The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1954, Síða 45

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
43
3celand’d TJkoudand \J[ea%d
by MARY-LYNNE RYCKMAN
Iceland’s Thousand Years, a series
of lectures on the history and litera-
ture of Iceland, was edited by Profes-
sor Skull Johnson, head of the Classics
department at the University of Mani-
toba, and published in Winnipeg in
1945, with a second edition in 1946.
“Iceland’s Thousand Years” contains
many interesting lectures. The one
which I found most outstanding is
“The Dark Ages in Iceland”, by Holni-
fridur Danielson. This lecture deals
with the period of time between 1262
and 1800—a period of natural catast-
rophies. Famines, the Black Death, the
small pox plague, and volcanic erup-
tions killed great masses of cattle and
people. During this time, Iceland was
under the rule of Norway, and later
Denmark ruled. The Icelanders had
to endure harsh, unjust laws, as well
as natural disasters. The oppression of
some of the Catholic clergy was anoth-
er adversity they had to overcome.
Despite all this, Icelandic culture has
been preserved. Although many schools
were closed the thirst for knowledge
was great. Sagas were read and re-
read; the Edda poems were memorized;
everything that was avaliable in writ-
ing was greedily absorbed by the Ice-
landers. Mental and spiritual elements
were the dominant influence in their
existence and only through these, did
they survive.
The style of “Iceland’s Thousand
Years” is conversational, detailed,
didactic, factual, and highly organized.
Its conversational characteristic comes
from the fact that it is a series of lec-
tures, originally given at The Iceland-
ic Canadian Evening School in Win-
nipeg. Detail and fact are contained
in these lectures. The “fact” is con-
nected largely with the history, and
the “detail” is found in the sections
dealing with the literature of Iceland.
Both these sections do, however, con-
tain both detail and fact. This book
is didactic because it uses comparisons
and examples to make clearer the
points it is trying to put forth. “Ice-
land’s Thousand Years” is very highly
organized. The lecturers are placed in
a chronological sequence, starting first
with a sketch of the geography of Ice-
land, then, the colonization of Iceland,
continuing with history, up to 1944.
Therefore, to sum up the strong points,
“Iceland’s Thousand Years” is a de-
tailed, didactic, factual, highly organ-
ized, and very converational book.
“Iceland’s Thousand Years” is a very
outstanding historical book on Iceland,
its people and its culture. It contains
a fund of knowledge about Icelandic
history from the colonization upto the
twentieth century. The colonization of
Greenland and the discovery of Amer-
ica are also dealt with. The lectures
are very well written, in a vivid man-
ner. This book has, however, some
weaknesses. One of them is the fact
that too many names are mentioned
and it is impossible to remember all
the connections. Accompanying every
name is a reference to some one else,
(either a niece, a son-in-law, a step-
father, or a brother.) Another weak-
ness is the fact that Icelandic terms are
used. Although these terms are ex-
plained when they are first introduced,
there are too many to remember. To
a person who has a knowledge of the