The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2006, Side 11

Vol. 60 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
9
Gudrun at the age she would have visited her
brother.
for him and his friend, Stefan.
After Valtyr ran away from home, at
age 13, he lived on various farms in
Humming, often under difficult circum-
stances. He wrote numerous letters to his
mother in Canada and in 1878 he described
his poverty in a letter to her, but also men-
tioned that he had obtained good work and
had been able to buy clothes. He was, of
course, an orphan with his family living on
another continent and the conditions of
orphaned youth in Iceland at that time
were, to say the least, terrible.
In the fall of 1877, at the age of 17, he
entered Latin School in Reykjavik. Valtyr
had to rely on himself; the inheritance from
his father did not go far, and he soon began
teaching along with his studies. In a letter
to his mother in 1881 he said that he want-
ed to study grammar because he enjoyed
that subject.
The first Icelander to get a PhD degree in
history.
Valtyr graduated from Latin School in
1883. He arrived in Copenhagen in
September, 1883 and was accepted for
Nordic Studies, but first he had to write an
examination in philosophy. He wrote to
his mother, Valdls, in Argyle, quite pleased
with the results in spite of worries about
his economic situation. He worked all
along with his studies. In the winter of
1885 his mother was able to support him
financially for the first time with the result
that he was able to concentrate on his stud-
ies. She and her husband, Simon, his step-
father, were able to follow his progress step
by step through numerous letters across
the ocean. In 1887 he graduated and his
master thesis was very well received. He
was encouraged to continue his studies and
in 1888 he was able to write his mother and
bring her the good news that his thesis had
been accepted for a doctor’s defense. A
year later he wrote his mother again and
told her that he had been appointed teacher
in Icelandic history and literature, at the
University of Copenhagen. At that time 14
years had passed since Simon and Valdls
left Iceland and Valtyr, almost thirty years
old, had completed his PhD degree in his-
tory, the first Icelander to do so. His doc-
tor’s thesis was on Housing in Ancient
Iceland.
Valtyr GuSmundsson published the
magazine Eimreidin (The Railway) 1895 -
1917, which was considered to be among
the best Icelandic magazines. Many of its
subscribers lived in Icelandic settlements in
North America and his step-father, Simon,
worked at helping him distribute the paper.
In 1889 Valtyr married Anna
Johannesdottir, but she was in poor health
most of her life and died in 1903.
Valtyr the politician.
Valtyr was not only a scholar, he
became an important politician and had a
seat at Althing (Parliament) for a decade
and a half. He fought hard for Iceland's
independence from Denmark, where he