artwork info | song info | legend | lyrics
artwork info
textile collage on cradled wood board (felt, burlap, yarn)
24″H x 24″W x 1″D
2025
$000
song info
category ▸ Other Folk Songs (Icelandic national anthem)
text ▸ Matthías Jochumsson (1874)
music ▸ Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson (1874)
listen here 🔈 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FkbXTDzKBc
“Lofsöngur” was written to coincide with the 1874 millennial festivities commemorating the arrival of the Norse on Iceland. Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, the first Icelander to pursue an international career as a composer, wrote the music while traveling in Edinburgh; the lyrics were penned by Matthías Jochumsson, a beloved poet and priest. The song became so well loved that both men were endowed with state pensions, the first in their respective fields to be honored in this way. “Lofsöngur” was adopted as Iceland’s national anthem in 1944, when the country declared independence by voting to end its “personal union” and become a republic. The anthem is notorious for being challenging to sing due to its large vocal range.
Lofsöngur: Ó, Guð vors lands
Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, lands vors guð!
Vér lofum þitt heilaga, heilaga nafn!
Úr sólkerfum himnanna hnýta þér krans
þínir herskarar, tímanna safn.
Fyrir þér er einn dagur sem þúsund ár
og þúsund ár dagur, ei meir:
eitt eilífðar smáblóm með titrandi tár,
sem tilbiður guð sinn og deyr.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár,
eitt eilífðar smáblóm með titrandi tár,
sem tilbiður guð sinn og deyr.
Ó guð, ó guð! Vér föllum fram
og fórnum þér brennandi, brennandi sál,
guð faðir, vor drottinn frá kyni til kyns,
og vér kvökum vort helgasta mál.
Vér kvökum og þökkum í þúsund ár,
því þú ert vort einasta skjól.
Vér kvökum og þökkum með titrandi tár,
því þú tilbjóst vort forlagahjól.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár!
Voru morgunsins húmköldu, hrynjandi tár,
sem hitna við skínandi sól.
Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, lands vors guð!
Vér lifum sem blaktandi, blaktandi strá.
Vér deyjum, ef þú ert ei ljós það og líf,
sem að lyftir oss duftinu frá.
Ó, vert þú hvern morgun vort ljúfasta líf,
vor leiðtogi í daganna þraut
og á kvöldin vor himneska hvíld og vor hlíf
og vor hertogi á þjóðlífsins braut.
Íslands þúsund ár,
Íslands þúsund ár!
verði gróandi þjóðlíf með þverrandi tár,
sem þroskast á guðsríkis braut.
English translation
Oh, God of Our Land
Oh, God of our land! Oh, land of our God!
We praise your holy, holy name!
From solar systems of the heavens, tied to you is a wreath
By your armies, a collection of the times.
For to you, one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years a day, not more:
eternity’s lone small flower with trembling tears,
that worships its own god and dies.
Iceland’s thousand years,
Iceland’s thousand years,
eternity’s lone small flower with trembling tears,
that worships its own god and dies.
Oh God, oh God! We fall forward
and sacrifice to you burning, burning soul,
God father, our Lord from kin to kin,
and we pray our holiest speech.
We pray and thank for a thousand years,
since you are the only shelter.
We pray and thank with trembling tears,
since you offered our destiny.
Iceland’s thousand years,
Iceland’s thousand years!
They were morning hoarfrost, collapsing tears,
that warm with shining sun.
Oh, God of our land! Oh, land of our God!
We live as a fluttering, fluttering straw.
We die if you are not that light and life
that lifts us from the obscurity.
Oh, be every morning our sweetest life,
our leader in the trial of the days
and in evenings our heavenly rest and our protection
and our commander on national life’s path.
Iceland’s thousand years,
Iceland’s thousand years!
May they become a growing national life with decreasing tears
that develop on God’s kingdom’s path.