The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Blaðsíða 27

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
121
ished.
The topic of dreams and dream inter-
pretation is a favourite one amongst
Icelanders and Icelandic-Canadians, and
the latter refer to this as evidence that their
Icelandicness extends over generations
born in Canada. Stories of significant
dreams can be found in the medieval saga
literature in Iceland, and interpreting
dreams is a continuous folkloric practice.
In nineteenth-century Iceland, keeping
dream diaries was a popular addition to the
flourishing practice of diary writing. An
already existing practice of dream interpre-
tation was given new cultural force by its
merger with a form of self-inscription that,
arguably, was part of a new intellectual
means for rethinking the self during the
early stages of modernization in Iceland.
The Icelandic immigrants brought
with them an understanding that dreams
are significant. From an Icelandic perspec-
tive, Trausti’s obedience to Ramsay’s
request requires no explanation. Trausti’s
visit from a recently deceased person is not
unusual - it concerns someone dead bring-
ing a message from “the other side” that
must be taken seriously (Einarsson). The
threat of an unhappy ghost exacting
revenge was greater than a similar threat
from the same person while alive. That the
ghost was also Aboriginal and had justifi-
able reasons to be aggrieved would have
added to a sense of danger. The dream
requires an act of completion. In Douglas’s
terms, obeying such a dream acts to restore
the moral order by closing and solidifying
the boundary between life and death. It is
in keeping with this world-view that
Trausti’s dream should become part of
Icelandic-Canadian folklore.
Before their arrival in North America,
Icelanders had heard tales of murderous
Indians. They knew of violent encounters
between their ancestors and Aboriginal
peoples - skradings - from the sagas of
Leifur Eirfksson’s voyages. The contradic-
tory experience of peaceable Native peo-
ples offering needed help must have been
confusing enough. Add to that the psychic
pain exacted by the harsh, unfamiliar
prairie environment, interactions with var-
ious unfamiliar nationalities and languages
and acrimonious debates over the future
direction of the colony: all of this must
have been difficult for early settlers to deal
with. Fear and pain can be turned inwards
and lead to alcoholism, depression and sui-
cide, all of which did occur. But fear and
pain can also be externalized onto the social
or natural environment. Ghosts can in
some cases be thought of as such external-
izations.
The transfer of Trausti’s personal
dream into a larger cultural realm is signif-
icant to the structuring of ethnic myths of
identity, which take complex realities and
render them safe and simple. In
Kristofferson’s telling, when Trausti, who
was poor, obeys Ramsay and performs an
act of restoration, he is rewarded with fish
(Trausti’s daughter says this is not true).
The moral is clear: attend to the wishes of
the dead, and order is restored. I suspect
that Icelanders at the turn of the century
knew of Ramsay’s plight, and some were
conflicted by the morally ambiguous posi-
tion in which it placed them. Icelanders
interacted and learned from Natives and
intermarried with them. Anecdotal evi-
dence indicates a mixed history of reciproc-
ity and prejudice. The dream can be inter-
preted as a symbolic attempt to offer resti-
tution to Ramsay and to return a sense of
order. At a social level, however, the dream
also closes the narrative of Icelandic-
Saulteaux interactions, giving the mistaken
impression that this is all there is to say on
the topic. Each generation writes its histo-
ry anew in order to revitalize cultural
meaning. At this historic moment, not to
question the myth of harmonious relations
between Icelanders and Native peoples is
to limit understanding of the present as
well as of the past, and to shut down a nec-
essary rethinking of how identities are
made.
Endnotes
1. My thanks to Jennifer Brown, Jim
Gallo, Nelson Gerrard, Daisy Neijmann,
Haraldur Olafsson, GIsli Palsson,
Raymond Shirritt-Beaumont, Winona
Stevenson, Tota Vigfusson, and Flelga
Ogmundardottir. Some of the costs of this