The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2005, Page 34

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #4
Letters from Fridjon Fridriksson
Translated by Sigurbjdrg Stefansson
Fridjon Fridriksson
Letter 22
Modruvellir, May 5, 1881
Dear Friends,
Once again I turn my thoughts to you,
and once again I ask God to bless you this
summer and always. It is amazing how
much I enjoy you, even if it is only possi-
ble through a letter. But why should I find
this strange? Jonas Hallgrimsson's poem
includes, after all, an absolute truth.
Admittedly, he wrote it to a girl, but it
applies just as well to men as it does to
women.
Here comes a poem which I am not
going to try to translate, but its theme is
that close spiritual relationship does not
need closeness in space.1
Haa skilur hnetti
himingeimur,
blad skiur bakka og egg;
en anda, sem unnast,
faer aldregi
eilifd ad skilid
Spiritually, your company gave me a
great satisfaction, and therefore my
thoughts tend to wander to you. Letters
sent on the first Icelandic mail boat this
spring have not come yet, but then a lot of
delays can be expected due to the mail
boat's stranding around the middle of last
winter. We learned about this accident in a
letter that came from Reykjavik to Spain on
a boat carrying salt. The ship that stranded
was supposed to carry a letter to you from
me. I have been very diligent in writing to
you, and I hope that you have by now
received many letters from me in spite of
the initial difficulties. I cannot remember in
detail what I told you in the lost letter, but
I think it included a lot of information con-
cerning people moving away from this set-
tlement. Since then I have received a letter
from Skapti. He reached his land in late
March with his wife and their children,
most of whom got there in good health.
Travelling with Skapti were Sigurdur
Kristofersson and Wm. Hearn (without
their families). I expect to get more news
from there little by little. I am very inter-
ested in following the new experiences of
my friends, and I wish them all the best.
I have now been here at Icelandic River
a little over a month. I like it here, even
though I cannot make Gunnar of
Hlidarendi('s) words mine: “Here I want
to stay as long as I live.” It is possible, nev-
ertheless, that I will stay here until I die. At
first my family and I stayed with
Sigtryggur, but now we have taken over the
household, and as usual we have “plenty of
everything.”
All of us who live in this house get
along very well. Mrs. Holm (i.e.
Torfhildur Holm) and I dispute a lot, each
taking an opposite point of view, but the