Icelandic

Memories

  
 

It was Sigga, along with Maria, who lived with Sigga and Adolph for several years, who kept the Icelandic culture alive in the Anderson home by preparing Icelandic foods, conversing in Icelandic, and in Maria's case, teaching Icelandic games and singing Icelandic songs.


 		  
 

Maria, circa 1950s

    
  One of the games Sigga's children remember is a hand game where a rhyme was spoken by their Amma while she gently stroked the palm of their hand and then punctuate that rhyme with a slap at the end. The trick was to try to guess when Amma would abruptly change the gentle stroke and the rhythm to the final quick slap on their palm. The rhyme shown below was given to Arlene by an Icelander when she visited there in 2000.    
 

Another Icelandic memory the children have is Amma naming the fingers and thumb on their hand. The naming was done in a sing-song way while she touched each digit beginning with the thumb and moving to the little finger. The naming is written phonetically in English, as Bev remembers it:

"Thumal top, slaky pot, longy mon, elly bron, little spitty spillamon"