Brana frá Hvanná

In September 1955, a man was sent to Jökuldalur to search for dogs that still bore the characteristics of the Icelandic dog. He stayed there for some time, spoke with many farmers, and carefully examined the dogs that Haukur Snorrason, editor of Tíminn, had inspected a few weeks earlier on behalf of Mark Watson.

In his report on the trip, he stated:

"In Jökuldalur, the dogs appear to be mixed with other breeds, as is the case elsewhere, and individual dogs vary greatly in color, build, and general appearance. On the farm Hvanná, in my opinion, there are a few dogs that come closest to the dog Mr. Watson described."

About Brana, he wrote:

"The female dog Brana is 14 months old, yellowish-brown in color, rather short-legged, with well-pricked ears and a curled tail. Her mother is Nafna, black, 9 years old, and has not had puppies for some time. This mother is a beautiful bitch and very intelligent."

"In my opinion, the best dogs I have seen are ‘Brana,’ the female dog described in image II, and the dog that Mr. Watson saw at Höskuldsstaðir in Skagafjörður when I accompanied him there."

Haukur Snorrason wrote to Watson on October 5, 1955:

"Regarding the dogs, we have not found anything better than Brana and Bósi, and so far, these two are the only dogs that can be considered acceptable. I spoke on the phone with the farmer at Hvanná, Brana’s owner, and he is willing to negotiate and let us have the dog. She can be flown here from Egilsstaðir at short notice. He says that Brana has had puppies twice. She is not pregnant now, according to him. However, he is not sure when she was last in heat."

On October 8, Haukur Snorrason received a letter from Brana’s owner, Einar Jónsson, a farmer in Jökuldalur:

"I have been thinking about what price I should set for Brana. The conclusion is that if one is to put a price on a dog at all, it must be 1,000 krónur, or even more. What do you think? This bitch, Brana, is in many ways very gentle and pleasant, very good-natured, and has none of the aggressiveness that dogs sometimes tend to have. And she is also becoming an excellent sheepdog. She was rather poor at it at first, but the more often we take her to the highlands, the better she gets. It is, of course, extremely important that she performs well for this American and that it is proven that she is of a pure and old Icelandic breed. I am not used to deceiving anyone, but in this case, I believe I can justify setting this price for Brana."

On November 28, Bósi from Höskuldsstaðir in Blönduhlíð, Skagafjörður, and Brana from Hvanná in Jökuldalur were sent from Iceland to London, then to San Francisco, and finally to Wensum Kennel in Nicasio, California.

On December 5, Watson sent a message to Haukur Snorrason:

"The dogs arrived on Saturday. In good condition. Brana is in heat. Please send me an urgent telegram if she was in heat when she left Reykjavík on November 28, and if so, on what day she started. Is there any chance that she was mated with an unknown dog, or that she was mated with Bósi? Reply immediately. Mark."

On January 31, 1956, Watson wrote:

"Yesterday, Brana gave birth to four beautiful puppies, and I am very pleased."

From the article On the Outlook for the True Type of Dogs by Þórhildur Bjartmarz.

Glói and Grýla are descendants of Brana and Bósi. About them, Helgi Valtýsson wrote in 1957 in an article about Wensum Kennel in the newspaper Dagur:

"And the siblings Glói and Grýla, the first American citizens of this beautiful group, are not without promise, just a few months old before Christmas. They clearly bear the pure breed traits of their parents, Bósi and Brana from Hvanná."