In this final look back on her exploration from Ireland to Iceland, composer Linda Buckley gives an insight into what she discovered and what she feels it tells us about creativity and music making in Iceland.
The story of Melkorka, the Irish princess slave of the Icelandic Sagas, has haunted the journey. But her life and story has been given more substance by the genetic research showing the majority of women in the settlement period of Iceland were indeed gaelic and presumed, like her, to be slaves. The genetics has given reality to the theory that Irish and Scottish teenage girls and women were the first mothers of Iceland. Our project has been obsessed with not just giving voice to those often silenced lives but to a sense of what their impact and legacy has been, through the stories, the songs and the language they gave their children. How has that influenced and inspired the literary, musical traditions and creativity of Iceland from then to today?
The documentary series Mother's Blood, Sister Songs - a two part, two hour series, goes out on RTE Lyric fm on December 29 and Jan 5th 2020.
Music includes
Numarimur, Linda Buckley
FUNI Icelandic folk song - Kveðið við spuna / Rhyming while spinning Bára Grímsdóttir
björk Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu
björk : sídasta ég
Sellostina Haustið Na´lgast
björk utopia
Check out www.mothersbloodsistersongs.com for the full podcast series and transmedia content.
You can find full versions of the music on the primary playlist soundcloud.com/athena-media/sets/mothers-blood-sister-songs