Our Connection to Ancestors

by Bacopa Literary Review 2021 Poetry contributor M. Cynthia Cheung

The Eyrbyggja Saga survives in fragmentary manuscripts written in Old Norse, the oldest part of which is thought to date from the thirteenth century. The Saga mentions the two berserkers that appear in my poem "Sightseeing," and anyone who travels to Iceland today can see the Berserkjahraun lava field, including the path the men were said to have made. 

Icelanders today can still read the Sagas directly in the original language. Just imagine the equivalent for modern English speakers like ourselves--being able to understand and savor Beowulf, or even Chaucer, without any translation! How do we, as individuals, cope with the inevitable changes that time brings to memory, myth, and language? Should we strive to maintain a connection to our ancestors--whether linguistic, cultural, spiritual, or biological--and if so how do we go about it?

I have no answers, of course. What I do know is that the time my husband and I spent walking along that path is now one of my most treasured memories!

 *     *     *

M. Cynthia Cheung is a physician whose writing has appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO, Sugar House Review, Zócalo Public Square, NOON: the journal of the short poem, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and others. Find her on Instagram @zoologicapoetry.