Archive for 'Icelandic culture'
Harðrok in the whole country! Posted by hulda on Nov 14, 2013
On the news this week: what about the killer pheasant? Is the rok really harð? Is Jón Gnarr ok? Let’s see: The queen is here Margrét Danadrottning* is currently in the country. Her visit is due to the Medieval literature collector Árni Magnusson’s 300th birthday celebrations so naturally the entertainment has all been linked heavily…
I read the news today Posted by hulda on Nov 7, 2013
Oh boy. Despite the small size of Iceland there’s always something going on here, be it a lost tourist, strange accidents with lots of luck included, the mayor dressing up as a jedi and so forth. I collected some highlights from the most recent news here for you so without further ado let’s see what…
Draugasetrið, the haunted ghost-museum. Posted by hulda on Oct 29, 2013
“The man whose voice you heard on the tape died a while ago. Ingólfur, who made the ghost movie also died recently, of cancer. Then I died too but they started me up again.” It’s a little bit difficult to take our ghost museum guide 100% seriously but as he is one of the specialists…
The legend of Lagarfljót. Posted by hulda on Oct 23, 2013
It’s not long now until Halloween so let’s get in the mood of it and have a look at more Icelandic monsters. This time I’ll be concentrating on one particular monster that, unlike the others, has been seen on regular intervals up to our day: the Lagarfljótsormurinn (= the worm of Lagarfljót). What’s known of…
Ice Cream Iceland! Posted by hulda on Oct 16, 2013
“It’s too cold for ice cream” – said no Icelandic person ever. I have no explanation to how a country that has a cold climate, has its capital city located 66°north and is even called Iceland is able to develop such a fierce passion for ice cream as the Icelanders have. They’re more than willing…
A sheep by any other name… Posted by hulda on Oct 8, 2013
Afi á Á á á á á is a perfect example of the dangers of speaking Icelandic; it has a good selection of both homophones and homonyms. Homophones, words that are written differently but pronounced almost or exactly the same will become a challenge when you speak, homonyms such as á that are spelled and…
Nature in poetry. Posted by hulda on Sep 26, 2013
I’ve come to believe that Icelandic people’s relationship with Icelandic nature is of the strongest kind there is. Logically thinking this is not surprising: just look around to see what I mean. On particularly beautiful mornings I still find it hard to believe that Esjan, the mountain looking over Reykjavík in the north, is real…