Rímur in the Nuclear Age: Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and Icelandic Traditional Music

Abstract In this article, I examine Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson's performances of Icelandic traditional vocal music, or kveða music, in Reykjavík's early 1980s punk-rock scene. Sveinbjörn was an unlikely participant in the Reykjavík scene as a rural farmer in his late fifties and the first high priest of the Ásatrú religion, yet he developed strong personal relationships with many of the younger musicians. Nearly twenty years later, Sveinbjörn's legacy and vocality inspired the postrock band Sigur Rós's collaborations with Steindór Andersen, another influential kveða musician. I argue that Sveinbjörn's performances in the 1980s offered a culturally intimate bridge between the past and present during an unsettling time of social, political, and economic transitions for many Icelanders. This material draws on archival and ethnographic research, and I offer new interventions in terminology and translation of Icelandic traditional music studies.