The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1963, Blaðsíða 33

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
31
around at the altar and began reciting
the benediction, a gust of wind from
the West blew open the church doors.
Startled, the people turned and look-
ed outside. They saw an open door in
the Elf Hill through which they could
see radiant lights but when they looked
back (toward the priest, he had fallen
dead on the floor. The people were
greatly perturbed at this, and even
more so when they saw that the priest’s
father, at that same moment, had fall-
en dead from the altar bench on
which he had been placed.
The farmer from Laugar, who had
found Arnor in the hills, was present
and he told the whole story. There-
fore the people understood (that the
e 1 f-b i s h o p’s pronouncement that
Sveinn would die when next he saw
him had come true. For when the Elf
Hill was opened and the storm forced
open the doors of the church, the two
openings were face to face so that the
elf bishop and Sveinn looked into
each other’s eyes as they chanted the
liturgy. The doors of elf churches, in
contrast to the churches of humans,
always face East.
The community now decided to hold
a public meeting in order to discuss
this situation, and it was decided to
move the church from the hill, closer
to (the house, into a little hollow by a
brook. By doing this the house was
placed between the Elf Hill and the
church door, so that it would no long-
er be possible for a priest to see from
the altar through the church door to
the Elf Hill, and since that time no
such strange happenings have occured.
Iceland Review—A Significant Event
If someone in Iceland had made
the statement a quarter of a century
ago that within less than three
decades a periodical, entirely in the
English language, would be published
in Iceland, the mildest terms that
probably wotdd have been applied to
him would be that he was completely
incapable of understanding the Iceland-
ic people and all that their leaders
had fought for during the centuries.
Much stronger words might have been
used.
Now a magazine in the English
language, Iceland Review, has been
launched in Iceland. It is a quarterly
“on Icelandic industry, exports, social
and cultural affairs”. The magazine
has the support of the Government
and, rather significantly, the Intro-
duction is by the Minister of Educa-
tion, Gylfi I>. Gislason.
This unexpected step can hardly be
a mere accident. The only way to
understand and truly interpret it is to
understand its proper perspective,
that is, to view it in the light of the
amazing development of Icelandic for-
eign trade, and also, and perhaps more
particularly, to view it in the light of
the relationship between Icelandic
and the English language.
In so far as this is a trade magazine
the step is easily understood. English
is the main commercial language of
the world and as Iceland’s economic
existence depends upon foreign mar-
kets for its fish and fish products, it
is but a wise business transaction to
launch an English-language trade
magazine in Iceland.
But it may be that the reasons for
the magazine go much deeper than
trade relations, and that it is evidence