Monika Helgadóttir

Monika Helgadóttir, also known as Monika of Merkigil was an Icelandic farmer who was born on November 25, 1901, in Skagafjörður, Iceland. She was a farmer in Merkigil, and was the driving force behind getting a bridge built in the Merkigil gorge. Her life is the subject of the 1954 book (The Woman in the Valley and Her Seven Daughters) by Guðmundur G. Hagalín. Monika died in 1988.

Early life Monika was born on the farm in Lýtingsstaðahreppur, a rural municipality of , to and . She was the seventh of ten children and was known for her strong work ethic. At age 11, she began spending her summers working away from home cutting and baling grass on nearby farms.

When she was a young woman, Monika traveled to Reykjavík to work in a fish factory where her uncle was a foreman. In the summer of 1924, she returned to to visit her family and took on odd jobs. Although she intended to return to Reykjavík, her boat was delayed and, while she was waiting to leave, she was offered a job taking care of and elderly couple and their farm. She took the job and moved to the farm in Merkigil, where she cared for , a 93-year-old woman.

Monika spent many years lobbying for a bridge to be built across the Austari-Jökulsá river in the Merkigil gorge. The bridge was eventually built in 1961