Writings by Western Icelandic Women

Lynn Szabo is an assistant professor of English at Trinity Western
University in Langley, B.C.

This anthology of short stories and poems spans 75 years of writings by
Western Icelandic women who settled in North America after 1870. Its
contributors include Undina, important for the psychological geography
of her poetry; and Laura Goodman Salverson, the first Canadian author to
receive the Governor General’s Award in two literary categories.
Jakobina Johnson, Helen Sveinbjornsson, and Gudrin Finnsdottir are other
key contributors. The editor and translator, Kirsten Wolf, contends that
the writings of these women “stand in their own right as
socio-historical documents that play against a background of the
development of women as legitimate voices [in the period they
represent].”

The book’s introduction provides a clear and fascinating account of
Icelandic immigrants. Professor Wolf, who chairs Icelandic language and
literature at the University of Manitoba, also provides a concise and
insightful biography for each of the contributors, along with persuasive
and careful explanations of her translations.

Many of the poems in the anthology exhibit an eloquent and elevated
language that suggests interesting parallels with that of English
literature of the same period. The stories depict with great
authenticity the legendary struggles of immigrant women of many origins
and destinations in late–19th-century North America.

Occasionally, the translation transgresses the narrative voice, as does
unevenness in the register of the characters’ speech. Nevertheless,
for those who seek to understand Icelandic roots in North America, this
is an important and valuable collection.