Stephan’s Daughter
Stephan’s Daughter
The Story of Rosa Siglaug Benediktson
by Joanne White
Size: 6.5"w x 8.5"h Softcover
156 Pages
Excerpt from the Foreword:
More than twenty years ago after several years of documentation and restoration, Alberta Culture, Historic Sites Service, opened the farmstead of the Icelandic poet, Stephan G. Stephansson, to the public. It was a day of great celebration for the Icelandic community both here “in the west"’ and ‘‘at home” in Iceland. An important speaker that day was Rosa Benediktson. Rosa had long had a keen sense of her father's importance to Icelanders and Canadians alike and, as the youngest and only surviving child of the poet, she undertook the responsibility of representing her father at various occasions. The opening ceremonies that fine day of August 7, 1982 must have given her a great sense of satisfaction knowing that a quest begun years before had finally come to fruition.
[...]
The necessary emphasis on Stephansson has, nevertheless, left many gaps in the story. For example, we know relatively little about Helga Stephansson, Rosa's mother, or about Rosa's siblings. And, until now, we have known little about Rosa herself. Joanne White's organization of Rosa's papers and photographs has brought to light the life of a woman whose life spanned nearly a century. Born into a tight-knit Icelandic society, Rosa married within her community. That community, though, was in the throes of change. Better roads and communication broke down the isolation of the homesteads. More opportunities for higher education and jobs meant that many in the Markerville area left. Rosa's children married outside their ethnic boundaries.
None took over the family farm. Rosa herself eventually left the farm to work in Red Deer in a much larger, mainstream society. Resilient, she adapted, but she never forgot her roots, a heritage to which she was able to return late in life. This is her story, one which mirrors the changes that the Icelandic - and other ethnic communities - have had to face and accept while keeping the memory of their language and culture.
Jane Ross
Curator, Western Canadian History
Provincial Museum of Alberta
