The Fish Can Sing (Vintage, 2008) A genius of a book. A brilliant book. A book that grabbed my heart. How could I, coming…
“Loftur” starts with Sigurbjörg, a pretty young girl being courted by a number of older men. She is pressured by her parents to choose one…
Sketch by Jemima Wedderburn Blackburn (1823–1909) In 1878, Iceland, faced with disastrous weather, recent volcanic eruption, the continuing domination of Denmark in spite of…
Photograph provided by Ken Kristjanson Lake Winnipeg is big. People who haven’t travelled on it don’t realize just how big. There 9,465 sq miles of…
We’ve all heard of the ships of the emigration but how many of us have actually seen a travel schedule for those ships? These were…
In diplomacy, momentous decisions are often made not in the heat of battle or even argument but over the dinner table, at celebrations, in nooks…
I had Kraft dinner for supper. Well, actually, it wasn’t Kraft dinner. It was Annie’s Rice Pasta & Cheddar. I was diagnosed with Celiac…
Reykjavik The stories in What The Bear Said are set in one or more of these three worlds. “Sigga’s Prayer”, takes place in…
In the 1950s it was Ford Fairlanes, big motors, ducktail haircuts, drapes (pants that were as wide at the knee as possible and as tight…
Poetry, like hymn singing, was okay in Iceland. Both came with the settlers. The poetry and hymn singing expanded to become secular but still was…