Lady of the Mountain

The mountain woman ( Isl Fjallkonan ) is the female national personification of Iceland.

It was described for the first time in 1752 in the poem of Eggert Ólafsson Ofsjónir; her name appeared for the first time in the poem Eldgamla isafold Bjarni Thorarensen. Since then, she is a well known symbol in the Icelandic poetry.

The first illustration of the mountain woman appeared in a translation of the Icelandic folk tales, Icelandic legends ( 1861-1866 ). Also very well known is the image on a memory card of National Day in 1874, drawn by Benedict Gröndal.

The dress of the mountain woman was first shown in 1924 in Winnipeg ( Canada). Since the construction of the Icelandic Republic, tradition has it that a woman in the mountain woman dress at the National aloud a poem.