Speech of the Mountain Maiden 2022

Guðrún Edda Min Harðardóttir, a gymnast, is the mountain muse of Hafnarfjörður for 2022. The author of the national day poem is Króli – Kristinn Óli Haraldsson.

National Day Poem 2022

What was there before the pillars of the world washed ashore?
What was there before anyone had ever touched the sand on the shore?
Were we first? Or second to the first? And if so, does it matter?
Are all the stories we learnt from Njál's Saga true?

Is there one thing that characterises the Icelandic man?
Is it temperament, ancestry or a connection to the sea?
What makes an Icelandic person Icelandic and what do we stand for?
Are we more often divided or united?

Are we the most Icelandic Icelanders who have ever lived?
Are we speaking worse than was previously written?
If concerns are justified, should the strategy be changed?
Or is the journey a fluid path given as such?

For just as time sometimes lends value to the moments we have.
Is a land without people nothing but nature, lakes and waterfalls?
The people are the nation, the history and the wellspring of culture.
For what are people for a country? What are lips for but kisses?

So I ponder, shrug my shoulders and I ponder
The more men we have, the more culture we have.
Culture follows people, and therefore it must be said.
On this day, we could celebrate more shoots that are now silent.

Because what characterises us now is not the same as it was then.
A nation does not grow old, even if it exists for a thousand years.
Like a stream, the water is renewed forever.
The nation of the diverse is the nation of the long-lived.

Therefore, culture is shaped where the person is.
And with diversity as its weapon, the nation remains young and well.
So when all sorts of people cry out for help, we answer that call.
It is a characteristic of us Icelanders,
Congratulations everyone

Curl