The Icelandic Roots Writing Group has recently had a story prompt to write about “Something that is very Icelandic”. The following is the story from Alfreda Duffy where she explores something many of us share and is indisputable.
By Alfreda Duffy
There are many things that are uniquely Icelandic. One example is our Icelandic food which we rarely eat today, and if we do it is only on special occasions. Even as a child, we mostly ate them at special events. Except maybe Pönnukökur, mýsuostur, or skyr which were more common daily items back then. Even today skyr remains a common daily food.
This question left me slightly befuddled. I wracked my brain, and finally concluded that it must be something we do. Something that is culturally ingrained in us.
My ancestry is Icelandic on both sides. On my mother’s side her family always felt more Icelandic. Her father, my afi, took turns living with his children at that time. When he lived with us, I remember Icelandic being spoken a lot more. Since afi was blind at this stage my mom read the Icelandic newspaper to him, whether Lögberg or Heimskringla, I do not remember.
In my childhood days when my mom’s or afi’s friends or family visited they spoke only Icelandic. And they always drank coffee which was made with the “sock.” I remember my mom pouring a small amount into a saucer, then she would put a cube of sugar into afi’s hand which he set between his teeth. Watching him gently cupping his hands around the saucer and bringing it carefully to his lips, I would wait for him to spill. He never did. Maybe he had developed muscle memory. Men were the only ones that I remember who drank from a saucer, afi probably had a lot of practice when he could see. Could this be a “very Icelandic” thing to do? Possibly, but I never see anyone doing that today. Do you? Compared to my dad’s side it felt as if my mom’s family had one foot still in Iceland and one in Canada.
As for my dad’s side, my grandpa rarely visited even though he only lived a couple of miles out of town. My dad worked away a lot and grandpa had a big cattle ranch to run. Plus, he had many irons in the fire, he was at the beck and call of neighbours at all hours as he was considered the local vet. He was a counselor for his area, and a school trustee, so he was a very busy man.
Whenever my dad was home, grandpa relied on him to repair any major issues he had with his farm equipment. My dad was a good mechanic so, maybe grandpa got to visit with his son then and did not feel the need to visit us. On the rare occasion when grandpa did visit us, unlike most of the locals, he drank tea not coffee. But like the others he would drink his first few sips of tea from his saucer. Plus, it was generally just him visiting, there was never a gathering of others like in my mom’s family. But unlike my mom’s side, both of grandpa’s feet were firmly placed in Canada.
Culturally, there is one thing though that both sides of my family had in common back then, and that to me was and still is very Icelandic. They all had this need to know who your family was and where they came from. If there was an Icelandic connection, then they would all babble away in Icelandic debating with each other whether anyone knew of them or if there was any connection.
Unlike our ancestors we do not have all our family genealogy ingrained in our memory. Instead, we have the Icelandic Roots relationship calculator at our fingertips. With this magic button, we have restored to life this same need our ancestors had back then and today we ask similar questions. This very Icelandic thing we all have in common and have become so passionate about, this need to know if, and how, we are connected.
It may even be in our DNA memory. Perhaps proving the theory of Carl Jung, the famous psychologist. He believed we were all born with the memories and experiences of our ancestors, and that they are imprinted into our DNA. Maybe this very Icelandic need we have resurrected through Icelandic Roots suggests his theory just may be correct. What do you think?