The Lady of the Mountain (Icelandic : fjallkonan) is the female incarnation (national personification) of Iceland.
The personification of a nation as a woman was widespread in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. [1] The earliest image of Iceland personified as a woman seems to have appeared first in association with the poem Ofsjónir við jarðarför Lovísu drottningar 1752 ('Visions at the funeral of Queen Louise, 1752') by Eggert Ólafsson (1752), but this image does not survive. [1]
The word fjallkonan is attested for the first time in the poem Eldgamla Ísafold by Bjarni Thorarensen from the first decade of the nineteenth century. From that moment onwards the Lady of the Mountain became a well-known symbol in Icelandic poetry. [1]
An image of Lady of the Mountain was published in the last volume of an English translation of Icelandic folk-tales by Eiríkur Magnússon and G. E. J. Powell, Icelandic Legends, Collected by Jón Arnason (1864–66). It is the work of the German painter Johann Baptist Zwecker, who drew it to specifications provided by Eiríkur. Eiríkur described the picture in a letter to Jón Sigurðsson (11 April 1866) thus:
Also very popular is the image designed by Benedikt Gröndal on a memorial card of the national holiday in 1874. [1]
Since the establishment of the Icelandic republic in 1944 it has been traditional for a woman to play the role of the Lady of the Mountain during the national holiday celebrations (17 June). [1] The woman chosen for the role will typically be a well-known actress or an otherwise notable individual, she is dressed in skautbúningur (the national costume) and presents herself to read a single poem. [3]
The idea of the Lady of the Mountain as motherland was a counterweight to the idea of the Danish King as 'father' in nineteenth-century Iceland under Danish rule, and after independence in 1944 became one of the images through which feminism and the idea of powerful women, such as Iceland's first female president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, were made to seem a natural part of Icelandic culture. [4] Recently, the Lady of the Mountain apparead on cover of the Sólstafir last album, Endless Twilight of Codependent Love.
The image of the Lady of the Mountain has also been prominent among Vestur Íslendingar in Canada. A woman dressed as the Lady of the Mountain first appeared at the Iceland Days in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1924. There too, the Lady of the Mountain has been deployed to promote feminism. [5]
The FootballAssociation of Iceland is the governing body of football in Iceland. It was founded on 26 March 1947, joined FIFA the same year, and UEFA in 1954. It organises the football league, Úrvalsdeild, and the Iceland men's national football team and Iceland women's national football team. It is based in Reykjavík.
Ásatrúarfélagið, also known simply as Ásatrú, is an Icelandic religious organisation of heathenry. It was founded on the first day of summer in 1972, and granted recognition as a registered religious organization in 1973, allowing it to conduct legally binding ceremonies and collect a share of the church tax. The Allsherjargoði is the chief religious official.
Eiríkur Hauksson is an Icelandic heavy metal vocalist. He represented Iceland at Eurovision in 1986 and in 2007.
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Haukur Páll Sigurðsson is an Icelandic former footballer who played as a left back.
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Gæska: Skáldsaga is the third novel by the Icelandic author Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, written in Helsinki and Ísafjörður between 2007 and 2009.
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Nýhil was an Icelandic avant-garde small press and association of young writers, founded around 2002-2004 by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl and Haukur Már Helgason, followed shortly by Grímur Hákonarson, and ceasing operation around 2011.
Hnefi eða vitstola orð is the sixth poetry book by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, published by Mál og menning in 2013. It is explicitly about the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis and associated Kitchenware Revolution and comprises 137 poems, plus a foreword, itself in sonnet form. In the estimation of Jakob Bjarnar, 'Eiríkur Örn certainly earns his writer's stipend; he tears up the workings of poetry while he monitors the value of the króna fall to nothing. A really amusing volume.'
Körfuknattleiksfélag ÍA, commonly known as ÍA, is a basketball team based in Akranes, Iceland. It is a subdivision of the sport club Íþróttabandalag Akraness. Its men's team played in the top-tier Úrvalsdeild karla from 1993 to 2000, making the playoffs in 1994, 1997 and 1998. Its women's team played one season in the top-tier Úrvalsdeild kvenna during the 1995–1996 season.
Hildur Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic basketball coach and player. She is the former head coach of Úrvalsdeild kvenna club Breiðablik and an assistant coach to the Icelandic women's national basketball team. As a player she won the Icelandic championship five times and the Icelandic Basketball Cup three times. She was named the Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the Year four times and is the leagues all-time leader in assists She was the third player to reach 4000 points in the Úrvalsdeild kvenna. and remains second all-time in total rebounds in the league.
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