My aunt Solveig and Canada’s History magazine have partnered to make Vikings on a Prairie Ocean available to over 300 schools in Manitoba to make this important piece of the country’s history known. We hope to engage with the students...
“Building a Better Country”: Riverton Brings Home a Second Order of Canada
On November 27, 2020, shortly after I had received the press release announcing appointments to the Order of Canada, the telephone rang, and an excited voice boomed in my ear: “Glenn, it’s Reggie. I am so proud of you! Now there are two Orders of...
The Silent Bonds of War: Stefan Sigurdson and Dori Benjaminson
Let there be no doubt. If you were on a tug on the North Basin, in the heavy seas of a ripping Norwester, with a motor in trouble, you’d want Dori Benjaminson with you. Dori spent most of his time in his mechanic shop beside the small store on...
Music was the Voice Of Riverton
Like the presence of the rink and the inspiration it created, music was part of everyone’s life. Nothing better epitomized the “mustang” spirit just below the surface in the community than the remarkable New Year’s Eve dance.
Jack Clarkson: A Legendary Bushpilot in His Own Time
This is an extract from Vikings on a Prairie Ocean published in 2014 It is reproduced here on the occasion of his 90th birthday, April 22, 2020
Hidden Treasures: Old friends of an “Old man and the Sea”
Hidden treasures found at the cottage this morning…. 45 years since Afi Malli (Brynjolfson) died I found his beloved pipes, which were his companions over his life. And beside them the roll- your -own cigarette papers which he filled with...
Sigurdson Island
“Sigurdson Island “ at the mouth of the Berens River, was a magical place for a young boy. As a little guy in the early 50’s each summer we would “Go North” to join Dad at the station for summer fishing. Sigurdson Fisheries had a long association...
Black bear
Now we are on an expedition. We are going to go from black bear to rabbit point. It is about 4 miles. If there is any hint of a wind coming up I am reluctant to take our small boat across the lake.
“Freezing Out” – The Fishermens’ Fishermen
As a boy when I heard that Afi Malli and Uncle Grimsi were “freezing out “it always sounded to my young ears as a mysterious adventure. I would soon learn that they were one of the lonely breeds of fishermen who would stay North in their camps...
Snapshots of a Heritage
Life day to day on Lake Winnipeg in my life – but a world that few know of then, or today, but even less so in a history that reaches back into the 1880s. The emergence of a commercial fishery in 1882 and following was the cornerstone of...
Vinarterta: Viking Christmas Cake
Few Christmas traditions are as culturally sacred to Canada’s ethnic Icelanders – nor as touchy, for that matter – as the baking of a 150-year-old fruitcake. Vinarterta is a hefty, layered torte customarily served in rectangular slices, usually...
Prairie Vikings Journey into the World of Social Innovation
“What could lost Vikings possibly have to do with your career?” This question quickly arises in the discussion around what this book is about. And it appears to be a question that resonates with many people called upon to define...