The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1995, Síða 7

SPRING/SUMMER 1995
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
117
of Icelandic Language and Literature of the
University of Manitoba. The speaker was
the Icelandic playwright, poet and author
Bobvar Gubmundsson, and his topic was
what he called “The Icelandic-Canadian
America Letters.” (The verbatim text of his
talk can be found in Logberg-Heimskringla,
October 15 and 17, 1993.) '
Those who attended were told that the
letters written to those they left behind by
the Icelandic immigrants to Canada and
the United States, and the letters they re-
ceived in turn, are important historical
items which document a period of our his-
tory which has not been fully recorded in
other forms. As well, they are often pieces
of high literary quality. They tell of the sad-
ness of individuals and families who were
never again to see their loved ones back
home in Iceland, and the images they
gained of the new world to which they had
come. They describe the nostalgic memo-
ries of the mountains and sea of the north
Atlantic island where their ancestors had
dwelt for a thousand years, and the excite-
ment tempered by hardships of breaking
ground in what seemed to them a virgin
land. The letters they received often de-
scribed changing economic and social con-
ditions in Iceland.
These letters were not written for pub-
lic consumption, but they cannot be left
out of the documented history of North
American Icelanders. Bobvar has already
begun to analyse a set of such letters writ-
ten by his own kinspersons who came to
this continent, and finds in them both facts
and themes which reveal much which
would otherwise be lost. In his talk at the
University of Manitoba he urged his listen-
ers to look in their chests and other
respositories of ‘things old’ for letters of
their own predecessors, and to find ways
to preserve and archive them.
I would like to suggest that all readers
of The Icelandic Canadian do the same, and
send them to the Librarian, Icelandic Col-
lection, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University
of Manitoba. It is true that these are highly
personal documents, and perhaps some of
the writers would not favour their publica-
tion. However, scholars working with them
would be able to take from them materials
which would add to the tapestry of our
heritage without identifying persons or
families.
There is considerable soul-searching
going on today among historians, anthro-
pologists and others who work in the hu-
man disciplines about the thorny problems
of ethics. Possibly the letters would have to
stay unread until these questions have been
better resolved. However, in the meantime
they would not be lost. The Icelandic Col-
lection at the University of Manitoba is the
second largest one on the continent. Its
archives would be a fit resting place for the
letters of the early immigrants from Iceland
and the letters they received from those
who did not accompany them. Much of our
history is in those letters, and their preser-
vation is the conservation of our heritage.
I urge you to consider doing this. They will
be treated with respect and dignity.
The letters of the immigrants were the
first way in which ties between Iceland and
North America were maintained. By recov-
ering what remains of them, and seeing
them published one day, we will be
strengthening our own ties with the home-
land for ourselves and our children.