The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1963, Page 19

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
17
Four Decades of Icelandic Poetry
in Canada — 1922—1962
(A lecture delivered at the University of Iceland by WATSON K1RKCONNELL)
Watson Kirkconncll
I came to Winnipeg, the capital of
the Icelanders of the Diaspora, in the
year 1922, about half way in time be-
tween the founding of Nyja Island
and the present day. In September of
that year I was appointed to the facult)
of Wesley College, an affiliated part
of the University of Manitoba. Among
my colleagues were two Icelanders,
both now dead—the classics professor,
Skuli Johnson, who had been a Mani-
toba Rhodes Scholar at Oxford Univer-
sity, and the mathematics professor,
Olaf T. Anderson. Numerous younger
Icelandic-Canadians were students in
my classes. Skuli taught both Icelandic
and Latin in the College and there
were several shelves of Icelandic books
in the library. I could not help be-
coming excitedly aware of tides of Ice-
landic culture that were then running
high in the Canadian West.
It was a strategic time to encounter
the Icelandic-Canadian poets. Of the
great pioneer generation, only Sigur-
bjorn Johannsson (1839-1903) and
Kristinn Stefansson (1856-1916) had
died. Of some 24 major volumes of
poetry already published since the mi-
gration to Canada, all but three had
been printed since the turn of the
century and several just before my ar-
rival. During my first year in the West
the greatest poet of the Emigration,
Stephan G. Stephansson (1853-1927).
was still alive at the age of seventy, and
two of his main volumes, Andvokur,
IV and V, were being published by
popular subscription and seen through
the press in Winnipeg (Heimskringla
Press). In the following year, 1924,
Magnus Markusson’s Hljombrot and
Jon Runolfsson’s Thogul Leiftur also
appeared; and the two Icelandic week-
lies, Heimskringla and Logberg, were
spangled with lyrics from dozens of
other pens. The Timarit of the Ice-
landic National League had been
founded in 1920, only two years before
my settling in Winnipeg, and was rich
in the creative literature of the Ice-
landers “west of the Ocean”. Thus
arose the odd circumstance that I came
to know Icelandic poetry first in its
North American incarnation and only
later extended my studies to its ancient