The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2001, Blaðsíða 17

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
99
ditches, to get the Provincial Government
involved and to travel to Winnipeg to dis-
cuss the problems with Government offi-
cials relates directly to Jon’s involvement in
all these matters. It was of interest to read
about the pioneer people developing a new
community and the need for leadership in
setting up required facilities such as a post
office and a school. Finally, the interpreta-
tion as to how the new community was
named, Vidir, provides an historical point
of interest.
Also unknown was that Jon had been
involved with politics as early as age twen-
ty and that it was Baldvin L. Baldvinsson
who motivated Jon to become interested in
these matters.
The document written by Kristjan
Asgeir Benediktsson led me to do research
in order to find information, first of all,
about the writer Kristjan Asgeir
Benediktsson, and then about the life of
Baldvin L. Baldvinsson, mentioned as an
important motivator in getting Jon
involved in politics.
Information about Benediktsson is
available in Vestur-lslenskar Eviskrar IV.
Kristjan Asgeir Benediktsson was born in
Kelduhverfi, Iceland in 1861. He emigrated
to Canada in 1895 with his wife, Gudbjbrg
Jonsdottir and one son. They settled in
Winnipeg where he, at first, worked as a
labourer and then he worked for
Heimskringla for many years writing mis-
cellaneous articles. He also wrote genealo-
gy and historical articles about a few note-
worthy Icelanders such as Gestur
Oddleifsson and Jon Sigurdsson at Vidir,
Manitoba. The quotation in the book is,
“Einnig skrifadi hann xttartolur fyrir folk
og sagnajatelli af einstokum monnum vestra
eins og til dtemis sogur af Gesti
Oddleifssyni og Joni Sigurdssyni a vidi
Man.” He wrote some short stories under
the pen name, Snter Snadand and translated
Mr. Potter fra Texas (Winnipeg, 1903).
Other geneaology writing listed at the
Icelandic collection, University of
Manitoba Libraries are for Steinunn
Jonsdottir, 1922, Stefan Olafsson, 1919,
Stephen Sigurdsson, Jon Bjornsson, 1919.
N¥ja Island: Saga of the Journey to New
Iceland by Gudjon Arngrimsson has four-
teen pages dealing with historical details
written by Benediktsson. The author
writes, “A native of the Kelduhverfi dis-
trict, Northeastern Iceland, Kristjan Asgeir
Benediktsson, later emigrated to Canada
where he became an author and journalist.
As well as providing the best surviving
account of life in Iceland as it was, he also
wrote fiction under the pseudonym Snasr
Snadand.” Arngrimsson notes that
Benediktsson writing for the Heimskringla
in 1907 offered the most vivid of many
contemporary descriptions of the Iceland
of the time.
Benediktsson wrote about the Nordur
Mulasysla area in Northeast Iceland where
Jon Sigurdsson’s family lived. This writing
is immensely interesting as it provides
information that makes it possible to recre-
ate the kind of life our ancestors had before
emigrating. Benediktsson notes that educa-
tion before 1870 barely existed, but schools
were springing up after 1875. Formal edu-
cation was patchy, but most men and
women over the age of confirmation could
at least read prayers and most loved books
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