Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.01.2019, Qupperneq 11

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15. janúar 2019 • 11
Your ancestors were
believers.
I know that from
all the Icelandic Bibles that
I saw filling boxes in Gimli.
Black covers, well worn – the
Bibles of the dead that no one
knew what to do with. What
would the owners of these
Bibles make of the report by
the American Physical Society
that says religion is dying out
in nine countries? Religion, the
report says, may become extinct
in Australia, Austria, the Czech
Republic, Canada, Finland,
Ireland, New Zealand, the
Netherlands, and Switzerland.
In 1814 and 1815, when
Ebenezer Henderson was
travelling around Iceland
selling and giving away
Bibles, he describes a society
in which religion was as much
a part of every day as fishing,
haymaking, and knitting.
On one of his journeys,
he says, “We now entered the
Thingvalla, or Court Valley;
and, crossing the river Öxerá,
by which it was divided, came
about one o’clock to Thingvalla
church. The pastor is an aged
man of sixty-nine. His parish
consists of twelve families and
though he could not give me
any certain statement, yet he
did not believe that there were
more than two, or, at most, three
of them that were in possession
of a copy of the Bible. ... The
church is very small, not much
larger than that of Mossfell, and
is filled with barrels, books, and
chests, which serve the purpose
of seats, and, on a shelf before
the altar, is a coffin, which the
clergyman has prepared for
himself.”
When “I arrived at Háls ...
Sira Sigurdr, the clergyman, had
not yet left the meadow, where
he was assisting his people at
the hay; but, on being informed
of my arrival ... received me
at a little distance from the
house ... [H]e did not doubt
but that his parishes, which
are three in number, would
take a considerable quantity of
Bibles and New Testaments.
A few copies of the edition of
the New Testament, published
in 1807, had been sent him for
distribution; but they only went
a little way ...
“The next day, being the
Lord’s day, I was happy to
find it was his turn to conduct
divine worship at this place.
There is only one service in
the Icelandic churches, which
seldom begins in any part of the
island before noon, and in some
places not before two o’clock.
The reason of the hour being
so late is, that the Icelanders
have their sheep to collect and
milk, the horses on which they
are to ride to seek and drive
home, and themselves to dress;
which circumstances, taken in
connexion with the length of
the way many of them have to
come, renders it impossible for
them to meet sooner.
“The total number of
parishes in Iceland amounts
to 184; but as many of them
occupy a great space of ground,
it has been found necessary to
build in some parts two or three
churches in a parish, which
has increased the number of
churches to 305.” The ministers
are “all natives of the island,
and are maintained partly from
certain tithes raised among the
peasants. The provision made
for their support is exceedingly
scanty. The richest living on
the island does not produce 200
rix-dollars; twenty and thirty
rix-dollars are the whole of the
stipend annexed to many of the
parishes; and there are some in
which it is even as low as five.
“Small as the pittance
which is thus afforded to the
Icelandic clergy, and much as
their attention must be directed
to the management of their
farms, they are, nevertheless,
in general, very assiduous in
the discharge of their public
functions, and particularly
attentive to the education of
the young. Every clergyman in
Iceland keeps what is called a
register of souls, which contains
an accurate statement of the age,
situation, conduct, abilities, and
proficiency of each individual
in his parish. The books in the
possession of the family are
also entered on the list; and as
this record is made annually,
to be presented to the dean at
his visitation, a regular view is
thus obtained of the moral and
religious state of the parish.”
Later in his travels,
Henderson says that at one
farm, “I had scarcely turned
to re-enter my tent when two
servant girls came running
with money in their hands, and
wished to have each a New
Testament.
“Taking into consideration
the remoteness of the
surrounding cottages from the
nearest market-place to which
it was intended to forward
Bibles next year, I sent for
two of the poorest people in
the vicinity, and gave each of
them a Testament. One of them
... thanked me repeatedly, with
tears in his eyes, and rode home
quite overjoyed at the gift he
had received.”
After Henderson left
Mossfell, he travelled until
he arrived at a small cottage
he identified as Skálabrecka.
Everyone was asleep and all
the doors were locked. One of
his party forced open one of the
doors and called out, “Her se
Gud, ‘May God be in this place;’
which, after he had repeated
it near a dozen times, was
answered with Drottinn blessa
thik, ‘The Lord bless you.’”
When he met the head of
a family, he wished prosperity
to him, and all that are in his
house and, on leaving them, he
said, “Se i Guds Fridi, ‘May
you remain in the peace of
God;’ which is returned with
Guds Fridi veri med ydr, ‘The
peace of God be with you.’
Both at meeting and parting, an
affectionate kiss on the mouth,
without distinction of rank,
age or sex, is the only mode of
salutation known in Iceland …”
When I’m in Gimli, I try to
go to church every Sunday. The
distance is not great. The way
is not hard. But the attendance
is scant. It is easy to believe,
looking at the empty pews, that
Canada will soon be secular.
The next time you are in Iceland
visit the churches. They are not
just old buildings. They are
peopled with the ghosts of your
ancestors. People overcame
great difficulties to attend
them. The emigrant’s trunks
nearly all contained a Bible.
You don’t have to be a believer
to imagine as you sit in one of
these country churches what it
must have been like when the
people of the district rode up on
a Sunday, greeted each other,
listened to sermons that are
described as sometimes going
on for hours and, then, when
the service was over, gathered
outside to visit.
Faced with incredibly
difficult lives, these people
prayed for good weather, for
good fishing, for good grass,
for healthy sheep and cows,
for freedom from illness; they
prayed because their lives were
not under their own control.
The Danes controlled the trade,
the wind and current controlled
the ice that sometimes filled the
harbours and kept precious grass
from growing, the land owning
farmers controlled whether
workers had a place to sleep
and something to eat. They held
their Bibles close. They clutched
them on the way to Amerika.
Now, their descendants believe
in other things.
Editor’s note – The quoted
passages in this article are
from Ebenezer Henderson’s
book, Iceland; or the Journal
of a Residence in that Island,
during the Years 1814 and
1815 (Edinburgh, 1818). In the
interests of historical accuracy,
the spelling of place names
and Icelandic expressions in
this article reflect those used
by Henderson.
WHAT THOSE OLD ICELANDIC BIBLES TELL US
W.D. Valgardson
Victoria, BC
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Translat ion
Serv ices
English to Icelandic
or
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We can accommodate
your translation needs
contact L-H for a quote
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(204) 284 5686 TF: 1-866-564-2374
PHOTO: STEFAN JONASSON
Guðbrandarbiblía (1584) at Skógar Folk Museum
PHOTO: STEFAN JONASSON
Þorláksbiblía (1644) at Skógar Folk Museum. Right: an illustration from
Ebenezer Henderson’s travelogue.
PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)