The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1963, Síða 21

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
in the Marlborough Hotel I was
privileged to meet Professor SigurSur
Nordal. A number of my books were
printed at the Columbia Press, where
I came to be on excellent terms with
Einar Pall Jonsson in the editor’s
cubby-hole and with a brother of Dr.
Richard Beck in the back shop. Dr.
SigurSur Julius Johannesson generous-
ly translated some of my original poems
into racy Icelandic. My faithful cor-
respondents have included Johann
Magnus Bjarnason and Dr. Beck. Sever-
al of my Icelandic students, such as
Will Kristjanson and Jon (“Brosi”)
Bildfell, have remained close personal
friends through the years. And so I
might go on, and on.
But let me hasten on to give a pre-
liminary pattern to my address by call-
ing the roll of Icelandic Canadian
publications in poetry during the four
decades 1921-30, 1931-40,' 1941-50,
and 1951—60.
The first decade produced Thor-
steinn Th. Thorsteinsson’s Heimhugi
(1921), Volumes IV and V of Stephan
G.’s Andvokur, already noted, Jon
Rundlfsson’s Thogul Leiftur (1924),
Magnus Markusson’s Hljombrot (1924)
and Guttormur J. Guttormsson’s Gam-
an og Alvara (1930).
In the second decade followed Nik-
ulas Ottenson’s Minni Nyja Islands
(1934), Pall S. Palsson’s NorSur-Reykir
(1936), Jakobina Johnson’s Kertaljos
(1938), Johannes H. HunfjorS’s Omar
(1938), Jonas Stefansson fra Kaldbak’s
LjoSmaeli (1939), volume VI of Stephan
G.’s Andvokur (1939), edited by Rogn-
valdur Petursson and an Urval from all
six volumes of his poetry, edited by
SigurSur Nordal.
The roster for the third decade may
seem to be numerically more imposing
but we shall examine it critically at a
later stage. It includes the following:
Jakobina’s Sa eg svani (1942), Guttcrm-
ur’s Hunangsflugur (1944), Richard
Beck’s posthumous editions of the
KviSlingar og KvaeSi (1945) of K. N.
and the LjoOmaeli (1946) of J6nas A.
SiguriSsson, Sveinn Bjornsson’s A heiff-
arbrun (1946), VigMs Guttormsson’s
Eldflugur (1947), Pall s. Palsson’s Skila-
rett KvaeSi (1947), Guttormur’s collect-
ed poems in Kvaeffasafn (1948), Gisli
Jonsson’s posthumous editions of the
KvaeSi (1948) of Bjarni Thorsteinsson
fra Hofn and of theKvaeSabok (1949)
of Krist)an S. Palsson, and SigurSur
Julius Jdhannesson’s selected edition,
LjoS (1950).
The fourth decade opens with David
Bjornsson’sRosviSir (1952), followed by
Pall Bjarnason’s Fleygar (1953), Pdll
S. Palsson’s Eftirleit (1954), Jakobina’s
new collected edition of Kertaljos
(1956), Gisli Jonsson’s Fardagar (1956).
Guttormur’s Kanadathistill (1958),
Gisli Jonsson’s two-volume posthumous
edition of the LjoSmaeli (1959) of
Thorsteinn Th. Thorsteinsson, and
Richard Beck’s ViS ljoSalindir (1959).
There were also three volumes in Eng-
lish: Sktdi Johnson’s Selected Odes of
Horace (1952), Paul Bjarnason’s Odes
and Echoes (1954), and Jakobina John-
son’s Northern Lights (1959). All
through the four decades, Laura Good-
man Salverson, born in Winnipeg of
Icelandic stock in 1890, had been pub-
lishing six novels, a volume of poetry
and a volume of memoirs, all in the
English language. Three of her 'books
won Governor General’s medals.
Even a casual scrutiny of these lists
will reveal that there is little connec-
tion between the date of a poem’s
composition and the date of its publish-
ed inclusion in a book. The winds of
inspiration blow at the whim of the
Muse, but the hard dollars that are
needed to print a book may be slow in
accumulating. This was particularly
understandable during the early De-