Héðinn and Ásmundur Sveinsson’s famous artwork have gone hand in hand from the very beginning. The artwork was the symbol of the prestigious industrial exhibition in 1952, and Héðinn’s people, together with friends, took the initiative to have it purchased and donated to the Technical School and the City of Reykjavík.

According to a reliable source—a trade journal—it is recorded that at the 50th anniversary of the Technical School in the autumn of 1954, the school and the city were presented with the much-discussed statue Járnsmiðurinn by Ásmundur Sveinsson. The donors were: Sveinn Guðmundsson of Héðinn, Axel Kristjánsson of Rafha, Ragnar of Smári, architect Skarphéðinn Jóhannsson, poet Tómas Guðmundsson, master cabinetmaker Jónas Sólmundsson, and Kristín Andrésdóttir, widow of Markús Ívarsson.

It is evident, as can be seen from these names, that there are many connections to Héðinn—and this applies even more to the artwork itself, for its creation story quite literally begins at Héðinn. Ásmundur himself relates in a newspaper interview how, when he first came to town as a young man:

“…When I was about twenty, I went to Reykjavík and studied woodcarving with Ríkarður Jónsson. Then I went abroad—and when I returned home—I met the late Markús Ívarsson at Héðinn, and we became good acquaintances. I was a frequent visitor at Héðinn—there I saw modern ironwork in full swing, and I stood thunderstruck before the invisible giant forces I saw the modern age unleashing there. The smithing of iron had become a kind of giant’s domain; the great machines struck me as if they were trolls.”

“In this inner experience of mine, which gradually became a blazing inner drive, the seeds of Járnsmiðurinn were sown. In my mind I lived sometimes at the hammer and anvil in my father’s country smithy, and at other times in the troll-cities of the iron workshops in Reykjavík—who can blame me for wanting to ease the burden of my overcharged mind a little, to attempt to interpret greatness in relation to smallness—these opposites that wrestled within me?”

“Yes, out of this Járnsmiðurinn came into being—but not in any sudden burst… Járnsmiðurinn was completed in 1936.”
The artist says he was trying to create "a symbol of the troll-like, oversized ironwork of the modern age, and at the same time of the colossal transformation that has taken place since the time when, as a boy, I stood in the smithy—and indeed in all trades—it is everywhere, this gigantic change. And I have a certain faith in the giant technology of the modern age, I believe it will liberate people from the drudgery of the old times…”

It may also be noted that the Héðinn machine works handled the transport of Járnsmiðurinn to the exhibition site of the 1952 Industrial Exhibition, and it was stated that the statue weighed about three tons.

The statue had, from the time of the 1952 Industrial Exhibition, stood in the yard of the Technical School, and some debate arose at the time over the merits of the artwork. “Many have feared that Járnsmiðurinn might be removed from the school grounds, since it belonged to the artist and no arrangements had been made to purchase it.”

With this gift, the people of Héðinn and their friends managed to settle the disputes over the artwork while at the same time honoring the artist. It then fell to the Reykjavík Art Committee to choose a permanent location for the sculpture on the school grounds.

The committee seems to have taken some time over the matter, but in the summer of 1955 the next news about the statue appeared: “At a meeting of the city council the day before yesterday, Reykjavík’s Art Committee’s proposal was approved, that the artwork Járnsmiðurinn by Ásmundur Sveinsson, which for some time had stood at the Technical School on Skólavörðuholt, be permanently placed on the ‘bringan' between Snorrabraut and Þorfinnsgata.” And there the work still stands today, in the garden below the old Maternity Home in Reykjavík.