Article Database - Icelandic-Canadian Millennium

A one-woman play that celebrates the first settlement in North America by people from Iceland and Greenland 1,000 years ago was among several events taking place in Alberta this year to mark Icelandic-Canadian Millennium celebrations.

The saga of Guadridur, a touring play from Iceland, tells the story of Guadridur Thorbjarnardottir, an Icelander and the first European woman to travel to North America. She helped lead the third Viking expedition to North America around the year 1005, nearly five hundred years before Christopher Columbus, and gave birth to the first European child to be born on this continent. Later she returned to Iceland and made a pilgrimage on foot through Europe to Rome to meet the Pope.

"There's a very strong female presence in Iceland history," says Connie Clark, coordinator of the Edmonton Icelandic Society's Millennium Committee. "It was the first country in the world to give women property rights."

The play was presented at the Stanley Milner Library Theater in downtown Edmonton April 26 as part of Icelandic Week festivities in the city, April 22 - 28. A reception at the royal Glenora club April 24 honoured famous Canadians of Icelandic heritage such as astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason and the late Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson.

Thousands of Icelanders emigrated to Canada and the United States in the second half of the 19th century, escaping crop failure and poverty caused partly by volcanic activity. In Canada, the bulk of Icelandic settlement occurred in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Icelandic heritage societies in Alberta are active in Edmonton, Markerville and Calgary. Walter Sopher, membership secretary for Edmonton, jokes that more people of Icelandic descent likely live in Canada than on the tiny North Atlantic island, which has a population of about 265,000.

Icelandic heritage includes a strong literary tradition and the establishment of the world's first parliamentary system in 930. The Edmonton society runs regularly Icelandic language classes and "language experience" weekends for those wishing to learn conversational Icelandic. Sopher notes that the Icelandic language has changed very little and essentially preserves the language of the Vikings.

As well as fostering pride in one of Alberta's least-visible ethnic strands, the millennium celebrations are designed to promote Canadian-Icelandic trade. Icelandic ponies, known for their toughness, are increasingly prized in Alberta, while Icelandic woollens have long been popular here. Iceland bills itself as the world's "most wired country" and hopes to increase trade of computer software.

For information: Connie Clark, Edmonton Icelandic Society 780-963-9869; membership secretary Walter Sopher, 780-481-3502