to listen and revere, as if
we were the auditors of some fugual
music and long-buried deity. The
melodies of this earliest Icelandic
verse, elaborate in their extreme and
severe simplicity, are wholly rhythmical
and alliterative, and return upon
themselves like a solemn incantation.”
The magazine hopes to be able to
quote from “Voluspa” in future issues.
Bjami Thorarensen was one of the
early nineteenth century poets of Ice-
land. The original of the translated
stanza is:
“Hver riSur svo geyst
a gullinbruvu,
havan of hifin,
hesti snalitum,
hnalega hristanda
hrimgan makka,
eldi hreifanda
undan stalskoflum?
IN THE EDITOR’S CONFIDENCE
According to the Bard,
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley”.
The Icelandic Canadian finds it-
self in the same position as ‘mice an’
men’. It has been stated in a previous
editorial that the spring issue would
feature Icelandic contacts along the
Atlantic seaboard, and westward to the
Great Lakes in the north and to the
Mississippi in tire south. Due in part
to circumstances over which we had
little control and in part to the Chair-
man’s inexperience, the only article
dealing with eastern matters is, “What
Makes Toronto Tick?’ by J. Ragnar
Johnson, Q.C. which was received early
in February.
An unforeseen flood of good ma-
terial, much of which would have be-
come dated if deferred, arrived dur-
ing the latter part of February. This
together with material postponed from
our previous issue far exceeded our
capacity to publish in one issue, limit-
ed as we are by financial considerations
to approximately forty pages of read-
ing matter.
Accordingly, with the gracious con-
sent of its authors, fine articles by Mrs.
Svanhvit Josie of Baltimore, Rev V.
Emil Gudmundson of Ellsworth,
Maine, Dr. Stefan Einarsson of Balti-
more, Miss Dolores Randall of Seattle,
and Dr. Tryggvi J. Oleson of Winni-
peg must await our next publication.
In effect, our original plan to feature
the East has been deferred until the
summer issue of our magazine.
The Editorial Board is deeply ap-
preciative of the time and effort ex-
pended by the aforementioned contrib-
utors, whose ‘labor of love’ assures our
readers of an interesting summer is-
sue. A. V.