The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1973, Síða 22

20
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER 1937
which the main road north passes. If
you know the spot you will understand
why it had never before been home-
steaded. Just down off the “heath” it
is absolutely the last leg of the valley,
which at this point is extremely nar-
row, high, gravelly and not at all that
inviting from a farmer’s point of view.
Although the farm includes a vast
amount of land none of it is much
good, heath marshes, thin grass or
clumps of moss and everywhere the
reddish-purple lava rock and gravel
on which the first traces of Oxnadal’s
grassy bottom appear. Oxnadalsa cuts
a deep gorge into the valley bottom
by Bakkasel coming out of an off-val-
ley, Seldal. Although Egill had been
relatively well-off, he lost most of his
property in the divorce from his wife
and it is then that he moved to Bakka-
sel. As can be expected he lived in
dire poverty for a while, but Egill,
having a knack for making money,
prospered better than would be expect-
ed and gradually his circumstances im-
proved. Bakkasel, located in this
strategic position with regards to
travellers became a stopping place for
weary travellers who had either cross-
ed OxnadalsheiSi or found their way
along the long road from Akureyri. In
either case Bakkasel was a kind of out
post, the last stop, or the first one.
One of Egil’s daughters, Helga Egils-
dottir, married Jonas SigurSsson and
after living at Bakka, Engimyri, in
Oxnadal (birthplace of Tomas Jonas-
son) the couple, Jonas and Helga,
moved to Bakkasel after Egil’s death
in 1864 and here the family was raised,
at least the younger members. The
children were not so few and Bakka-
sel offered a meagre livelihood as
might be seen from the year 1859,
when Egill had lived there. A bout
of unfavourable weather resulted in
Egill having to slaughter half of his
sheep while many died from starv-
ation. Bakkasel was situated on the
outer fringe of habitable land and
more likely, little beyond, 'as it has
not been lived in for a long time. Des-
pite the hardship, the home at Bakka-
sel was always a popular and busy
stopping place and this is well des-
cribed in a poem “Jonas i Bakka-
seli” by Jon Stefansson in a book of
poetry called “LjoS og Sogur”, or
something like that, by Jon Stefans-
son. It describes Jonas’s hospitality
and no doubt all the children were
familiar with the life of the stopping-
place. No doubt this is a reason why
Tomas Jonasson came to have a stop-
ping place at Engimyri at Riverton.
Jonas died in 1895, I think, and after-
wards Bakkasel was built up as an of-
ficial stopping place by the govern-
ment and that building stands there
now although no one lives there —
apparently the farm farthest up Oxna-
dal which is now inhabited is Engi-
myri, a long way from Bakkasel. This
shows on what slim means these
people lived on when they had to; the
farms have long since been abandon-
ed as unfeasible.
The poem I mentioned sheds a lot
of light on the kindly character of the
couple at Bakkasel, Egill and his sec-
ond wife, and the very strong Iceland-
ic tradition of hospitality which was
carried on at the Stopping Place at
Engimyri in New Iceland. The name
of the book is “Lj6S og Saga” and
“LjoS og Sogur” by J6n Stefansson
and was published in Winnipeg.