The Icelandic connection - 01.12.2020, Side 7

Vol. 71 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
149
Lindal, who undeniably holds the
position of editor in chief, and later editor
emeritus, for the lengthiest amount of
time of any editor of Icelandic Connection;
which was, from what I can tell, 1945 to
about 1976; the time of his death. He
might also be the editor with the most
varied of experiences in life; from law
to politics and publishing Lindal was an
absolute titan on the Mount Olympus of
Icelandic Canadian figures.
Lindal was born in Iceland in 1887
and emigrated with his parents at an
early age. He was educated at Wesley
College and graduated from University
of Saskatchewan’s Law School in 1914,
called to the Manitoba Bar in 1919 and
appointed to the King’s Counsel in 1932.
Somewhere in that time he served as
captain during the First World War and
was an active member in the Manitoba
Liberal Association, becoming the
Winnipeg candidate in the 1927 general
election. By 1942 he was the founder
and president of the Canada Press Club
and was also appointed to a county court
judgeship. And then his editorship at The
Icelandic Canadian begins. He takes the
helm at the end of the Second World War
and steers it well into the 1970s.
Judge Lindal was replaced by Wilhelm
Kristjanson in 1976. Born in 1896 in Otto
in the RM of Coldwell, and educated at
Oxford and the University of Chicago
he would have been eighty when he took
over The Icelandic Canadian after a life
of teaching in rural Manitoba and then
Winnipeg. Like Lindal he was a veteran
and was wounded at Vimy Ridge and in
the Second World War he served in the
Reserve Forces. He was a member of the
Royal Canadian Legion, the Manitoba
Historical Society, the Icelandic National
League, the Masons and the Unitarian
church. He died in 1979 after only a
couple years as editor.
Next comes Axel Vopnfjord born in
1902 at Husavik near Gimli, Manitoba.
Contemporaneous to Wilhelm
Kristjanson, as young man Axel began
a lifelong career in teaching at schools
throughout Manitoba and by 1961 he
was teaching at the Manitoba Teachers’
College and retiring in 1968 from a
position as an assistant professor with the
Faculty of Education at the University
of Manitoba. He would have been in
his mid- to late seventies by the time he
took over the publication of The Icela?idic
Canadian in 1978 according to his write
up on the Manitoba Historical Society
website.
In fact, this history lesson in the
changing hands of the editorship of what
is now Icelandic Connection is completely
lifted from Gordon Goldsborough’s
work on the MHS site. Which is to
say that each of our magazine’s editors
qualify, according to MHS, as a notable
Manitoban for their life’s contributions
to the history of this province. They
are important figures, noted for their
capability, competence, and the scope and
scale of their varied experiences. It should
be inspiring to recognize the significance
in the Icelandic Connections lineage.
Following Vopnfjord there appears to
be a co-editorship between Dr. Kirsten
Wolf at the University of Manitoba’s
Icelandic Department, and the late Sigrid
Johnson (1950-2018) at the Elizabeth
Dafoe Library’s Icelandic Collection.
Wolf, a native of Denmark, is currently
the Birgit Baldwin Professor and Torger
Thompson Chair at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. But at the time of
her editorship role she was the head and
chair of the Icelandic Department at
the U of M here in Manitoba. Working
closely with her, just across a footpath
on the university campus, was Johnson
who took over the maintenance of the