The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2009, Qupperneq 49

Vol. 62 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
191
Book Reviews
^Parents
MEMOIRS OF
NEW WORLD ICELANDERS
Edited by Biiiet Bjtumddttjr and Finnbogi (indmtiiMiston
My Parents: Memoirs of New
World Icelanders
University of Manitoba Press
2007, Paperback, 126 pps.
Reviewed by E. Leigh Syms
This delightful and fascinating collec-
tion of seven reminiscences of family mem-
oirs is an English translation of an earlier
compilation of fourteen parental memoirs
that were solicited by Finnbogi
Gudmundsson (the first Chair of the
Department of Icelandic Language and
Literature, University of Manitoba) and
published in Icelandic in 1956. These are
brief, highly personal anecdotes of families
immigrating to North America and forging
successful lives in a very different “new
world.” They are introduced by a thought-
provoking Preface by Birna Bjarnadottir,
Acting Chair and Head of the Department
of Icelandic Language and Literature,
University of Manitoba. Birna thanks her
many translators and proof-readers for
their excellent work as evidenced by the
quality and flow of these memoirs.
These biographies are very personal
and they vary in approach in historical nar-
rative to personality summaries. Some
authors focus on their own lives while oth-
ers emphasize their parents’ early years.
They represent initial immigration during
1875 to early 1900, most being in the 1880s.
Most of these first generation authors were
born between the 1830s and the early
1900s. All of these biographies are fascinat-
ing and all are very important accounts of
Icelandic Canadian pioneer experiences
and the values that children learned at their
parents’ knees. Their original and personal
qualities augment and enrich the more
generic and general historic overviews.
One is immediately struck by the
“Icelandicness” of this collection of biogra-
phies. In addition to the plethora of
Icelandic names of the parents, authors and
spouses there are the compulsory genealo-
gies that include grandparents, great grand-
parents and the districts from which they
came in Iceland. This is surely one of the
very few Canadian personal histories that is
laced with excerpts of poetry!
The background of the parents varied
greatly. Some had been raised with some
wealth and had even studied in Denmark.
Others had virtually nothing. All arrived in
North America with relatively little,
although always with a few books. Many
became farmers in North Dakota and