Mountain woman
The mountain woman ( Isl . Fjallkonan ) is the feminine national personification of Iceland .
It was described for the first time in 1752 in the poem Ofsjónir by Eggert Ólafsson ; her name first appeared in the poem Eldgamla Ísafold by Bjarni Thorarensen . Since then she has been a well-known symbol in Icelandic poetry.
The first illustration of the miner appeared in a translation of the Icelandic folk tales, Icelandic legends (1861–1866). The image on a commemorative card for the national holiday in 1874, drawn by Benedikt Gröndal, is also well known .
The dress of the mountain woman was for the first time in 1924 in Winnipeg ( Canada shown). Since the establishment of the Icelandic Republic, it has been a tradition for a woman in a mountain woman's dress to read a poem on the national holiday.