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Ingólfur Arnarson

Ingólfur Arnarson

Einar Jónsson


  • Year : 1923
  • Height : 430 cm
  • Width : 90 cm
  • Category : Skúlptúr
  • Sub-category : Málmskúlptúr

Location: Arnarhóll Owned by the Icelandic state. One of Reykjavík’s landmarks is the statue of settler Ingólfur Arnarson on Arnarhóll. The statue depicts a man in armour, standing by a bracket from a high-seat pillar, carved with a dragon’s head, and holding a drawn halberd. It was unveiled on 24 February 1924. The statue, which is made from bronze, was installed by the Craftsmen Association in Reykjavík, costing around 40 thousand isk, a hefty amount at the time. The road to this monument had been a long one, the idea came to Einar in 1902-03, when he shaped a small statue of Ingólfur. He continued working on it for the following years and exhibited it at an exhibition of De Frie Billedhuggere in Copenhagen in 1906. In the end, Einar was commissioned to create a statue of the settler, but the financing didn’t go as smoothly as planned. The years passed, and the bronze statue wasn’t unveiled until 1924. Originally, Einar wanted to put bas-reliefs on all sides of the pedestal underneath the statue, titled The Gods’ Flight to the Mountains of Iceland, Twilight of the Gods, Witches and Ingólfur’s Grave. This was the artist’s way of symbolising the settlement, but people didn’t understand the reliefs and these plans came to nothing.

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