Address of the Valkyrie 2021

Bergrún Íris Sævarsdóttir, a children's book author and illustrator, is the poet laureate of Hafnarfjörður for 2021 and the author of the poem. Bergrún Íris was chosen as the City Artist of Hafnarfjörður in 2020, and she has in recent years gained a good reputation for her books, both at home and abroad. Bergrún was born in 1985, she graduated with a degree in art history from the University of Iceland and later completed a course in drawing at the Reykjavík School of Visual Arts. Bergrún's first book, My Friend, the Wind, which was published in 2014, immediately attracted attention and was nominated for both the Fjörú Award and the Nordic Council's Children and Young People's Literature Prize. Since then, numerous books have been published by Bergrún, in which she is both the author of the text and the illustrations. In addition, Bergrún has illustrated a number of other books.

Address of the Valkyrie 2021

The lava cools,
Ice is melting.
Everything on Earth changes.
But every word of yours
and life's work,
is kept as a stone in a cairn.

A river finds a new way,
The waterfall carves a channel for itself.
Move the birds away,
but fly back home.
Land comes to life
after the crawl.

Wounds take a long time to heal.
on the broken soul,
and deep the days' fissures are rent,
because the landscape of every life
is hilly and steep
and our luggage is heavy.

From a rugged lava field
The straw sees itself pierced,
There's always grass growing again.
if it grows in the shelter
from wet clay
and life is met with warmth.

So let's start again
like a flower in spring,
in a garden where the sun reaches.
and ask them for forgiveness,
who dislike the injured,
with what we did yesterday.

The lava cools,
Ice disappears.
To look after the land and life
If we choose every word carefully
and the work of a lifetime,
out of humility, let us improve.

Author: Bergrún Íris Sævarsdóttir 2021