The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Page 44

186
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 66 #4
gained through the efforts of an itinerant
tutor. His intellectual curiosity aroused, he
longed to go to school and at one point he
was “overcome with grief’’when he saw his
friend going off to school. Nevertheless,
he continued his self-education and was
a life-long learner. His adult reading
consisted of books, newspapers and other
materials. He was greatly influenced by the
works of progressives, humanists and free-
thinkers. These significantly influenced
his world view which is reflected in later
poetry and certainly contributed to his
conflicts with the leaders of the Icelandic
Lutheran Synod.
Hreinsson traces Stephansson’sjourney
(with his family) from Iceland to North
America: the departure from Akureyri (it
seems it was not a seamless undertaking)
on August 5,1873; the ‘layover’in Scotland
(Aberdeen, Granton and Glasgow);
landing in Quebec City and the journey by
train to the final destination in Wisconsin.
This ‘adventure’, along with descriptions of
pioneer life in Wisconsin, North Dakota
and Alberta are enlightening and will be
of particular interest to anyone wanting
to know more about the joys, travails and
disappointments of pioneer life.
However, Stephansson’s poetry is the
unifying thread running through the book
from beginning to end. He wrote one of
his early poems when he was nearly eleven
years old.
I am still allowed to see,
My pretty SkagaJjdrdur
Theflock basks all in the high mountains
And the grassy mountain passes.**
His subjects varied widely including
nature, romance, religion, sex, work, family,
friends, politics, eulogies and travel.
Several of Stephansson’s friends
were keen to have his poetry available to
a larger audience and in 1909 and 1910
they succeeded in having a three volume
collection, Andvdkur (Insomnia) published.
Its reception was mixed; many lauded the
work while other Icelanders, particularly
those associated with the Lutheran Synod
were less than enthusiastic. I neither read
nor speak Icelandic and literal translations
seldom do justice to translations of poetry.
I therefore took the opportunity to have
some of the poems contained in Andvdkur
read to me in Icelandic by Rosalind
Vigfusson of Arborg, Manitoba. The sound
of the words, the internal alliterations, the
metre and rhyme attest to the quality of
the art. Perhaps not unexpectedly, when
I held and perused the three volumes I
sensed a special connection with the poet.
This year, 2014, much of the world
is observing the 100th anniversary of the
beginning of World War I. His ‘anti-war
poems’, reflecting as they do, his pacifism
and general abhorrence of war provide an
added dimension to much that is being
read and heard . Stephansson makes his
view quite clear, even vivid and, as John
Ralston Saul notes, the fact that he wrote
in Icelandic likely explains why he was not
arrested [for treason] during the war.
Stephansson believed that the war was
in some sense supported by ‘capitalists’
who would profit financially through the
production of war materiel. Margaret
McMillan, the author of the recently
published The War that Ended Peace seems
not entirely convinced of that view. She
maintains that the ‘capitalists’ were doing
quite well in the pre-war years. However,
she would agree with Stephansson that a
root cause (perhaps the root cause) of the
war was the struggle for empire on the part
of the combatants - protecting, enlarging
or acquiring. In any case, Stephansson’s
anti-war poems are frank to the point
of raw outrage. This bought him into
conflict with the editors of both Icelandic
newspapers, Logberg and Heimskringla, as
well as many Winnipeg Icelanders who
saw the war as an opportunity to prove