The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Síða 19

Vol. 62 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
109
Even though this latter-day colony of
Markland, Nova Scotia, was a short-lived
one, its name has lived on among
Icelanders on both sides of the Atlantic
through the literary works of Johann
Magnus Bjarnason. In his already quoted
novel and a few short stories, the Markland
area acquired a kind of romantic aura
showing every aspect of pioneer life, prim-
itive conditions and poverty included, in a
pleasant light. In his stories author
Bjarnason treats his Markland people with
unfailing kindness. Yet, in the spirit of 19th
- century romanticism, he makes frequent
references to a viking or heroic past in
Icelandic history, which is also the heritage
on which the immigrants were able to draw
in their search for a firm foothold and good
fortune in new and unfamiliar surround-
ings. A splendid past this was, with seafar-
ing men from the north not only braving
the high seas but skilled navigators who
had mastered the art of sailing in directions
opposite to such headwinds as they might
run into.
In the face of adversity the 19th-centu-
ry Icelandic immigrants to North America
were prepared to follow the pathways of a
distant heroic past to conquer insurmount-
able obstacles as their famous countrymen
and adventurers, Eirlk the Red and Leif the
Lucky, had done almost nine centuries ear-
lier. Leif the Lucky was only a recent con-
vert to Christianity when he set foot on
Vlnland. On the other hand, Christ had fig-
ured quite prominently in the religious her-
itage of 19th -century Icelandic immigrants
for almost nine centuries. Yet what is
important from the present point of view is
that, despite their long journey in Christ’s
company, the modern pioneers had consis-
tently maintained strong cultural and liter-
ary ties with the old pantheon of Odinn,
Lor and other champions of Nordic or
Icelandic heathenism. To give an example,
the founders of the New Iceland colony in
1875, which later became part of the
province of Manitoba, did not hesitate to
disregard an ancient taboo by borrowing
from the sacred text of a mythological
poem the name Gimli for the capital centre
of their new-found Vlnland. Gimli was, in
the opinion of quite a few scholars, a
household name in Eirik the Red's home,
both in Iceland and in Greenland, as the
permanent dwelling place of such righteous
human beings as made it through
Doomsday to a pleasant afterlife. Indeed
there is reason to believe that because of his
discovery and colonization of a new coun-
try as well as for his stubborn resistance to
Christianity, Eirik the Red finally gained
admission to the old mythological Gimli.
The Heavenly Jerusalem of Holy
Scriptures is said to be the only place in the
entire universe forming an exact parallel to
Gimli. Admittedly, the line between
mythology and actuality is often obscure.
Therefore the exact location of Eirik the
Red’s living quarters in afterlife is likely to
continue evading us even though we must
admit that the present-day splendour of the
only Gimli on earth we have seen and expe-
rienced makes the above-comparision with
a heavenly abode altogether appropriate.
Many more features reflecting the
mould into which the Icelandic immigrant
community in this country tried to fit
memories from the distant past. This was
their way of celebrating important episodes
and events from their own history, one of
which was the discovery of North
America. In New Iceland and in many
other Icelandic immigrant communities
across this continent people may be said to
have engraved their history on their imme-
diate environment in the form of place
names or topographical names. With the
name Gimli in mind they continued their
borrowings of names from their old
mythology and other branches of their
medieval literature, dispersing these over
their immediate geographic environment in
their small settlements which were eventu-
ally spread over large areas of the North
American continent. A certain community
in New Iceland they named Bifrost after
the splendid bridge which once upon a time
lay between the home of the gods and the
homes of Eirik the Red and other mortal
beings who believed that the road to heav-
en must be well constructed and adequate-
ly paved. Only a short distance away from
Icelandic River in the Riverton area one
finds the place name AsgarSur, the home of
the gods. At the Foothills in the Rockies in