The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1964, Page 17

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
portant avenue towards an under-
standing of many other unwritten
stories of peoples elsewhere in the
world because the Icelandic story
teaches supremely well that uninter-
rupted human development can never
be taken for granted, that vigilance
and sacrifice must be unending, and
that only a people with a sense of unity
of purpose, no matter how few they
may be, can even by constant striving
move toward genuine freedom and
liberty and self-expression.
But in a very special sense the story
of Iceland is significant for people of
Icelandic origin. It is a story that can
perhaps only be appreciated fully by
those who still have in their possession
the key to the language. I recognize,
as I am sure you do, that fewer and
fewer Canadians of Icelandic origin
will find it possible as time goes on
■to gain possession of that key. What all
can do, however, and I believe it is be-
ing done extremely well here in Win-
nipeg, is to encourage and assist those
who wish to retain or acquire the Ice-
landic language because it will increas-
ingly be these people who must inter-
pret and pass on in another tongue the
intellectual and spiritual achievements
of Iceland. If they fail in that task the
intellectual and spiritual achievements
of the homeland will not be a Continu-
ing heritage.
With regard to this question of pre-
serving the language, there is another
fact which we should bear in mind.
Iceland is a small country with only
some 180,000 people. It is increasingly
subject to influences from abroad.
Some of these influences might in the
long run threaten the language itself.
Even in the Icelandic homeland it will
therefore be increasingly difficult to
preserve the language in its pure form.
All those who treasure the Icelandic
tongue, whether they themselves
possess it or not, will wish to see it pre-
served; they will wish to understand
the problem and to assist in whatever
way they can the Icelandic people in
their determination to ensure that this
great language of the past shall not
die or be lost to generations yet un-
born.
I have referred to lessons which may
be learned from the Icelandic story.
Those lessons are of special significance
to those who have Icelandic blood in
their veins. Recorded history tells us
that we had great ancestors and that
record reveals also the great traditions
of our forefathers.
These forefathers were in fact no
ordinary men. As we are told in the
Landnamabok — the Book of Settle-
ment-many of the settlers who came
to Iceland between 874 A.D. and 930
were of noble birth. The Landnama-
bok, compiled in the 12th and 13th
centuries, lists some four hundred of
the principal colonists, tells where
they came from, where they settled,
and how they lived. Thus we know
that they were for the most part of
Scandinavian stock and that they were
men of standing in the communities
from which they came. They were men
and women from Norway, Ireland,
Scotland, the Elebrides, Shetland and
the Orkney Islands. They abandoned
their homes in these regions by choice
in order to establish new homes in
Iceland, a barren and inhospitable is-
land, because they wished to live as
free men according to their convic-
tions. In America the Pilgrim Fathers,
of a much later day, embody a cherish-
ed tradition. Equally, the great tra-
dition of their Viking ancestors is one
that men and women of Icelandic
origin should cherish and respect. I