Spinna Minni (Spinning Memories)

Program Notes:

The lyrics of this song are based on the traditional Völuspá (Prophecy of the Völva), the oldest of Nordic poems. Völuspá is a part of the Prose Edda, which contains poems about the world’s creation, and its end in Ragnarrök. According to Nordic mythology, the Three Witches (skapanornir) live under the Tree of Life (Yggdrasill) and determine human destiny. They spin the threads of destiny for every person born on the planet, thus determining their whole course of life.

The main context of the piece is that our past and future are woven together by magic spells. Spinning the thread of life in a harsh landscape and weather – the land of fire and ice – it also honours the women that have been spinning the wheel of “life” for centuries.

Conductor Notes:

SSA a cappella, sung in Icelandic. Ingibjorg Gudjunsdottir kindly made spoken recordings for us which we’d be happy to share with you. Instructions from Ingibjorg, who conducted the Tapestry International Massed Choir in this piece in 2018, were to make some of the tone “witchlike” and not too pleasant.

Spinna minni
Text by Þórarinn Eldjárn.

Magna seiðinn, mjöðinn blanda.
Vakir vitund, veginn man hún:
Magna seiðinn megna,
mjöðinn teyga af blöðum.
Ekur vitund vakin
veginn sem hún eygir.

Augað næma áfram horfir
hitt í spegil spáir aftur:
Augað næma eygir
inn í framtíð minnist,
spáir hitt í spegil
spinnur þráð úr minni.

Halda þræði þúsund ára
spá og spinna spegilþráðinn:
Halda þræði huldum
halda þræði um aldir
spá í afturspegil
spinna þráð úr minni.

Þráðarsjónin þann veg fengin
markar stefnu miðið setur:
Þráðarsjónin þjóða
þannig veginn hannar
markar stefnu og merkir
miðar fram í móðu.

Magna seiðinn, mjöðinn blanda.
Vakir vitund, veginn man hún:
Magna seiðinn megna,
mjöðinn teyga af blöðum.
Ekur vitund vakin
veginn sem hún eygir.