The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Síða 26

24
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1968
Sesselja Eldjarn
Miss Sesselja Eldjarn, an aunt of
Kristjan Eldjarn, the President of Ice-
land, spent about a month last summer
risking in Manitoba. She was the guest
of Mr. Gudjon and Petrina Arnason
of Gimli, and Mr. Theodor, son of
Gudjon, and Marjorie Arnason, form-
erly of Gimli and now of Winnipeg.
Sesselja is related to the Arnasons and
to Marjorie. While in Manitoba she
more or less commuted -between the
two homes.
Sesselja Eldjarn was born at Tjorn
in SvarfaSadal in EyjafjarSarsysla in
the north of Iceland. For many years
she has resided in Akureyri. It was in
Akureyri, where, with her sister Ingi-
bjorg, she maintained what may be
termed a combination of a boarding-
house and a home of culture. When
Kristjan Eldjarn was attending school
in Akureyri he stayed at his aunt’s
boardinghouse and breathed in his full
share of the atmosphere of that humble
yet cultural home. Miss Eldjarn could
give the names of several of Iceland’s
men of stature who shared that same
nourishment in their boyhood years.
Sesselja has inherited her full share
of Icelandic stoicism and courage. The
day before she left Iceland she broke
her left arm close to the wrist. The
following day was her seventy-fifth
birthday. But neither accident nor age
stopped this modern Bergjmra. She
had her arm put in a caste and left for
Canada, arriving in Winnipeg on Sat-
urday the third of August. The follow-
ing day her brother, borarinn Eldjarn,
the President’s father, died suddenly.
The President cabled Sesselja the sad
news and urged her to complete the
trip as planned.
The Icelandic Day annual celebra-
tion took place in Gimli the follow-
ing day. Miss Sesselja Eldjarn, in her
stately Icelandic costume, sat in the
audience close to the front during the
afternoon programme. The mingling
of national pride and sudden personal
bereavement in her countenance was
as the sun, as it, at times, penetrates
an opening in thunder clouds.
Sesselja carried on her planned trip
and, as invitations for visits crowded
in, she extended it, and on September
6, in company with Mrs. Marjorie
Arnason, started her return air jour-
ney, stopping off at Toronto in order
to see Niagara Falls, and then proceed-
ed with Marjorie to New York where
she boarded a LoftleiSir plane for Ice-
land.
The visit of Sesselja Eldjarn to Can-
ada has all the appearances of some-
thing which has been fated. Actually
the original plan had been to go to
the Scandinavian countries and not to
Canada.
In Iceland, as might be expected,
there is a very active society called
“Slysavarnarfelag”—an “Accident Prev-
ention Society’’, largely engaged in
rescue work at sea and in the moun-
tains. It has a number of branches and
there are women’s auxiliaries. Sesselja
Eldjarn founded the auxiliary in Ak-
ureyri and has been its president ever
since. This year 'the rescue society is
celebrating its fortieth anniversary
and in recognition of Sesselja’s long
and conscientious service it offered her