Áslaug Torfadóttir’s letters to her father, Torfi Bjarnason, are the Highlight of the month for April. There are about 50 letters in all, which Áslaug sent in 1887–1914.
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| Áslaug Torfadóttir when she was a teacher at Ögur |
Áslaug Torfadóttir was born on 17 May 1869, the daughter of Guðlaug Zakaríasdóttir (1845–1937) and Torfi Bjarnason (1838–1915). Áslaug grew up at Varmilækur in Borgarfjörður and at Ólafsdalur in Dalasýsla, where her parents ran an agricultural school for many years, the first in Iceland.
In 1887–1888 Áslaug left home and went to Reykjavík, from where she sent her father five letters telling of life in the capital; among other things she says she attended a lecture by Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir on women’s rights. Áslaug says she has no judgement to assess the lecture, but that others thought it long overdue. In November 1889 Áslaug had come to Ögur in Norður-Ísafjarðarsýsla, where she was employed to teach children, and six of her letters to her father survive from the years (1889–1891) she spent at Ögur. In them she describes, among other things, her living conditions and asks her father’s advice on teaching material.
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| Hjálmar gives his wife flowers in later life |
In the years Áslaug was at Ögur she went home to Ólafsdalur in the summers. There she met her future husband, Hjálmar Jónsson from Skútustaðir in Suður-Þingeyjarsýsla, who was Torfi’s student at Ólafsdalur in 1887–1889. In autumn 1891 Áslaug moved north, and they married in October that year. Áslaug and Hjálmar’s first years of farming were marked by frequent moves around Skútustaðahreppur: they lived at Garður in 1893–1894, Haganes in 1894–1895 and Gautlönd in 1895–1897. In 1898 they moved to Ljótsstaðir in Laxárdalur and lived there until 1906, when they moved to Grænavatn. They lived there until 1908 and then moved back to Ljótsstaðir, where they built their lasting home.
Áslaug and Hjálmar had 10 children in all, 7 of whom reached adulthood. Their children were: Torfi (19.11.1892–5.6.1972), Guðlaug (4.12.1894–6.12.1894), Leifur (31.12.1895–9.11.1898), Ragnar (28.9.1898–24.12.1987), Karl (17.12.1900–4.7.1964), Helgi Skúta (17.8.1902–30.11.1965), Ásgeir Sigurður Ingólfur (17.10.1904–24.5.1926), Þórlaug Þuríður (20.12.1906–18.9.1972), Jón Leifur (10.8.1909–20.6.1981) and Guðmundur Vilhjálmur (10.8.1909–6.11.1973).
Áslaug’s letters give, among other things, an interesting view into the world of the housewife in those years, the world of the young couple starting to farm, and the world of the daughter living far from where she grew up. In her letters she told of the events of daily life, the births of her children, their upbringing and how everyone was. On Christmas Day 1904, for example, Áslaug writes about Christmas Eve, about the clothes she sewed for her little boys, the Christmas tree with its 17 lights and the children’s joy.
Her longing for her parents and her childhood home is clear. She worries about how her parents are, remembers how fine the weather always was in the evenings at Ólafsdalur, and longs to see her people and show them her children.
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| Family photograph from 1906, from left: Ragnar, Áslaug, Ásgeir, Hjálmar, Helgi, Torfi and Karl. In a letter written at Grænavatn on 26 November 1906 Áslaug says to her father: “I am now sending Mum a picture of us all, but the ones of the boys are not good. Torfi is laughing too much, because people kept trying to get them to look cheerful, as they usually are, but it went badly with the little ones, because the flies were so bad that they had no peace, and Ásgeir has a fly bite on the left of his nose by his eye and looks annoyed. Ragnar is pouting terribly sulkily, and Kalli is turning away too much and looking sideways, ever so serious now. Helgi is only frowning a little, mainly in the brows, but his picture is the best. Ours are thought quite good. I would like to hear what you say about them.” |
Áslaug’s letters are part of Torfi Bjarnason’s huge collection of letters, kept in the Manuscript Collection of the National and University Library of Iceland; there are more than 11,000 letters. The collection consists largely of letters from people in Dalasýsla, Barðastrandarsýsla, Strandir and Húnavatnssýsla. Letters from officials are prominent, but there are also letters from farmhands, poor farmers, women, children and craftsmen. The craftsmen’s letters give an interesting view of the craft culture that thrived all around Torfi. Goldsmiths, carpenters, saddlers and others ask, for example, for help in obtaining materials and for good advice of various kinds.
Click the picture to download a PDF of Áslaug’s letter (0.6 MB).
