14

I believe that in all of us we have an , inherited, innate, subconscious knowledge, passed on by our forefathers. I can imagine that the open prairie & wide open skies of the Vatnabyggd area against the shores of the lakes appealed to our pioneers deep in their souls & made them feel at home.
What did I learn as an Icelandic/Canadian growing up & living in the Vatnabyggd area?
-Christopher Columbus was a "johhny come lately' by a few hundred years..
-other kids had grandparents. I had Ammas & Afis
-skyr is good but hardfish is better. - where is Winnipeg? It's just south of Gimli!
It's hard to explain, but I always knew that being Icelandic was special. Being proud of who you are & where you came from is something I was taught from the day I was born.

15

On august 2 1915, the national commemoration of the Icelanders was held at Wynyard. In closing I quote from their program, a poem by Stephan G. Stephanson called "Western Icelanders":

You who moved westward
From the isle of the galaxies
Where the parious ocean [perilous?]
Hides the secrets of the arctic
Where fires hold such mighty powers
That glaciers erupt
Though both soul and sea
Sometimes seem to freeze

You who in such surroundings
Nourished warmth in your hearts,
A sunbeam in your golden hair,
And the blue of the sea in your eyes,
Attuned your speech to the sound of the sea
yet soft as the murmur of the brook,
A tongue forever akin to poetry

Here in the wilderness of an uninhabited land
And in historic graves
Is stored the work of every noble man-
Giant boulders on the heaths---
So that all may say, though his remains
Be wrapped in earth,
"here came Icelandic power that heaved
The rocks from the earth"

May each of you in distress
Saw shelter smiling at you
In full trust depend upon
The hospitality of flosi
Wherever a ship by a rocky coast
Is stranded and tossed far and wide,
May an Icelandic hand
Ever fetch the fire for rescue

Wherever a merciful man deters
Blind villiany from causing harm,
Refuses revenge and risks his life
To bind a deep wound:
May all who observed him
Who succeeded in preventing an offense say:
"fallen is a noble-hearted man
Of the line of Ingimund the Old"

Thank you 30 april 2005