The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Page 24

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING 1974
sides they would have the sea, that is,
Lake Winnipeg, on the side facing
the rising sun. This lake would supply
their tables with fish.
In the space of a few years several
thousand Icelanders located on this
land. Take your map of Manitoba
and you will find in this little Ameri-
can Iceland a number of names of Ice-
landic origin, such as, Icelandic river,
Geysir, Arnes, and the chief town Gim-
li, the heaven in Norse mythology. Be-
sides maintaining churches and schools
and an official organ of the church,
they published, in Winnipeg, two ably-
edited political papers, and several Ice-
landers have had seats in the Manitoba
parliament and one is now serving as
a member of the cabinet of Manitoba.
From Manitoba a number of Ice-
landers have drifted down into Pem-
bina and Cavalier counties of North
Dakota, and Icelanders in ithis state
have found their way into the North
Dakota legislature. There is a large
body of Icelandic students at the Uni-
versity of North Dakota, and in Grand
Forks and other cities. They are ably
represented in the legal and medical
professions. Then there is an Icelandic
congregation in and around Miinneota,
Lyon county, Minnesota. Several Ice-
landers have found employment in
some of the most prominent American
libraries. Both Canada and the United
States have abundant reason to be
proud of their Icelandic immigrants.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
Icelanders that has landed on our
shores in recent years is A. H. Gunn-
laugsson. There were two brothers, one
of whom had gone to Paris, lived and
died there as a prominent writer on
economic subjects. The father of
Gunnlaugsson was a high Danish of-
ficial in Iceland, but it is of the Gunn-
laugsson who came to America that
I am speaking. As a young boy in
Iceland he was captivated by the Cath-
olic religion. Catholic missionaries
came to Iceland and took the young
man with them to Rome where he was
placed in the Propaganda College and
served as an acolyte or altar boy to
the pope. He showed a wonderful tal-
ent for languages and learned in a jiffy
all the leading ancient and modern
tongues, Flebrew, Sanskrit, Greek and
Latin, Italian, Spanish, German,
French and English. The plan was that
he was to be made a missionary to Ice-
land to bring the Icelanders back into
the fold of the Catholic church. But
young Gunnlaugsson lost his faith in
the Catholic religion and ran away
from Rome. In course of time he be-
came settled in London where he en
joyed the intimate acquaintance of
Lord Beaconsfield, became the tutor
of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess
Christian, and did editorial work on
several of the English quarterlies and
some of the most prominent British
monthlies. But his health failed him;
he suffered from a nervous breakdown.
Fie imagined that he was being per-
secuted by ithe Jesuits and other Cath-
olics for having deserted the propa-
ganda school in Rome. One would
think that he must have read Eugene
Sue’s “The Wandering Jew’’. At all
events he considered himself in great
danger of being waylaid and assaulted
or thrown into some dungeon.
In this state of mind he became un-
fit for work and he fled to Amer-
ica, coming first to Chicago. Here a
prominent Dane, Prof. N. C. Frederik-
sen, took an interest in him, furnish-
ing him with food and clothing,
both of which he was greatly in need,
and then brought him to Madison and
left him, so to speak, on my hands. I
was supposed to be the friend of all
Icelanders. I got him a room at the
corner of Carroll and Johnson streets,