my mother with her guitar

My mother is a singer and a songwriter. I remember those dark winter nights when I would hear her guitar sing in the kitchen and her rough voice fill the air with words and worlds still unknown to me.

Bergthora Arnadottir is her name and through the years she has made many records with her music. Her speciality is to make music to poetry by some of our very best poets, like Steinn Steinarr, Johannes fra Kotlum and Halldor Laxnes to name a few. There is at least one thing we have in common, at that it how we compose music. We both feel as if good poetry has a melody or two hidden within it and we compose by capturing the melody. She with her guitar me with my voice. She used to tour Iceland and play in every little town and village for old and for young. She has been one of my inspirations and because she always had such faith in my poetry and art, I carried on.