Tíminn - 17.06.1930, Blaðsíða 19

TÍMINN
1930
Cantií þér í G00M1CH Ginnmistigvélnin
GOODRICH
Þessi endurbættu GOODRICH Gúmmístígvél hafa þá
kosti umfram aðrar tegundir, að þau eru miklu léttari,
endingarbetri og ódýrari.
Notið þvi eingöngu Goodrích heímsfrægu gúmmístigvél og skó
IV Fást um land alt. 'W
Heildverzlun Ásgeivs Sigurðssonar
Hafnavsivæti 10==12, Reykjavík.
evidences of influence of Icelandic litterature may be
found in a number of Longfellow’s poems.
Professor Willard Fiske was an admirer of Icelandic
litterature. He collected a great number of Icelandic
books and at his death he willed his collection to Cornell
University stipulating that there should always be an
Icelandic librarian there. Since 1905 Professor Ilalldór
Hermannsson has been the curator of this Icelandic
library. He gives courses at the University and has since
1908 issued the publication I s 1 a n d i c a „An annual
relating to Iceland and the Fiske Icelandic collection in
Cornell University library“.
eSteíanb anb (Sanaba
Canada has by far ihe most extensive Icelandic com-
munities in America. It is estimated that there are about
30—40,000 first and second generation Icelanders in the
different Provinces of the Dominion. The City of Winni-
peg is the chief Icelandic, center in Canada. There the
Icelandic colonists came in the autumn of 1875, two
hundred and fifty men, women and children. They were
very hopeful but absolutly without means. To begin with
the settlers had to struggle with terrible difficulties of
various kind and the glorious victory they have gained
in their fighting against grashoppers, epidemic and the
hardness of nature has cost many lives.
The year 1875 is very important in the history of
Icelandic immigration to America, because then there
was established one of the first permanent and the most
important Icelandic community of Canada N e w I c e-
1 a n d on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The vai’ious Ice-
landic settlements in Canada are located around the City
of Winnipeg (Glenboro), Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba
and Winnipegosis in the Province of Manitoba; between
Churchbridge and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan and around
Markerville, Alberta. There are also groupes of Iceland-
ers in Vancouver and the neighbouring cities.
The immigration of the Icelanders to Canada was
partly caused by the lack of opportunities of their
mother-country; they came seeking fortune.
There has not been carried on much commerce
between Iceland and Canada. The following table shows
the value of trade between Iceland and Canada during the
years 1924—’28.
a. Imports from Canada, 1000 krónur.
1924 kr. 27,0
1925 — 83,0
1926 — 121,0
L927 — 75,2
1928 — 6Í,0
b. Exports from Iceland, 1000 krónur.
1924 kr. 2,6
1925 — 3,1
1926 — 5,8
1927 — 0,7
1928 — 2,0
There has ever been intense cultural connexion
between Iceland and the Icelandic communities in Canada
and the Icelanders in Canada have contributed much to
Icelandic culture. They have edited Icelandic news-
papers and periodicals vvith numerous articles on Ice-
landic matters, which have been read with great interest
on both sides of the Atlantic. Ilere we must in the first
instance remember the National League of Winnipeg,
Manitoba (Þjóðræknisfélag íslendinga) which has done
very much to promote Icelandic culture in Canada. This
society for instance issues yearly a periodical with
various essays on Icelandic language, history, litterature
and also poems and short stories, written by Icelanders on
both sides of the Atlantic.
The Icelanders in America have shown appreciation
of poetry and ability to write verse. One of the greatest
Icelandic poets in America, Stephan G. Stephansson died
in 1927. He was borne in the North of Iceland in 1853 and
at the age of twenty he emigrated with his parents to
America. Here he became three times a pioneer both in
the U. S. A. and Canada (Alberta), where he made his
home from 1889 until his death. Stephansson has been
called the greatest poet in the British Dominions although
unknown to the English themselves, because he wrote all
his poems in Icelandic. Living in more varied surroun-
dings than the civilization his native country could offer,
Stephansson, the poet of the Rocky Mountains, as he is
often called in Iceland has enriched the Icelandic littera-
ture very much. In Iceland he is admired, and no doubt
his poems have done very much to strenghten the cultural
bonds between the Icelanders in America and those of the
homeland.
The most famous man borne of Icelandic parents in
America is no doubt the Arctic explorer and author, Vil-
lijálmur Stefánsson, who with his subsequent career has
given proof of Icelandic perseverance, courage and litter-
ary gifts.
Jtfþincjt
The period of the colonization of Iceland, which be-
gan in 874 with the coming of Ingólfur Amarson, founder
of Reykjavík, may be said to have ended with the
founding of A11 h i n g (the Icelandic parliament) m
930. A republic then came into being, lasting until 1262,
when Iceland yielded its sovereignty to the king of Nor-
way, after a long period of internal dissension and strife.
The ancient Icelandic Republic, which has a remark-
able history, was established at a time when absolutism
was increasing in power in all the neighboring countries
of Europe. Its roots are to be traced to the old institu-
tions of the Germanic peoples. But here we have to deal
with new developements of the old forms government, an
evolution in ideals. Unfortunately, this experiment of the
Icelanders to develope democracy did not succeed nor did
it influence Europe, and a long time passed before the
nations of Europe understood that without liberty and
popular rights, without democratic government, the moral
and economiv progress of the people is not only hampered
but may even retrograde. Recognition of these truths
has cost the lives of millions and untold suffering for
generations.
The Icelanders paid a high price for liberty. Their
forefathers forsook their native land, separated fi'om
their relatives and friends and settled in a new and
isolated country. But they considered this saci’ifice for
liberty was not too great, and believed their freedom was
secured at „Althing by Öxará“. During the three centuxies
that the Republic endured the very source of all spiritual
and political life was Althing.
The genius which the old Icelandic chieftains showed
for ordeiiy foi'ms of government must arouse the admira-
tion of all who have studied the histoi’y of those times,
in spite of the many shoi-tcomings apparent in the institu-
tion of Althing. But it is no less significant for those who
are acquainted with the literature of the period of the
Republic that under the protection of Althing, intellectual
growth was fostered; and which no less reveals the
possibilites for the developement of the individual more
so tham was common in other lands under other forms of
government. Tolerance, liberal mindedness, love of truth
and deep understanding of the psychology of the indi-
vidual and of society, whicli is revealed in this literature,
can only belong to that nation which has for a long time
not only made liberty its reigning ideal, but an essential
pai’t of national life. With the close of the republican
period, the social and economic conditions of the nation
gradually declined. But the memories of the old order