Jón Sveinsson, Nonni, a beloved Icelandic children’s author, was born near Akureyri in 1857 but moved to France in 1870 where he converted to Catholicism. He wrote about his own childhood featuring himself and his brother Manni. Below is his mother´s story.
Life was tough in Iceland in the 19th century. Many struggled to feed themselves and their family and to find shelter to live in.
Unfaithful wife
Sigríður Jónsdóttir was one of many mothers watching their children getting pale, losing weight. It did not help that her husband suffered from tapeworm cysts and from lack of food like other family members still living at home.
Sigríður was born near Lake Myvatn in 1826, married Sveinn Þórarinsson, county secretary, and gave birth to eight of his children. She had one child with another man prior to their first one who was conceived during their betrothal and born two months after they got married. The newborn child was taken away from her and it is doubtful she ever saw it again. After this, their marriage suffered for some time, Sigríður going out of her way to please her husband but he was as cold towards her as can be, finding it hard to forgive his wife for her adultery.
The following description of the couple written in September 1872 is found in an excellent book on Nonni by Gunnar F. Guðmundsson. The author is the Catholic priest at Landakot in Reykjavík, Rev. Baudoin, but Gunnar suspects his source to be Einar Ásmundsson at Nes.
“She was a woman of strong character” states the priest. “And as the faith of Protestants has no bearing on such individuals and fails in all aspects for them to mend their ways, one can say she is presumptuous, arrogant and on occasion shows vanity. The marriage does not make her happy” insists Baudoin. The priest described Sveinn in the following way: “He was a very well educated for an Icelander, completely self-educated, … he was witty, rich in ideas, talented, easy going and contemplated and well respected of everyone who got to know him.”
Despite Sigríður’s unhappiness and probably Sveinn’s as well, the marriage held to the day Sveinn died.
Difficult birth
In September and October 1860, three children of Sigríður and Sveinn died in a short time. Two survived the plague, Björg and Jón, who later became the famous writer Nonni. Three more children were born to the couple, Ármann (Manni) in 1861, Friðrik in 1864 who became a well-known artist in Winnipeg, better known there as Fred Swanson, and Sigríður Guðlaug in 1868.
This family endured hardship of various kinds in the next few years, especially following the move from Möðruvellir in Hörgárdal to Akureyri in 1865. Eventually, the day arrived when they realized they had to send some of their children away. The oldest, Björg, and the youngest at the time, Friðrik, were placed in care of Ólafur Ólafsson, Sveinn’s cousin, but as Björg was so homesick, she was sent back to her parents while young Fiðrik emigrated to America with his cousin Ólafur and his family. Ólafur became one of the leaders of Icelandic immigrants, both in the United States and Canada, often referred to as Ólafur Ólafsson from Espihóll.
Nonni also left his home and went to Espihóll where Eggert Gunnarsson was now living with his wife, Elín Rigríður Runólfsdóttir.
A little over nine months later, Nonni had a new sister. The birth was difficult for Sigríður. Sveinn had sent for a midwife to stay with his wife overnight, but as the baby showed no sign of coming, the midwife left for her home which was some distance outside Akureyri. A little later Sigríður´s pangs of childbirth began so Sveinn went to his neighbor, asking him to fetch the midwife again.
At eight o’clock in the evening of August 18, 1868 Sigríður gave birth to a “promising girl”, but as the afterbirth would not loosen, “I asked Páll Magnússon, who was staying here, to ride back to his own home and fetch his homemade medicine” Sveinn wrote in his diary. After a lengthy struggle, the afterbirth loosened on its own at four in the morning. Wife and child appeared to Sveinn to be coping well and in his opinion due to the medicine Pall had brought.
Two days earlier the mother of the newborn child had celebrated – if celebrate is the right word – her forty second birthday.
A little less than a year later, in July 1869, Sveinn died. Sigríður and her three children, Nonni, Manni and little Sigríður stayed the next winter and into spring in the home of Páll Magnússon.
“The Death’s Horror”
In July 1870, Nonni was invited to France to stay in the house of a French nobleman. He accepted and in August he bid his mother farewell and travelled abroad. They did not see each other again in this life. Sigríður continued her struggle in Akureyri for the next six years.
No later than spring of 1871, Sigríður had to move out of “Nonni’s House”, now a museum in Akureyri, and was forced to live in four different homes in Akureyri. In 1873 Manni followed in Nonni’s footsteps and emigrated to France. In 1876, Sigríður emigrated to Canada where she died in March 1910, almost 84 years of age. In a letter to Manni several years later, who was studying in France at that time, she stated: “when I think of my last years in Akureyri, some sort of death´s horror fills my mind. But thank God all that is in the past.”
The above is based on research by Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article, “Sigríður Jónsdóttir, móðir Nonna”. English version by Thor group
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