Archive for 'Icelandic culture'
Apples in the oak tree. Posted by hulda on Apr 24, 2014
Happy Sumardagurinn fyrsti, First of Summer, everyone! Easter is almost over now, the lamb’s eaten, Easter beer gone, the chocolate eggs opened and now the only thing left to do is to try to understand the proverbs that the eggs gave you. One of you, dear readers, asked me about a particularly difficult proverb which prompted me…
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…
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…
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…
Puddle punks for Eurovision. Posted by hulda on Feb 20, 2014
Eurovision is drawing near again. I admit I’m a fan so of course I’ve been eagerly following the Icelandic finals, especially since Icelanders are quite unpredictable in what they’ll want to send. Most countries have some kind of a pattern – you know that certain ones will send a girl in a miniskirt/supposedly sexy guy…
The end is nigh (again). Posted by hulda on Feb 13, 2014
Bad news first, the end of the world has been announced for the 22nd of February. Then for the good ones, this time it will be Ragnarök so no need to repent your sins, just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride! To be expected: earthquakes, volcanic activity, possible sightings of a massive sea serpent…
Beyond the Wall Posted by hulda on Jan 30, 2014
The unique nature of the country may be what comes to mind first when people think of Iceland, and this is certainly the case with film makers searching for beautiful, yet easy to access backgrounds. It’s quite well known that the recent Thor: The Dark World movie had parts that were filmed here, especially since…