The initial sketch of this work was created in 1902, and shows a man digging a path through rough terrain. On the sketch Jónsson wrote the words Vegabrjótur which translate as road-breaker. Five years later he revisited the work through another related sketch, but titled this one Banebryderen (The Pioneer). The drawings may be interpreted within the contemporary discourse of freedom in the making of art. Turning to nature, Jónsson uses stone as a symbol of past thought, with the creative power of man being the only thing that can affect it. In this relief, which he sculpted in 1911, the form and structure is much clear. The work was presented with the monument to the fighter of Independence, Jón Sigurðsson. In place of the mounds of earth the man is struggling his way through high basalt columns. The work takes the form of a trapeze because of the form of the base of the Jón Sigurðsson monument. It also controls the structure of the work, where the highest columns are in the middle. In the front the giant man moves them so that the smaller group of people from all sections of the community can follow him through it.