In the narrative poem Seal Mother (2022/2025) by Gerður Kristný, a woman’s relationship with a seal cow points to a wider ecological context where symbiotic relationships are the basis of life. This paper explores Urta's references to Icelandic folklore as a creative enactment of hydrofeminism.
Paper long abstract
In the Icelandic narrative poem Urta (2022) [Seal Mother] (2025), the author Gerður Kristný ties together the traditions of old Norse meters and narrative poems, motifs from folklore and folk songs, references to the Sagas, and watery imagery to tell a story of people who survive on the border of land and sea, making a living from both farming and fishing. Seals also live on these borders, often lingering in the shallows or resting ashore. The existence of these two animal species, humans and seals, is shown as intertwined. A woman’s relationship with a seal cow, centering around their role as mothers, serves as an axis for a wider ecological context in which symbiotic relationships are acknowledged as the basis of life.
Exploring the proposition of various scholars that pre-modern literature such as myth and folklore point towards an ecocentric worldview which acknowledges hybridity, movement and flow between biotic beings and abiotic matter, this paper argues that Urta's references to Icelandic folklore serve as a creative enactment of hydrofeminism that reflects an ecocentric vision of the world.