The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2007, Side 8

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 61 #2
jonas Hallgrfmsson: The Poet
Behind Iceland’s modern awakening
by Stefan M. Jonasson

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Some countries have been born
through revolution, such as the United
States of America with its War of
Independence, while others have emerged
through evolution, such as our own
Canada, which came of age as Britain began
to divest itself of its empire. Still others
have been fashioned through military con-
quest or else have lingered as the vestiges of
a once-larger country that has disintegrated
into smaller ones. Modern Iceland stands
out as a country that was given birth
through literature, its poets and novelists
and journalists occupying the roles of mid-
wife and nurse, statesperson and general.
While much has been made of the
importance of literature to Iceland’s devel-
opment, the point was driven home to me
quite forcefully on my first visit to Iceland,
when I made the requisite pilgrimage to
Tingvellir. Most people know Tingvellir as
the historic meeting place of the Aiding,
Iceland’s parliament, which began gather-
ing there amidst its hauntingly beautiful
landscape in 930. Those who have been
blessed to visit this shrine of Northern
democracy will be familiar with
Almannagja, the magnificent ravine that
betrays the great continental plates collid-
ing below at the speed of geology, and the
Law Rock from which, in ancient times,
the lawspeaker oversaw collisions of opin-
ion happening at the speed of the human
temper. Flowing throughout are the
charming waters, from the execution pool,
where the condemned rendezvoused with
death, to the wishing pool, which seems
bottomless, like the quietly-uttered
dreams that have been whispered by
hopeful souls who have christened it with
their offerings of coin. Those who have
only seen Tingvellir in postcards will be
familiar with the neat little four-peaked
farmhouse—a parsonage really—and the
modest frame church reminding us of
things eternal, in the unlikely event that
the landscape itself has failed to make this
impression. It is only if one possesses
both curiosity and staying power, howev-
er, that one is likely to wander up the gen-
tle slope behind the church to discover
skaldareitur, the resting place of the poets
Einar Benediktsson and Jonas
Hallgrfmsson, precisely where in other
lands one might have expected to find
monarchs and parliamentarians, bishops
and war heroes.
Jonas Hallgrfmsson was laid to rest in
this most honoured of places in 1946, two
years after the proclamation of the
Icelandic republic and 101 years after his
untimely death in Copenhagen, when he
was just 38 years old. Standing at his