The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Page 31

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
29
“I carved them,” said the quiet farm-
er.
The lieutenant’s captain had often
wanted to punch the young man on
the nose. On this occasion he wished
merely to be an ignorant Icelandic
farmer with English books on his
shelves and home carved chessmen on
his table. It looked so very satisfying.
The Icelanders were understandably
frigid to uniforms but cordial indeed
to anything that might be classed as a
blue serge suit. The better briefed
among us were therefore able to make
the discovery that they are delightful
people, intelligent, cultivated and full
of the gifts of living. Their homes and
their hearts were warm and welcom-
ing and they were no less cordial
when we did not bring with us a bottle
of fine brew, than they were when we
did.
It was, however, better to bring one,
for they were hospitable people and
their own official government brew
was severely controlled and the sup-
plementary supplies (of wood and
potatoe alchohol) were dangerous to
moderate men or beasts. This led to
another popular judgment on them
by the foot soldiers of the Crown that
they were alchoholics to the last wean-
ed infant. But in a sustained visit I
never heard of an Icelander who died
from it, and I recall, I think, five
Anglo-American deaths from meth,
diluted shoe polish and other fine
wines.
“They are lazy louts”, was the judg-
ment of the rank and file of “C” Force.
The judgment arose because of the
peculiarly civilized Icelandic habit of
justifying official days off on the slight-
est pretext. I never met people who
had less trouble with and more time
for “the problem of leizure”. Their
severe climate, their mature capacity
for relationships and their inner re-
sources developed in isolation, gave
them a capacity for quiet personal
pleasure and a tolerance in it that was
deeply humane an dcivilized.
Courtesy The Winnipeg Free Press
A guest of the Icelandic Airlines,
LoftleiSir, the Icelandic National
League and Manitoba friends, Gutt-
ormur J. Guttormsson, well known Ice-
landic Canadian poet and a pioneer
of New Iceland, now the Gimli dist-
rict, left in June for a visit to Iceland.
He was accompanied by his daughter,
Mrs. Bergljot Sigurdson, of Winnipeg.
Mr. Guttormsson visited Iceland in
1938 at the invitation of the govern-
ment of Iceland. *
The Vancouver Icelandic male voice
choir under the direction of Sigur-
bjorn Sigurdson on May 8 presented
its annual concert in the lower hall of
the Icelandic Lutheran Church in
Vancouver. Featured along with num-
bers by the full choir were solo and
quartette numbers by choir members
as well as a string ensemble. The audi-
ence was welcomed by choir president,
Hermand Eyford.
★