LUNDAR
- News &
Events
A CHAPTER
OF THE INL of NA
Ellen
Steinthorson, president
Box 422, Lundar, Manitoba, R0C 1Y0, Canada
Phone # (204) 762-5191 • Email: abrandson@hotmail.com
Welcome to our LUNDAR Chapter's web page on the
internet!
Here is a report on our club activities for
2002-2003. Report.pdf
On
duty for visitors from Iceland
Steinþór
Guðbjartsson (L-H)
LUNDAR, MB
"In the past few years the Lundar Chapter has
organized annual events like the Farmers' Day and the
Icelandic Heritage week but now we mainly entertain
vistors from Iceland in the summer," says Ellen
Steinthorson, the President of the Lundar Chapter of the
Icelandic National League (INL) of North America.
The INL was established in 1919 and at that time there
were two registered members from Lundar, Manitoba. The
following year the area of Lundar, Oak Point, Mary Hill,
Markland, Vestfold, Lissesve, Hove, Otto and Stony Hill,
had 100 members, according to the book Wagons to
Wings: A History of Lundar and Districts 1872-1980,
compiled by Lundar and District Historical Society in
1983. However, the Lundar Chapter was not founded until
1946. The main reason for establishing the club was the
Lundar Diamond Jubilee Celebration held July 6, 1947.
The settlement was established in 1887. John
Sigfússon was the first homesteader in the Lundar
district and soon Icelanders were all over the area.
According to Wagons to Wings, "by 1892 there were
54 settlers and the total number of people was 238 and
from then on there was a steady influx of pioneer
settlers who turned to mixed farming, sheep raising and
planted oats and barley for domestic purposes."
About a half a century ago, on July 17, 1955, a
memorial monument was unveiled at Lundar, Manitoba. The
monument was erected in commemoration of Icelandic
pioneers in Lundar, Swan Lake and Shoal Lake districts.
On the memorial plaque is a poem in Icelandic by
Vigfús J. Guttormson, Guttormur Guttormson's
brother:
Hér er þetta minnismerki
mönnum jafnt og konum reist
sem þann manndóm sýndu í
verki
svo þeim allir gátu treyst
aldrei glati orðstí góðum
afkomandi landnemans
frægðarorð þú ferð
hjá þjóðum
fetir þú í sporin hans.
The Lundar Chapter has had a memorial service annually
since then to commemorate the memory of the Icelandic
settlers.
For decades, the Lundar Chapter was very active, but
according to Ellen it is harder and harder to get
individuals to work for the club. "We have about 50
members, but very few participate in meetings and other
activities," she says.
About 1,320 people, most of them of Icelandic descent,
live in the municipality with less than 50% of them in
the town of Lundar. Icelandic names can be seen
everywhere and Icelandic is spoken here and there. For a
long time, school board meetings were held in Icelandic
and church services were held in Icelandic until 1961.
The last two Icelandic ministers were Bragi
Friðriksson and Jón Bjarman.
The club supports Canadian Icelandic activities and
Icelanders and others are frequent guests in Lundar in
the summertime. "People of Icelandic descent are
everywhere in the area and we need new blood" Ellen says.
Icelandic Classes
are popular in Lundar
Gunnvör Daníelsdóttir and Evelyn
Thorvaldson, both from Winnipeg, have been running
Icelandic classes in Lundar on Saturdays, in the Fall and
Spring, for four years of the last five. The first year,
they had 27 students and last fall there were a total of
17 in beginner and advanced classes.
(L-H)
(The
above articles appeared in Lögberg-Heimskringla,
Jan. 14, 2005)
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