Old Icelandic churches

As part of my Master's work at George Washington University, I wrote a research paper about the built landscape of the West Icelanders in Gimli Manitoba and Red River, Minnesota. The Library of Congress had some wonderful resources, diaries and such, as well as small yearbook type publications. So for a place I have never been, I feel like I know a lot about it.

The West Icelanders built a lot of churches, especially in Red River. That community had splintered off from the Gimli community over a scriptural dispute, and they took their religion seriously.

Icelandic churches in Red River had a special kind of steeple that distinguished them from Swedish or Norwegian churches in the area, so that even after the services stopped being in Icelandic, the church building itself helped preserve a special sense of Icelandicness.

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