The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Qupperneq 21

Vol. 62 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
I 1 I
sources and throws valuable light on var-
ious aspects of Old Nordic/Icelandic civ-
ilization. In the instance of Eirfk the
Red’s banishment from Iceland, it has
provided an exceptionally clear example
of reprehensible viking energy, if you
please, having been directed towards pos-
itive goals and great achievements. The
discovery of previously unexplored parts
of the world and their colonization
inevitably fall into that category.
The advent of vernacular Icelandic
writing, not to speak of printing, lay far
ahead in the future when Leif Eirfksson
and his crew began to explore and consid-
er the qualities of Vlnland. As a result, he
and his people could neither read nor
write. Yet one sometimes feels as if these
must have been the very people who drew
up the original plans for ethnic publica-
tions in North American-Icelandic com-
munities. Three Icelandic newspapers
began publication in Winnipeg in the
1880s. The first one was Leifur, named
after Leif Eirfksson, the second one
Heimskringla bore the name of a well-
known medieval work on Nordic history
which contains among other things a sig-
nificant account of father and son, Eirfk
the Red and Leif the Lucky. The third
paper was Logberg (Law Rock), a name
commemorating the previously men-
tioned centre of Iceland’s ancient nation-
al assembly. Vfnland (Wineland) was the
name of a sophisticated Icelandic month-
ly newspaper published in Minneota,
Minnesota from 1902-1907. One could
not possibly get any closer than that to
Leif’s Houses (LeifsbuSir) in Vfnland
through the use of only topographical
names and mastheads. Finally, it does not
escape anyone’s attention that the
Icelandic Club in Calgary bears Leif
Eiriksson’s name.
At first glance the use of Old
Icelandic names in the North American-
Icelandic communities might appear as
superficial and romantic decorations
reflecting nostalgic memories of an imag-
inary grandeur from a distant past. Also,
in transplanting names from their country
of origin to their new surroundings in
North America, the Icelanders adopted a
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