The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2006, Page 19

Vol. 60 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
105
Icelandic Canadian identity was Charles
Thorson, a first generation Canadian. In
many ways, Charlie was the quintessence
of the Icelandic Canadian immigrant
ideal. Most significant of these immigrant
myth embodiments, was Charlie’s per-
sonification of the true Viking spirit:
“When Charlie was young, Joe Thorson,
Charlie’s brother says, ‘there was an inner
restlessness of spirit, sometime turbulent
and explosive, that led him to wander, in
search of adventure, from place to place in
Western Canada, without fixed objec-
tive’” .
Just as the Icelandic immigrants con-
ceptualized their brave independent spirit
igniting and fueling their search for a bet-
ter life, Charlie exhibited courage to seek
out something that would help him be
more successful. No more pronounced
was this restlessness than during times of
most catastrophic personal loss, a second
experience Charlie shared with his immi-
grant predecessors. In the space of a year,
Charlie dealt with the loss of his favourite
brother Stephan, his beloved wife Ranka,
his son Charlie, and several of his friends:
“An ordinary man would have buckled
under the weight of these tragedies.”
Whether consciously or purely by nature,
Charlie “reverted to type” as a means of
overcoming these heartbreaks, spending a
year adventuring and getting work in the
west before returning to Winnipeg in 1918
to work on his art. Thorson’s return saw
him invigorated and fulfilling the third
component of the Icelandic Canadian
identity; Charlie achieved remarkable suc-
cess at his work, doing animation work
for such giants as Walt Disney, MGM,
Warner Brothers.
Through these experiences therefore,
Charlie developed an acute appreciation
of the crucial role that the Icelandic
Canadian identity played for the immi-
grants, and could play for the benefit of
subsequent generations. It is Charlie
Thorson’s famous poem “Liceland”
which seems to question whether or not
this attitude was shared by his fellow
Icelandic Canadians. In the poem, Charlie
humorously criticizes the traditionally
uncharacteristic ways in which Icelandic
Canadians were dealing with the
Depression:
Once it filled my heart with pleasure
To an overflowing measure
When the praises of my country filled
my ears.
Now I’m sad and heavy-hearted,
Dreams and faith have all departed,
Dreams and faith I’ve cherished many
years.
Charlie acknowledges that the
Icelanders’ unbreakable patriotism is still
present. However, there is a lack of
response which in true Icelandic Canadian
fashion should accompany such chal-
lenges. The Depression is exactly the type
of struggle that historically best demon-
strated the Icelandic Canadian ability to
persevere and offset adversity with
accomplishment. Thorson’s disappoint-
ment with his countrymen’s empty
Icelandic pride arises because it is not
legitimated by any action. As such,
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