The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.1988, Qupperneq 11

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
9
FEATURE
PAUL A. SIGURDSON
by Roy St. George Stubbs
First in the front rank of faithful con-
tributors to the Icelandic Canadian stands
Paul A. Sigurdson. His pen has been a busy
and a versatile one. He has contributed
original poetry, translations of Icelandic
poetry into English, editorials, essays, short
stories, a one act play, New Birth, on a
Biblical theme, and the words and music of
a song, “Sara’s Carol” (Sara is one of his
daughters). But the significance of his con-
tributions is not their quantity, but their
quality, their range and variety.
In the first of the de Coverley papers,
Addison observed that a reader, for a right
understanding, likes to know something
about the author whose work he reads,
whether he be “a black or a fair man, of a
mild or a choleric Disposition, Married or
a Batchelor, with other particulars of the
like nature.” My purpose in writing this
article is to tell you something of Paul
Sigurdson in the hope that I may add
another dimension to your enjoyment
when you read his contributions to this
Journal.
Paul was born in Morden, Manitoba, on
September 18, 1927. He enjoyed the ad-
vantage of having cultured parents. They
were both of Icelandic descent. His father
was a contractor. His mother was content
to be a housewife and mother. In their
home books and music were part of every-
day life. When family and friends gathered
there was a glutton’s feast of music and
poetry. Paul began writing poetry as soon
as he had learned the alphabet. An early
ambition of his was to be an opera singer.
Nature had given him the gift of a rich
tenor voice. From grades one to eight he
attended Elk Creek School. He took his
high school in Morden. After finishing his
schooling, he taught for a year at Peguis
School, near Clandeboye, in Manitoba. At
nineteen he entered United College, from
which institution, in due course, he received
the degrees of B.A. and B.Ed. In 1952,
after graduation from United College, he
married Ivadell Rampton who is of English
descent.
Paul was six when he lost his father.
Until that time Icelandic was the language
spoken in the family home. After his mar-
riage Paul set off for Iceland with his bride.
He wanted to tighten his hold on his Ice-
landic heritage. His heart was then, as it is
now, with the poetry and sagas of Iceland.
In Iceland he studied his native tongue,
earning his living expenses by tutoring in
English. He returned to Canada in 1953.
There is no armour against fate. Shortly
after his return home, Paul was stricken
with polio. He spent two years in King
George Hospital, in Winnipeg, one of
them in an iron lung. After leaving hospital,
he convalesced for two years in the home
of a relative, Gunnar Thorlakson. In 1957,
he began teaching half days in a school in
St. James. In 1958 he joined the staff of
Morden High School, where he taught
English until his retirement in 1977.
The Viking of old lived by a heroic code,
an article of which called upon him to take
life as it presents itself to him, to accept the
bludgeonings of fate with fortitude. Paul
Sigurdson is a Viking, true to the Viking’s
code. When misfortune struck him, as