The Snorri Programs. 1999-2019
I will explain all (as soon as I understand it myself)….
First, my mistake. Here I am, a board member of the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto (ICCT), a board member of the INLNA (Icelandic National League of North America) and its newsletter editor, and author of a book, Letters to Icelanders, about Western Icelanders (the name given to people living outside of Iceland who have Icelandic roots - about 250,000 now). So I should know who Snorri is, was, shouldn’t I? I do, did, but it was the wrong one.
Snorri, as any educated aficionado of Icelandic lore knows, was Snorri Sturluson, (born 1179, Hvammur, Iceland—died Sept. 22, 1241, Reykjaholt), Icelandic poet, historian, and chieftain, author of the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla( a history of Norse kings). The Prose Edda, ”also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, law-speaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson c. 1220. “ (Wikipedia) There is also the Younger or Prose Edda (a handbook to Icelandic poetry by Snorri Sturluson). “The Eddas are the chief source of knowledge of Scandinavian mythology.” (Online Dictionary)
Got that? I did, too, and I have read a lot of both Eddas, but that didn’t help me to understand The Snorri Programs.
THE SNORRI PROJECT: CONNECTING ICELANDERS AND NORTH AMERICANS SINCE 1999
Yes, It began in 1999 when 19 young people of Icelandic descent from North America (Manitoba, actually) spent a few weeks in Iceland meeting, staying with relatives in Iceland and learning about the country of their ancestors. Since then more than 300 have followed suit—not so- none so similar as a suit. For each it was a unique experience, for all it was life-changing. For many it has defined their careers; a few have even settled in Iceland. Also, since then, as the Snorri Program expanded to include other than Manitobans, North Americans of Icelandic descent—all of us called Vestur-Islendingur by Iceland—followed by Snorri Plus, people past the age of the young’uns but who wanted to re-establish their roots and equal their discoveries. Even before that, Snorri West began bringing Icelandic young people to meet the New World that their emigrant families had adopted. Al this was not without tremendous by volunteers and generous grants from countless donors.
Now you know what “20 Years of Snorri " is, but you still don’t know who Snorri was. The program was named after the fisrt European born in North America, Snorri Þorfinsson.
I read the wonderful 94-page account of the Snorri Years, of these people “separated by an ocean in space and a century in time” but who are joined at the heart. I’ll give you the link so you can follow it up
Tomorrow.