“Ég neita” by Marjón

I often obsess over certain words or sentences in Icelandic that live rent-free in my head for weeks – if not months. “Ég neita” was one of them. I loved how it sounded but of course couldn’t find any realistic setting to use it.

“Ég neita” turned into a raging protest-poem against nature. Or actually, against people talking about nature, only about nature. I thought I would be making more ennemies than friends with that poem, considering how overwhelmingly present is nature in everything Icelandic.

I do not perceive myself as a performing creature, but more as a behind-the-scenes crawling korrigan (it’s like a leprauchaun, or huldufólk, but from Brittany/Breizh). But seeing this call for participants about a ljóðaslamm at the local library for the winter festival kept bugging me, and some sentences, verses in Icelandic were dancing in my head for while. I mostly work with deadlines, so I decided that this competition would be my deadline to write my first poem in Icelandic. I didn’t think much of the competition itself, just the dopamine it would give me to finish a poem.

https://borgarbokasafn.is/starfid-a-safninu/molar/ljodaslamm-eg-neita-bar-sigur-ur-bytum

“There was a great atmosphere in Grófinn during the Winter Festival when the City Library’s Poetry Slam took place for the twelfth time, and this year there was a record number of participants. The group was not only large but also extremely diverse, and the items were also very diverse. It was therefore difficult for the jury to choose, but the result was this: 

The winner of the 2025 Poetry Slam was  Marjón with the poem  Ég neita .
In second place was  Frida Martins with the poem  Mystery creatures can dance.
In third place was the duo Viktsya & Yuki who performed  A polyphonic fever//confession.

The other participants were:

Maria Thorlacius – Andvökunótt
Ernest Boakye – Hello Everyone! Meet Someone
Þór Wium – Hún hluturin
Sindri „Sparkle“ Freyr – Fordómablinda
Embla Rún Hall – Mætti
Elías Knörr – GREINDIN ER GERVI
Hrafnhildur Eva Guðmundsdóttir – Eitruð
Sigurður Ingólfsson – Unglingurinn í skóginum
Gianmarco – Party?“

The whole experience was new and terrifying. My poem was still changing the day before the competition. Although I was satisfied with the topic and general energy, I felt extremely insecure about the grammar and general reception of the poem. I’ve tried to find ways to get it read over by native speakers, but it became quite an ordeal in itself. I was ready to give up, to withdraw from the competition, my last chance was my weekly knitting group from the library. And they saved me! They read over my poem, made suggestions and corrected some points here and there, but more than anything they gave me the last boost of confidence I needed to go on stage! Here you can read the interview about it at the library “I wanted to say something important with the easy vocabulary I know”:

IS https://borgarbokasafn.is/starfid-a-safninu/molar/vidtal-mig-langadi-ad-segja-eitthvad-magnad-med-theim-audvelda-ordaforda-sem

ENG https://borgarbokasafn.is/en/at-the-library/nuggets/interview-i-wanted-say-something-important-easy-vocabulary-i-know

Also here is the video – which I did not look at yet obviously – it is way too terrifying.

Here is a picture after the event. I’m still terrified. Thank you to all the supportive people around me that made it happen!