Consider how the significance of memory of the past has been reflected and developed in a literary text. Discuss the idea(s) developed by the author about the significance of our memory of the past.

Here is my cold personal response towards the beautiful poem of Jónas Hallgrímsson and the above prompt.

Iceland, fortunate isle! Our beautiful, bountiful mother!
Where are your fortune and fame, freedom and virtue of old?
All things on earth are transient: the days of your greatness and glory
flicker like flames in the night, far in the depths of the past.
Comely and fair was the country, crested with snow-covered glaciers,
azure and empty the sky, ocean resplendently bright.
Here came our famous forebears, the freedom-worshipping heroes,
over the sea from the east, eager to settle the land.
Raising their families on farms in the flowering laps of the valleys,
hearty and happy they lived, hugely content with their lot.
Up on the outcrops of lava where Axe River plummets forever
into the Almanna Gorge, Althing convened every year.
There lay old Þorgeir, thoughtfully charting our change of religion.
There strode Gissur and Geir, Gunnar and Héðinn and Njáll.
Heroes rode through the regions, and under the crags on the coastline
floated their fabulous ships, ferrying wealth from abroad.
O it is bitter to stand here stalled and penned in the present!
Men full of sloth and asleep simply drop out of the race!
How have we treated our treasure during these six hundred summers?
Have we trod promising paths, progress and virtue our goal?
Comely and fair is the country, crested with snow-covered glaciers,
azure and empty the sky, ocean resplendently bright.
Ah! but up on the lava where Axe River plummets forever
into the Almanna Gorge, Althing is vanished and gone.
Snorri’s old site is a sheep-pen; the Law Rock is hidden in heather,
blue with the berries that make boys — and the ravens — a feast.
Oh you children of Iceland, old and young men together!
See how your forefathers’ fame faltered — and passed from the earth!

How does one define a nation Perhaps through their culture or way of life. Iceland was once seen as a nation of mere farmers to the might Danes of yesteryear. Iceland questioned the ways in which they treated the glorious lands that they were gifted with.

What defines Iceland as a nation is the precursor of their history. Tales of powerful Nordic Sagas strengthen the belief that Iceland is strong and wise. Like glaciers that have existed for centuries observing years of knowledge being forged upon their very bodies. They teach the people wisdom shared amongst old Icelandic men. The ice is their father.

Beauty! No land in any other region of earth share the same warmth that Iceland holds. Vast fields of volcanic soil act as a shield for those that fear the cold of the surrounding oceans. Beneath that volcanic soil lies the fire that gave birth to the beautiful people of Iceland. The very fire that created mountains and valleys to protect the families of Iceland.

Past the valleys, and into the mountains there exists our Lady of the Mountain. She is our mother of fire, married to our father of ice.