{"id":4114,"date":"2015-04-09T19:07:11","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2015-04-09T19:07:11","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T19:07:11","slug":"vatnsenda-rosa-a-legendary-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/04\/09\/vatnsenda-rosa-a-legendary-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatnsenda-R\u00f3sa: a legendary poet."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

An evening with a traditional Icelandic zither langspil and singing.<\/p><\/div>\n

The most famous love poem of Iceland is written by a woman. Though little is actually known of her the amount of\u00a0legends that circle around R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir<\/strong><\/em>, also known as Sk\u00e1ld-R\u00f3sa<\/em> (= R\u00f3sa the poet) or Vatnsenda-R\u00f3sa<\/em> (= R\u00f3sa of Vatnsendi), would suggest she was a striking and noteworthy person\u00a0in her time just the same. Today she may be considered among the most famous of Icelandic poets of all times but at the time she lived and wrote she probably\u00a0didn’t even expect to see her work printed.<\/p>\n

Who was this remarkable lady after all? Born 1795 to a family living in H\u00f6rg\u00e1rdal<\/em> area, R\u00f3sa was taught not only how to read but also how to write, a rarity for the Icelandic women of the past. Wait, what was that? To know how to read but not how to write? Yes, that’s exactly what woman’s education used to be like and there’s a possible\u00a0explanation for why, in a country known for its long tradition of both sexes composing poetry on a spot, most of the published poets were male.<\/p>\n

R\u00f3sa’s mother died as she was but 12 years old and soon after she left home to work as a servant in M\u00f6\u00f0ruvellir<\/em>. This is where one of the most known legends of her began, that she met and fell in love with P\u00e1ll Melsted, and the legend also states her most famous love poem V\u00edsur Vatnsenda-R\u00f3su<\/em> was written with him in mind.\u00a0P\u00e1ll moved to Copenhagen to study\u00a0when R\u00f3sa was around\u00a015-17 years old and was already engaged at the time to another lady. Upon his return R\u00f3sa was hired at their\u00a0service and eventually P\u00e1ll was the spokesman at her first marriage – yet the first child of R\u00f3sa was named P\u00e1l\u00edna, a name that’s essentially the female form of P\u00e1ll.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This is how M\u00f6\u00f0ruvellir looked like back in R\u00f3sa’s day.<\/p><\/div>\n

The marriage of R\u00f3sa and her husband \u00d3lafur \u00c1smundason was not an easy one. R\u00f3sa had an affair with a man called Natan Ketilsson, a known ladies’ man, and some of her children were rumoured to be his instead of \u00d3lafur’s… one, S\u00fasanna, definitely got Natansd\u00f3ttir as her official patronymic. R\u00f3sa admitted to the affair in a trial in 1827 but \u00d3lafur forgave her\u00a0so that their marriage could continue. Eventually the couple divorced in 1837.<\/p>\n

What about Natan then? He left\u00a0R\u00f3sa in 1826, got involved with other people and was murdered in 1828, a case that is now known as the last murder in Iceland where the murderers were executed for their crime.<\/p>\n

R\u00f3sa became a midwife, known for her skills, just as her own mother and grandmother had been. Later on she went to study midwifery and graduated, settling down with G\u00edsli G\u00edslason, a man 20 years younger than her. Though this relationship seemed to have a warm start it was also said that G\u00edsli drank heavily and abused his wife when drunk. The marriage however lasted until\u00a0the year 1855 when she got ill and died at age 60.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A typical Icelandic couple with children in the mid 1800’s.<\/p><\/div>\n

V\u00edsur Vatnsenda-R\u00f3sa is actually much longer and has changed in both grammar, spelling and even order of verses\u00a0over the years, but the three most famous ones\u00a0usually go:<\/p>\n

Augun m\u00edn og augun \u00fe\u00edn<\/em>, (My eyes and your eyes)
\n\u00f3, \u00fe\u00e1 f\u00f6gru steina<\/em> (oh, those beautiful jewels)
\nmitt er \u00feitt og \u00feitt er mitt<\/em>, (mine is yours and yours is mine\/what’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine)
\n\u00fe\u00fa veizt, hva\u00f0 eg meina<\/em>. (you know what I mean)<\/p>\n

Langt er s\u00ed\u00f0an s\u00e1 eg hann<\/em>, (It’s been long since I last saw him)
\nsannlega fr\u00ed\u00f0ur var hann<\/em>, (truly he was beautiful)
\nallt, sem pr\u00fd\u00f0a m\u00e1tti einn mann<\/em>, (everything that is\u00a0good in a man)
\nmest af l\u00fd\u00f0um bar hann<\/em>. (most of it he had)<\/p>\n

\u00deig eg trega manna mest<\/em> (I miss you more than anyone)
\nm\u00e6dd af t\u00e1ra fl\u00f3\u00f0i<\/em>, (tired of the flood of tears)
\n\u00f3, a\u00f0 vi\u00f0 hef\u00f0um aldrei s\u00e9st<\/em>, (oh, if only we had never net)
\nelsku vinurinn g\u00f3\u00f0i<\/em>. (my dear beloved friend)<\/p>\n

(Original form of the poem can be found here<\/a>. You can listen to this song here<\/a>, it’s Ragnhei\u00f0ur Gr\u00f6ndal’s version.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

As a curious coincidence this lady, usually only called “Icelandic girl”, is here named Sigr\u00ed\u00f0ur \u00d3lafsd\u00f3ttir. She comes from the same general area as R\u00f3sa, but what makes her interesting is that she’s a full namesake to R\u00f3sa’s third daughter, and by the time when the picture was made R\u00f3sa’s Sigr\u00ed\u00f0ur would indeed have been around this age!<\/p><\/div>\n

And then for last week’s quiz! Fyrir in each word will mean “before”, “over” or “above”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

fyrirbo\u00f0i<\/em> = omen (I guess the closest translation might be “before-available” or “before-offered”)
\nfyrirburi<\/em> = premature baby (bera = to carry, a verb also used for pregnancy)
\nfyrirbyggja<\/em> = prevent (byggja = to build – built-before = prevented)
\nfyrirf\u00f3lk<\/em> = high society (f\u00f3lk = people; fyrirf\u00f3lk = people above)
\nfyrirfram<\/em> = in advance (fram = forward, forth; before going forward)
\nfyrirgangur<\/em> = boisterousness (gangur can stretch to mean any kind of a wild behaviour, you’re “over-running” others)
\nfyrirgefa<\/em> = forgive (gefa = to give, I think this word works very similarly to the English forgive, actually!)
\nfyrirhuga<\/em> = a plan (hugi = thought; before-thought)
\nfyrirhyggja<\/em> = forethought (very much like above)
\nfyrirlesari<\/em> = lecturer (lesari = reader; the leader who stands in the front)
\nfyrirm\u00e6li<\/em> = instructions (m\u00e6li = measurement; before-measured)
\nfyrirrennari<\/em> = predecessor (renna = to slide, to move; fyrirrenna = to move before others do)
\nfyrirs\u00e1t<\/em> = ambush (sitja = to sit; to sit somewhere waiting for someone)
\nfyrirs\u00e6ta<\/em> = model, sitter for a portrait (s\u00e6ti = seat; seated in front of others)
\nfyrirvari<\/em> = notice, warning; taka me\u00f0 fyrirvara = take with a grain of salt (a\u00f0 vera var vi\u00f0 = to beware, to be aware; before-awareness)
\nfyrir\u00e6tlun<\/em> = intention (\u00e6tla = to plan to do something; before-planned)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The most famous love poem of Iceland is written by a woman. Though little is actually known of her the amount of\u00a0legends that circle around R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir, also known as Sk\u00e1ld-R\u00f3sa (= R\u00f3sa the poet) or Vatnsenda-R\u00f3sa (= R\u00f3sa of Vatnsendi), would suggest she was a striking and noteworthy person\u00a0in her time just the same…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":4119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[90791,91060],"tags":[91405,91385,3,178,10341,2401,91396],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-culture","category-icelandic-history","tag-advanced","tag-art-around-iceland","tag-culture","tag-history","tag-intermediate","tag-poetry","tag-so-icelandic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4123,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions\/4123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}