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Staving off a disaster; magical tattoos. Posted by hulda on Apr 16, 2014
I’ve noticed a growing trend of people having Icelandic magical staves tattooed on them lately. Some of the choices, alas, range from weird to unintentionally funny and inappropriate. On its own having such a stave tattooed is not a bad thing at all. Icelanders themselves often get them as tattoos and it’s not considered insulting…
With with, with or with? Posted by hulda on Apr 11, 2014
“Mig langar að tala við þig, hjá þér, og þá langar mig að tala með þér upp á sviði.” Put this sentence in an online translator and you get “I want to talk to with you and allow me to speak with you on stage” as a translation. Icelandic prepositions are endlessly confusing and here…
Not just a number. Posted by hulda on Mar 31, 2014
Explaining one’s age or the length of time that’s not measured with a clock (weeks, months, years etc.) in Icelandic is a mildly complex sport. My best advice for a student would be to just learn the example sentences by heart and use them until they come automatically; it takes some time but it’s far…
Hekla volcano – temperature on the rise. Posted by hulda on Mar 25, 2014
As spring approaches we begin to look at the volcanoes a bit more closely, especially the two that are overdue their eruption schedule: Katla and Hekla. In Iceland it’s actually very typical that eruptions begin in the spring or early summer because that’s when the snow and ice melt off the mountains and even subglacial…
Where the wild vikings are. Posted by hulda on Mar 17, 2014
Icelandic sagas are an unusual feature in Medieval literature for several reasons. The most obvious one is that they mostly take part in Iceland and tell of ordinary people who, although heads of the society of their time, still are little more than rich farmers. There’s an amusing way people describe sagas here in Iceland…
Hiding in plain sight. Posted by hulda on Mar 7, 2014
Traveling to Iceland but not enough time to go see the sights outside of the Capital City area? No need to worry – there are some amazing ones within your reach anyway! This entry will start a small series of Hulda’s tips on what to see in Reykjavík on locations that are accessible by biking…
Gray cats and other ones too. Posted by hulda on Feb 27, 2014
Icelanders love cats. A generalization, I know, but I have to say I haven’t seen many places with as many of them, clearly well-kept and tame, roaming around everywhere. When you walk downtown on a sunny day and see them lying around here and there it’s easy to see that they’re not wild cats, the…