In March I had the honor to open the two day SMI conference in the Hampton Court Palace in London with the good help of Högni Egilsson and children from the Grasmere School in the heart of the Lake District.
Marking 5 years of the Sustainable Markets Initiative by King Charles and the Terra Carta, we saw hundreds of CEOs, innovators and political figures gather at Hampton Court Palace, London.
Their mission: to mobilise the trillions of dollars in investment required to progress towards a sustainable future. Throughout the Palace’s numerous chambers, halls and staterooms the focus was on collaboration, innovation, and action.
The Terra Carta is a manifesto that echos the 800 year old Magna Carta. While the Magna Carta stated that we should all abide by the law, even the King, the Terra Carta updates that for our times – we should also all abide by the laws of nature.
For an Icelandic poet this was of course quite significant, as I am not sure and Icelandic poet has done anything for the King of England since Egill Skallagrímsson fought for Aðalsteinn (Adelstan) the first king of England in 937, according to this text here in Egils Saga. Egill made a scaldic poem about Aðalsteinn, and as a poets mead he got from the King two marks of gold and an expensive cape that the king himself had previously warn. I did not have the chance to make a poem about Charles in this visit. I spoke about glaciers and time, and the handshake of generations: “When is someone still alive that you will love.”
I had a nice short conversation with King Charles as we had a mutual friend, Orri Vigfússon, founder of NASF, the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, that died a few years ago, he was an important advocate for nature and the future of the Salmon, often called the king of the Icelandic Rivers. King Charles said he missed him dearly.
