The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2001, Page 41

Vol. 56 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
79
Book Reviews
Where
the Winds
Dwell
I'cnm ihe winner of ihc Icelandic IJccwiy Award
Where the Winds Dwell
by Bodvar Gubmundsson
Turnstone Press
364 pages, $18.95 Cdn.
ISBN #0888012543
Reviewed by Donald E. Gislason
Where the Winds Dwell is a journey
through time, tradition and the human spirit -
a poignant story from the edge of survival in
Iceland to the pioneer fringes of settlement in
Ontario (Kinmount) and Manitoba (New
Iceland). It is a compassionate dialogue from
a father to his daughter Patricia in England.
The story evolves from a shoebox of old let-
ters he has taken with him while on an opera
tour to Canada, and from a bundle of ancient
correspondence he inherits from a distant
cousin there.
The story centres on the life and times of
Patricia's great great-grandfather, Olaf
Jensson Fiddle, who was born and raised in
the dire economic conditions, leading up to
mass emigration from Iceland during the lat-
ter part of the nineteenth century. As the name
suggests, the gift of music runs through the
generations.
Much of the text reads like a ballad, with
a melody embedded throughout a series of
adventures and vignettes.
The fiddle had been given to Olaf s father
Jens during the eventful Dog Days of the
early 1800s, when a wealthy English mer-
chant and his Danish associate Jorund wrest-
ed short-lived control of Iceland from
Denmark, its brutal colonial master. These
interlopers opened the jail in Reykjavik and
Jens was among the "pitiable beings" which
made his way to freedom, having been
imprisoned for a crime of poverty and hunger.
To him, Jorund was "the best of all kings,"
who encouraged music and dance among his
people. And that is where this saga begins.
The years pass and Olaf Fiddle's parents
die. Gudmundsson weaves the economic,
social and political hardships of the times
through the adventures of several characters,
many who also have pseudonyms, thus releas-
ing them from historic scrutiny. The main
events would seem to be in place, but
sequence and details are sometimes reassem-
bled in order to tell a good tale.
Poor families, who were often driven to
dependency on the state, were split up and
scattered. At one point, Olaf finds himself as
an itinerant farm worker and by chance meets
the future Governor General of Canada, Lord
Dufferin, who he meets again many years
later during an inspection tour of New
Iceland.
Olaf Fiddle eventually meets and marries
his lovely Saeunn, and the couple begin a
family, struggling with poverty, increasing
debt and small hopes. They have far too many
children too soon, who do not survive or who
are taken away. Without the chance of
improving their lot they are forced, like so
many others, to emigrate to North America.