Tröppusöngur á Brúartorgi á Selfossi

Stair chant in Selfoss - Live from Vestmannaeyjar

The first Monday in August is a public holiday in Iceland, and the long weekend, " erslunarmannahelgi" (= "merchants' weekend"), or "Versló" for short, is THE big travel weekend for Icelanders. People head out into the countryside, camp, and party. Special festivals and events take place in many places.

The largest of these festivals is Þjóðhátið í Vestmannaeyjum, the large folk festival in Herjólfsdalur on the Westman Islands. Herjólfsdalur is a valley in the northwestern part of the island if Heimaey. This folk festival has been held here every year on the first weekend in August since 1874 (except in 1973 and 1974, when the valley was unusable due to the volcanic eruption on the island).

At the national festival in Herjólfsdalur, many well-known Icelandic musicians perform and the festival ends with the famous brekkusöngur, the "hillside chant", at 11 p.m., followed by the lighting of torches at midnight and the entire Hang being illuminated.

Here in Selfoss, there's been a live broadcast of the "hillside chant" from Vestamannaeyjar for a few years now. People stand on the steps of Brúartorg, the bridge square in the new town center, watching the live broadcast, singing, dancing, drinking, and having fun.

The live broadcast in Selfoss starts at 8 p.m.

The concert starts at 8.30 pm on the stage in Herjólfsdalur, this year with the band Stuðlabandið and guests.

We arrived at the site shortly after 10:30 – the weather was a bit mixed yesterday. At one point, we thought we wouldn't go, as it kept pouring down here. But then we took advantage of a break in the rain to walk to the car and drove to Selfoss.

We were lucky there – it had rained in Selfoss that evening, but the entire time we were there, it was truly dry and windless for about two hours. It felt like we hadn't had such good weather all day!

At 11 p.m. the "Brekkusöngur" starts.

The Hillside Chant, the Brekkusöngur, has been an integral part of the Vestmannaeyjar folk festival since 1977. This year, for the fifth time in a row, the song was led by Magnús Kjartan Eyjólfsson, frontman of the band Stuðlabandið. Magnús Kjartan and his band are from Selfoss, so there was still a special connection. And they can really get the crowd going!

Hang singing is a medley of many different typically Icelandic songs, sometimes up to 50 or 60 songs, mixed together in a colorful way – although I think the same songs are always present. These are truly songs that anyone who grew up in Iceland or has lived here for a long time can sing along to.

In addition, the lyrics of the respective song are displayed on the screen so that you can easily sing along, whether you know the song or not.

This was helpful for us too – by reading along, I at least had a chance of understanding a little bit about what the songs were about. For example, there was an anthem for the ÍBV, the Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja, the Westman Islands sports club, many love songs, many songs related to the islands, about sailors sailing around the world, missing their loved ones at home and never coming home ("Ó, María mig langar heim"), about men ending up in a box in the cemetery, about a boat crew that sets out and for once, no one actually dies, ...

The people at Brúartorg certainly sang along, danced, and celebrated enthusiastically. People of all ages: children, teenagers, and adults. For the children, there was someone who made balloon figures – even at 11 p.m. The atmosphere was truly fantastic!

At the end of the Hang song, many people stood up, including us in Selfoss, some even placed their hands on their chests, and Magnús Kjartan played the Icelandic national anthem, the Löfsöngur (= Hymn of Praise).

The Icelandic national anthem dates from 1874. The lyrics are by the Icelandic national poet and pastor Matthías Jochumsson (1835-1920), and the melody by the composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson (1847-1927). The song was first performed by a mixed choir at the national festival marking the millennium of Iceland's settlement in August 1874 during a solemn service in the cathedral church in Reykjavík, in the presence of the Danish King Christian IX. The lyrics were based on Psalm 90, the sermon text for this festive service – a lament about human transience, about the realization that 1,000 years in God's eyes are "as the day that is gone by yesterday." The song about the 1,000 years since Iceland was settled was appropriate: For you, God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years a day, no more, even Iceland's thousand years. A tiny flower of eternity with trembling tears, praying to its God and dying.

The song subsequently became increasingly popular. At the celebration of Iceland's sovereignty (as part of the real union with Denmark) in 1918, the song was played as a national anthem, but this status was not officially enshrined until March 1983 by the Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, in the "Law on the National Anthem of the Icelanders."

After the national anthem, the fires were lit on the slope in Herjólfsdalur. A truly beautiful atmosphere.

But by now it was already after midnight and I wanted to go home and go to bed.

Good night!

[Translated from here.]