Fall 2025 Lectures (September–December)

Sunday, September 14, at 2:00 pm
Education is the lightest load you will ever carry: The significance of self-education in the cultural history of the descendants of Icelandic 19th-century immigrants to Canada

Location: University of Victoria, Clearihue A207

Birna Bjarnadóttir, Research Specialist, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, University of Iceland, and former Chair of Icelandic (2003 —2015), University of Manitoba

The quest for education among 19th century Icelandic immigrants to Canada and their descendants is well documented in both written and oral sources, and this history is brimming with varieties of the quest-like pursuit. In her lecture, Birna will focus on one compelling example from the 20th century, but it was in Manitoba’s Interlake Region where a group of friends demonstrated the significance of self-education in this cultural history. These were the farmer, poet and translator Sigurður Hildibrandur Finnsson (1919 ̶ 1991), his wife Kristín Halla Halldórsson (1913 ̶ 1995), and their good friends, neighbors, ardent readers and collectors of books, Aðalbjörg (nee Simundsson) (1910-2000) and Þórarinn Guðni Sigvaldason (1910-2002). As Birna will argue in her lecture, this tale of self-education is not bereft of a universal appeal, in the sense that the lightest load to carry is the one that unveils entire histories.

Sunday, October 5, at 2:00 pm
The varieties of migration experience in the poetry of Undína and Stephan G. Stephansson

Location: University of Victoria, Clearihue A207

Birna Bjarnadóttir, Research Specialist, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, University of Iceland, and former Chair of Icelandic (2003 —2015), University of Manitoba

In this lecture, Birna will focus on the poetry of two of the leading pioneer poets among Icelandic immigrants to Canada and the U.S.: Helga Steinvör Baldvinsdóttir (1858–1941), who writes her poetry under the pseudonym Undína, and the poet, farmer, essayist, pacifist, and social prophet Stephan G. Stephansson (1853–1927). As was the case with Stephan G., who was a pioneer in Wisconsin and Dakota Territories until 1889, when he homesteaded in Markerville, Alberta, Helga was no stranger to the flux of migration. Following her emigration from Iceland in 1873, she homesteaded in a few provinces in both Canada and the US, including Ontario, the Dakota Territories and Christmas Valley, Oregon. Through a comparative reading, Birna will discuss the rich varieties of the migration experience in the poetry of Undína and Stephan G., and how they reveal universal and even extraterritorial elements in the worlds of literature, nature, and human existence.

Saturday, October 18, at 2:00 pm
Icelandic emigration to the Americas 1870−1914, seen from a Nordic comparative perspective

Location: University of Victoria, Clearihue A207

Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, Professor of Social History, Dean of the School of Humanities, University of Iceland

This presentation looks at the socio-demographic profile of Icelandic emigrants during the period 1873−1914. The group bears many similarities with emigrants from the other Nordic countries, in particular Denmark, Norway and Sweden. During the early stages of the emigration process, family migration was a distinctive feature of Nordic emigration, whereas solitary migration became more common towards the end of the 19th century. As in the other Nordic countries, women were more likely to emigrate than in most other European countries, and in the case of Iceland, slightly more women than men emigrated to the Americas. In the presentation, we will also look at the differences in emigration patterns from rural and urban areas and argue that there were considerable differences between the settings.

Sunday, November 23, at 2:00 pm
The creative power of the Westfjords and Strandir in the history of Icelandic literature and world literature

Location: University of Victoria, Clearihue A207

Birna Bjarnadóttir, Research Specialist, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, University of Iceland, and former Chair of Icelandic (2003 —2015), University of Manitoba

In 2023, a collection of essays by Icelandic, Canadian and Danish scholars and writers on the creative power of the Westfjords and Strandir was published by the Icelandic Literary Society, (founded in 1816). The book draws on the Icelandic Field school (2007 ̶ 2015), a summer course held by the University of Manitoba’s Department of Icelandic in collaboration with the University Centre of the Westfjords. The creative power in question finds expression in artistic works that have influenced the history of Icelandic literature and the history of world literature. The book is scheduled to appear in English translation, and will present—for the first time in English—a place-based study of the significance of the West Fjords and Strandir within the Icelandic literary tradition and world literature. Dedicated to the memory of Dustin Geeraert (1983 ̶ 2024), one of the participants in the Icelandic Field School and authors of the book, in this lecture, Birna will discuss the origin of this transatlantic project, and highlight a few examples of the creative power in question.

Monday, December 29, at 7:30 pm
Screening of The Swan, directed by Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir

Location: Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas St.

As part of the Victoria International Film Festival, Icelandic film director Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir will be present during the screening of her 2017 film The Swan, which is based on a novel by the Icelandic writer Guðbergur Bergsson.

September­–December 2025 Course

Dr. Birna Bjarnadóttir will be teaching a course on Icelandic Canadian Literature.