The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2004, Side 44

86
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #2
father as well as raising a family in difficult
pioneer circumstances. We are given the
glimpse that in her strong work ethic and
her indomitable spirit, Rosa is as much
Helga’s daughter as Stephan’s. The stories
of the Icelandic pioneer women have not
been told enough. This book is a great
addition to that under-represented genre. It
presents the opportunity for the Icelandic-
Canadian cultural community to give more
visibility to those incredible women who
held the fabric of the home and family
together and made the pioneer settlements
into real communities. The strength and
determination of the Icelandic pioneer
women is its own unique story and we are
the richer for the telling of this one.
Unfortunately, the author continuous-
ly refers to Canadians of Icelandic descent
as ‘western Icelanders’. This, in my opin-
ion, is a misnomer. People of Stefan’s gen-
eration were the Icelanders who went
‘west’ to North America. The term is a
translation of one that is used in Iceland to
refer to the North American descendents
of Icelandic emigrants, but it does not
translate into the English without dimin-
ishing the value Americans and Canadians
have to their own nationality. The book
also suffers in that someone more versant
in the Icelandic-North American ethnocul-
tural community could perhaps have done
a final proofreading. For instance there is a
reference in a letter written by Rosa to “L-
H” as an abbreviation. The author has
inserted a indicating she doesn’t recog-
nize to what this could be referring. It is
obvious to anyone who has been involved
in this cultural community that Rosa was
familiar enough with the newspaper,
Logberg-Heimskrfngla, to make use of its
common abbreviation, and expects the
same recognition from the reader of the let-
ter. There are a few such anomalies, but
certainly nothing to detract from the great
story it tells.
I enjoyed reading the book. It tells us
the story of that dual-culture generation
who were the product of the Icelandic pio-
neers. These were the people who were
raised as Icelandic-Canadians and raised
their children as proud, successful
Canadians, but kept the history and her-
itage of their forefathers alive. The work
that Rosa did in reviewing her father’s
writings makes it more accessible to the
following generations who may not have
the good fortune of being bilingual enough
to understand the Icelandic of the original.
The book preserves many of her speeches
and presentations and outlines much of the
story-behind-the-story that gives us the
setting from which we can better under-
stand the work itself and the memorials to
this marvellous “Poet of the Rocky
Mountains” as he is known.
It is said that to know oneself, one
must first know one’s roots. The book will
be a terrific legacy for the descendents of
Stephan G. and Rosa, in preserving their
family history and a remembrance of their
roots. But, it is more than that. It is a piece
of our Icelandic-Canadian history that is all
too often neglected. It takes what one
might at first glance presume to be an ordi-
nary life and makes it a story worth telling.
Rosa’s story reminds us of how extraordi-
nary the daily lives of our forefathers in
this land were, and how Rosa’s spirit made
her father’s memory all the more extraordi-
nary. We need to remind ourselves to tell
these stories more often. Each generation
owes it to the succeeding generations to
keep its stories alive and give their descen-
dents a venue for discovery when they go
out in search of that story. This is a book
that in my opinion may have been mis-
named. The story tells us all that Rosa
Siglaug Benediktson was certainly much
more than merely Stephan’s daughter. She
is worthy of a story in her own right.
Rev. StefanJonasson
ARBORG UNITARIAN CHURCH
GIMLI UNITARIAN CHURCH
9 Rowand Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 2N4
Telephone: (204) 889-4746
E-mail: sjonasson@uua.org