The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1955, Page 29

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
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and richly decorated. Its most unique
attraction is its renowned medieval
clock, equipped with two dials 'be-
tween which appears on the stroke of
twelve o’clock noon on Wednesdays,
and an hour later on Sundays and
other holy days, the Three Kings pay-
ing their homage to the Virgin Mary
and Child, at the same time as the
clock chimes out the sonorous mediev-
al hymn of adulation: “In dulci
jubilo.” It is a deeply moving ex-
perience to join, as it were, in the
homage of (the Three Kings to the
Virgin and the Infant Saviour, and
thus become one with the generations.
This visit to Lund was, in a sense,
a fitting climax to our sojourn in
Scandinavia, for shortly afterwards, as
guests of Icelandic Airlines, we flew
from Copenhagen to Reykjavik. En
route we stopped briefly at Sola Air-
field near Stavanger, and once more
had a glimpse of historical Hafrsfjord,
which again brought to our mind the
close ties linking Norway and Iceland.
Our final week in Iceland was a
busy one, crowded with public and
private functions, again amply attesting
the proverbial Icelandic hospitality.
These last days in Iceland also included
visits to places of special interest. At the
kind invitation of Mayor Gunnai
Thoroddsen of Reykjavik, we inspect-
ed the capital’s thermal heating plant,
from which the water from the hot
springs in the vicinity is piped into
the city for heating purposes; and we
were also shown the city’s hydro-
electric power station at Ljosafoss ori
the River Sog. These are really re-
markable developments and are strik-
ing illustrations of the increasing use
which the Icelanders are making of
their great natural resources.
Thanks to my cousin Eysteinn Jons-
son, the Minister of Finance in the
Icelandic Government, we were also
able to visit the interesting Reykjanes
peninsula with its “extensive fields of
black lava eroded into fantastic
shapes”, to borrow an apt description
from Mrs. Beck’s address on our Ice-
landic visit. In the course of this trip
during our last Sunday in Iceland we
visited the historic Strandarkirkja,
situated on the southern coast of the
peninsula, and also saw Herdisarvik,
where the poet Einar Benediktsson
spent the last years of his life.
As we spent the evening with
relatives and friends in HafnarfjorS-
ur on the way back to Reykjavik, we
saw one of those marvellous Icelandic
sunsets which defy description; and
only an evening or two before we had
seen the sky aflame with surging seas
of Northern lights, for now it was
early in the fall.
The next evening, on September
7th, we flew back home to the United
States with Icelandic Airlines, our
pilgrimage to Norseland completed.
Spiritually and culturally, it had
been an enriching experience beyond
ordinary calculation. In Iceland and
Norway, in particular, we had come to
realize better than ever before how
deeply our racial and cultural roots
are embedded in the soil of the North.
In short, we returned to America with
a deeper appreciation of our rich
cultural heritage and with com-
mensurate admiration for the progres-
sive and liberty-loving Northern na-
tions whose traditional pioneering
spirit expresses itself in peaceful pur-
suits at home and abroad.