Kennitala (Random wikipedia poem)

Then the mighty leminkainen travelled swift
To far off iceland
On his chariot of black-ice
Black-ice bound with tusks of walrus
Spells he sang it, so it iron-rang,
Hard as star-forged elder metal,
Cold as witch-heart, fast as moonlight,
On his chariot, his bearskins,
Served to warm him, as he travelled,
Thus he came to elder-iceland,
Under shards of Northern ghost-light,
Er the settlement of Arnarson,
Er the Norseman stayed the winter,
Sought he there the scrying sister
Watcher of the latter ages,
Sought the subtle Kennitala.
What she wondered was his payment.
For her arts, to see his future,
What the wonderworker's offer
What would sate the lonely daughter
Of the stormgod, what appease her?
This the mighty lemminkainen,
Offered her, to sooth her anger,
To appease her lonely sojourn,
On the yet un peopled plateau.
By my arts, I will the future, bend
- Although I can not see it -
Bend until the very peoples
Who shall form this rocky nation,
Will so hail the subtle daughter,
That their every living offspiring,
Will be known by her name also,
To the ending of the ages.
Pleased by this subtle Kennitala,
Told the mighty Leminkainen,
All the matter of the future,
She could see within the waters,
See - although she could not bend them,
Unlike mighty Leminkainen,
Thus her name was set forever
Known among the icy peoples
Of the dauntless elder iceland,
Home hence, travelled Leminkainen.
with the knowledge he had gathered.


The kennitala (plural: kennitölur; abbreviated kt.) is a unique national identification number used by the Icelandic government to identify individuals and organisations in Iceland, administered by the National Registry (Þjóðskrá). Kennitölur are issued to Icelandic citizens at birth, and to foreign nationals resident in Iceland upon registration.^[1] They are also issued to corporations and institutions.