The Icelandic connection - 01.03.2018, Side 24

22
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 70 #1
weather, were what dominated the thoughts
of the men in the rural communities in
times past. Weather was not so dominant
in Kainn’s poems, as the weather in Dakota
is more predictable than in Iceland. He
praises sunshine, and I will touch on that
later. But brennivfn, women, ministers
and religion were foremost in people’s
conversations and may still be so. I cannot
resist telling a story here to prove my
point. When I was a child at Hvftarsida,
I heard it said that Danes had a shot of
brennivfn each morning, which was called
their ‘morning-jolt’. Later, my co-workers
in Bergen, Norway, told me the same story,
but there was a big difference in the way
the story was told. Norwegians told this
story as a criticism and were appalled. The
Hvftarsfda people were green with envy.
Religion and ministers were a
common subject of conversation. And
also frequently the subject of ridicule.
Sometimes it happened that a visiting
minister conducted a service. Everyone
went to church and took note of how
he spoke and how he sang off-key. Then
they imitated him and made fun of his
sermon and that was thought to be great
entertainment. This was not an example
of a lack of faith or malice towards the
minster. It was just common practice,
fun, where there was often little or no
entertainment or, worse yet, only piano-
blubbering and symphony-squawk’ on the
radio.
Certainly, the Icelandic pioneer
communities in Canada and the United
States were not very different from farming
communities in Iceland. Those who
emigrated to the West were virtually all
from farms in Iceland and enjoyed stories
about womanizing and these other two
subjects as much as they had back home.
In spite of the distance between them,
communities in Iceland and in the West
had the same themes in their poetry:
brennivfn and women. A few years ago,
I was asked to speak about the songs and
poetry of Icelandic poets and students
in Old Copenhagen. On that occasion, I
had to say - and I thought this was a big
discovery - that it was unbelievable that the
students never sang about anything except
women and brennivfn. An intelligent
young woman looked at me in amazement
when I announced this big news and said:
‘Is this anything new?’
No, this is nothing new. And last
week I was in rural Ireland, a country so
Catholic that women are forbidden by law
to use contraceptives. There the men and
women sing with great gusto late into the
night. And what do they sing about? Molly
Malone and There’s Whisky in the Jar.
Of course, Kainn composed poetry
about more than just women, brennivfn
and ministers and religion. He composed
beautiful verses about children and for
children. One of these was particularly
well-received:
Ny Vogguvfsa
Fardu ad sofa, blessad barnid smaa,
Brukadu ekki minnsta ijandans jjraa.
Haltu kjafti! Hlyddu og vertu godur!
Heidra skaltu fodur Jflnn og modur.
Go to sleep, my blessed child so small
No more of your stubbornness and bother.
Hush your mouth and heed my call!
Respect you must, your father and your mother.
Sarcasm or Cheerfully Poking Fun
Lorarinn Stefansson called Kainn
the best Icelandic poet of mockery. We
will briefly explore this issue. Now, the
word ‘mockery’ has a somewhat negative
connotation in ordinary Icelandic speech;
it is negative, bad, indecent to make fun of
others. Sinful even. Hallgrfmur Petursson,
in one of his poems, wrote that the devil
is waiting to catch and punish those who