Stephan G. Stephansson: Interesting Icelander for November 2026
Stephan G. Stephansson was an Icelandic-born poet, farmer, and community leader whose life spanned two continents. Born in northern Iceland in 1853, he emigrated to North America in search of a better life. After settling first in Wisconsin and then in North Dakota, he moved to Alberta in 1889. Writing in Icelandic, he became one of the most prolific poets of his time.
Stefán Guðmundur Guðmundsson (I187678) was born on October 3, 1853, on the farm Kirkjuhóll, near Víðimýri in Skagafjörður, northern Iceland. Stefán’s parents, Guðmundur Stefánsson and Guðbjörg Hannesdóttir, were tenant farmers. Stefán was taught at home by his parents and Lutheran ministers, as formal schooling was very limited at this time.
As was common, the family moved several times from farm to farm, eventually settling in S-Þingeyjarsýsla, three years before emigrating. He worked on the farm Mjóidalur with his aunt Sigurbjörg and her husband Jón Jónsson, along with their two children, Jón and Helga - his future wife. His parents and sister Sigurlaug went to work on the farm Mýri, home of another sister, Helga Stefánsdóttir.
The Reverend Páll Þorláksson (I36310) had sent a letter to his father telling him about life in Wisconsin. On January 24, 1873, a meeting was held at the home of Páll’s parents with 43 people attending. After the meeting, Stefán, his parents, younger sister, along with Helga and her family, decided to emigrate.
Arrangements were made for a ship from Scotland to come to Akureyri in the summer, but the ship did not arrive for 6 weeks after the scheduled date. They finally left on August 4, 1873, on the cargo ship Queen, which was delivering horses to Aberdeen, Scotland. After traveling by train to Glasgow, they departed Scotland on August 12 via Liverpool, England, and arrived at Quebec, Canada on the SS Manitoban on August 25.
Those Icelanders who were heading to Wisconsin took a train to Milwaukee. At the border, American immigration officials had recorded the family name as Stephansson, and Stefán later became known by the name Stephan G. Stephansson. On August 29, the axle on the steam engine broke while in deep woods and dense fog. Another train crashed into them, resulting in five deaths and five injuries. Stefán was seriously injured, with his hand and feet burnt, and many people lost their possessions. However, as soon as another train arrived, all continued on to Lake Michigan, where they boarded a steamship arriving in Milwaukee the next morning.
Once in Milwaukee, Reverend Páll had made arrangements for the Icelanders to be placed with Norwegian farmers so they could learn to farm in North America since most Icelanders raised sheep rather than growing crops. There they stayed until spring 1874 and then left to found a small Icelandic settlement near Shawano County in northeastern Wisconsin.
It was in Shawano County that the first Icelandic congregation in North America was founded by Reverend Páll Þorláksson. On August 28, 1878, Stefán and his cousin Helga Sigríður Jónsdóttir were married by Reverend Páll Þorláksson. Unfortunately, the land was useless for growing crops, so in 1880, Stefán, Helga, their infant son Baldur, both sets of parents and siblings, and many other Icelanders moved to the Dakota Territory for the opportunity of a better life.
Stephan (now using the name Stephan G. Stephansson) applied for a homestead in Pembina County, Dakota Territory, which was granted in 1884. Stephan and Helga had three more sons while there, but sadly, their son Jon died of diphtheria at the age of three. He was buried in the Gardar Pioneer Cemetery beside his grandfather, Guðmundur Stefánsson, who had died of pneumonia during their first winter there.
Stephan was active in the community, starting the Icelandic Cultural Society in 1888, a society for free thinkers. He was a pacifist and a strong critic of organized religion, particularly the Icelandic Lutheran Church. The family homesteaded in Gardar until 1889 when the wheat market collapsed. This collapse was due to overproduction of wheat, which drove down prices, followed by severe drought, resulting in farmers' inability to repay debts incurred to purchase land and equipment.
The family made their final move west to Alberta, Canada, in the North-West Territories (NWT). Stephan, Helga, their three sons, and Stephan’s mother Guðbjörg took the train north to Calgary, arriving in May during a snowstorm. Stephan drove their oxen northwest while the rest of the family stayed in Calgary, where Helga earned money by washing laundry. Stephan came back for them a few months later, and they homesteaded along the Medicine River, north of Calgary, near what became Markerville.
The family continued to grow with twin girls born that fall, followed by a son, Gestur, and two more daughters. Tragically, on July 16, 1909, Gestur was struck by lightning at the age of 16. Viðar Hreinsson, Stephenson's biographer, describes that evening:
“On the evening of July 16, 1909, a huge black cloud darkened the sky and brought a thunderstorm, with a cloudburst and hail the size of hens’ eggs. Gestur and Jakob, who were working in the field, ran for shelter in an old barn as it began to rain, and Laurenz joined them there with some schoolchildren. When the worst of the thunderstorm seemed to have passed, Gestur left the shelter and headed toward the house. Just as he was crossing the barbed wire fence, however, a bolt of lightning struck with a great crack of thunder." (from "Wakeful Nights", p. 363)
Farming remained an important part of his life, but the prairie also became the setting in which his poetry developed and flourished. Although Stephan had written poetry before moving to Alberta, his political and philosophical thinking evolved during his years on the Canadian prairie. He wrote extensively in Icelandic, expressing pride and admiration for both his mother country and his adopted land. His literary subjects included the immigrant experience, landscape, community, human ambition, and progress. He was an insomniac and did much of his writing at night.
His political and religious opinions made him a divisive figure, but even his critics acknowledged his gifts as a poet. Much of his poetry celebrated Iceland and its history. His poem Þó þú langförull legðir (Song to Iceland), written in 1903, has been set to music and is considered an important national song.
Andvökur (Sleepless Nights), named for the night hours in which he wrote, appeared in six volumes between 1909 and 1938, the last after his death. The volumes run to more than 2,000 pages, a body of work few Canadian poets have matched. Alberta’s landscape was a frequent subject, and in Iceland he came to be called Klettafjallaskáldið, “the poet of the Rocky Mountains.”
His growing reputation led to reading tours across the United States and Canada. In 1917, Iceland invited him home for a four-month tour, his only return visit.
After suffering a stroke in December 1926, Stephan still continued to write. He died on August 10, 1927, and was buried in the Kristinnson & Stephansson Family Cemetery in Markerville.
Stephan is remembered for his poetry, which expresses a deep love for Iceland and his Icelandic heritage. His legacy has been honored in several ways. A cairn was erected in his memory in Markerville’s Stephansson Park. Alberta designated his homestead a Provincial Historic Resource in 1976. The restored farmhouse is now Stephansson House Provincial Historic Site, where guided tours show how the family lived in the 1920s. A monument also stands near one of his former homesteads near Mountain, North Dakota.
In 1953, the Government of Iceland installed a monument in his honor at Vatnsskarð Pass near Varmahlíð only a few miles from his birthplace.
Monument to Stephan Stephansson, Vatnsskarð Pass, Varmahlið, Iceland
Attribution: Debivort at English Wikipedia
In 1982, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta established the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry in his honor. The annual award continues to recognize poetry by Alberta writers and helps preserve the legacy of a poet whose work bridged Iceland and Canada.
Stephan G. Stephansson's legacy reaches beyond the monuments and historic sites that commemorate his life. Through his poetry, he explored the relationship between Iceland and North America, the experiences of immigrant life, and the beauty of the Alberta landscape.
Bibliography
Icelandic Roots Genealogy Database Icelandic Roots | Genealogy Ancestry
Ross, Jane. “Stephansson, Stephan Gudmundur (Stefán Guðmundsson).” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15. University of Toronto/Université Laval. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/stephansson_stephan_gudmundur_15E.html
Government of Alberta. “Stephan G. Stephansson House.” Alberta Register of Historic Places. https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=1&ObjectID=4665-0096.
Alberta’s Historic Places. “Stephansson House: A Piece of Iceland in Alberta.” January 30, 2019. https://albertashistoricplaces.com/2019/01/30/stephansson-house-a-piece-of-iceland-in-alberta/.
Writers’ Guild of Alberta. “Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.” https://writersguild.ca/programs-services/awards/.
Hreinsson, Viðar. Wakeful Nights: Stephan G. Stephansson, Icelandic-Canadian Poet. Calgary: Benson Ranch, 2012, 363.
