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Icelandic kennings. Posted by hulda on Jul 16, 2015
What is “a wave’s horse”? If someone’s talking of “Ymir’s skull”, what are they talking about? What or who is being called Hringaná in the old song Hættu að gráta Hringaná? And who is “the possessor of the fallen slain and the owner of Sessrúmnir”? Kennings, or circumlocutions, form a large part of traditional Icelandic…
Iceland in deep poop – literally. Posted by hulda on Jul 9, 2015
Since the boom in tourism began Iceland is now facing a new, growing problem – tourists littering, and worse. I have addressed the problems before in The Iceaboo but let’s repeat: the cleanness of the Icelandic nature is due to people not throwing trash around. There are no cleaning ladies sweeping through the scenery every morning…
When Icelanders fail Icelandic. Posted by hulda on Jul 2, 2015
I’ve often addressed the various problems a language learner might come across when learning the language, but sometimes it seems that Icelandic is not easy for the natives either. Despite all the efforts at preserving the language it just tries to change itself anyway, resulting in f.ex. þágufallssýki – the dative illness – where people will attempt…
Who hit Bam Margera? Posted by hulda on Jun 25, 2015
Icelandic rap scene received some questionable fame last week when a fight broke out at the Secret Solstice music festival: headlines were made all the way to Europe and USA, stating that Bam Margera had been beaten up by three or four “popular Icelandic rappers”. Basics To put it in as simple and truthful terms…
Hi ho yippee yay, Iceland! Posted by hulda on Jun 18, 2015
…or as we say it in Icelandic, hæ hó jibbi jei! Anyone who’s been in the country for the past week has no doubt both seen this line and heard the song it’s from (link) countless times because yesterday was Iceland’s National Day and Sautjándi Júní is actually far more popular song for the day…
Icelandic – unchangeable? Posted by hulda on Jun 11, 2015
At some point or another anyone interested in Icelandic will come across the popular idea that Icelandic is being kept unchanged, or at least that it has changed very little with time. Occasionally you’ll even hear people claim that Icelandic is so close to Old Norse that Icelanders can still understand it. Alas, all of…
Iceland’s PM blackmailed Posted by hulda on Jun 4, 2015
The scandal of this week has been all about the prime minister Sigmundur Davíd Gunnlaugsson and two sisters, Malín Brand and Hlín Einarsdóttir, who attempted to blackmail him worth 8.000.000ISK (that’s about 55.000E). That on its own is interesting enough, especially for a country as small and peaceful as Iceland, but wait – it gets even…