Kvædamannafélagið Iðunn

Welcome to rimur.is, the website of Kvædamannafélagið Iðunn. For the most part this website is in Icelandic. This brief introduction in English explains what Kvæðamannafélagið Iðunn is and what this site is about.

Kvædamannafélagið Iðunn(Iðunn) was founded in Reykjavík on the 15th of September 1929. It is one of the oldest cultural organisations in Iceland. The founders were typically people who had moved into the city and who wanted to preserve and continue the poetic and singing traditions that they had grown up with in the Icelandic countryside in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

From the very beginning up to the present, the main purpose of Iðunn has been to continue the art of 'kveðskapur', the poetic and singing styles associated with the centuries old Icelandic rímur tradition.

From the early days, starting in the mid 1930s, Iðunn members have made and collected audio recordings, so that tunes, which have been carried in a longstanding aural tradition, can be preserved and in turn be passed on into the future.

You can listen to 360 recorded examples on this website HERE , where they are grouped according to the various poetic metres used (e.g. ferskeytlur, the most widely used one, braghent, nýhent etc.) These recordings were made with the specific purpose of documenting the tunes. The texts are excerpts, not complete songs.

Kvæðamannafélagið Iðunn also has an extensive and growing archive of poetry written by its members.

The members of Iðunn hold regular, open meetings and practise sessions from October through to May every year. Along with writing and singing, the meetings include a wide variety of lectures and presentations about the cultural history of Iceland, along with performances of traditional folk music from Iceland and further afield.

As well as the regular meetings programme, members carry out educational activities about Icelandic folk songs and music and promote public performances, including the annual Dagur rímnalagsins (Day of rímur) concert, which is held on the 15th of September, the anniversary of the founding of the society.

The society has also published recordings and books. The most recent, Segulbönd Iðunnar, published in 2018, is a book and four CDs with 160 songs recorded around the year 1960. Each song has printed music notation and complete texts. The book also contains articles related to the topic, an overview of the rhyming style, information about the people who were recorded, the authors of the verses, and those to whom the rhymes are attributed. The editor of the publication was Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir.

The current chairperson of Iðunn is Bára Grímsdóttir.