“What’s going to happen next?” asked Kristín Jóhannsdóttir at the outset of her presentation on the Icelandic language in North America, which was the opening address at the Icelandic National League of North America convention on Friday, May 2, 2025. She focused on the status of the language as it is today and what the future holds for it, recognizing that the people who still speak the language fluently are few in number and mostly elderly...

There were four circumstances that led to the creation of New Iceland,” according to Ryan Eyford. “The first was that it was an established policy of the Canadian government to grant blocks of land to immigrants as a way to encourage immigration.” First introduced in 1872, these colonization reserves set aside a million acres of land in Manitoba over the next decade, the most widely remembered reserves being those for the Mennonites and the Icelanders...

Heather Jean Jordan and Theresa Thordarson, sisters and musicians, are making names for themselves across western Canada. Heather Jean and Theresa are the daughters of Philip and Phyllis Thordarson of Langruth. Their paternal great-grandparents, Jon and Gudfinna (Tomasdottir) Thordarson, came to Canada from Iceland, settling first in the Churchbridge area of what is now Saskatchewan and later moving to a farm north of Langruth along the western shores of Lake Manitoba...