Archive for 'Icelandic culture'
Homosexuality in the viking era. Posted by hulda on Aug 16, 2012
Last weekend’s Gay Pride reminded me of another topic that I’ve been thinking of writing about for a while now: homosexuality in viking era Iceland. Despite of what some of the legends of the Norse gods such as Ása-Þór, Loki and Ódinn suggest, attitudes seemed to have been somewhat against it in everyday life and…
Sequins, confetti, our mayor in a pink dress… Posted by hulda on Aug 12, 2012
Yesterday was the annual Gay Pride Parade in Reykjavík and as you would guess it rained cats and dogs. As if that wasn’t bad enough it was windy as well, meaning that the rain was the typical horizontal Reykjavík rain against which you can’t really do much. Most people don’t usually even try to use…
Parking like you just don’t care. Posted by hulda on Aug 1, 2012
It’s again that time of the year when Iceland has relatively little snow. This ought to mean that certain things would not be very hard to accomplish, parking for example. However, there are always those to whom markings on the ground are but estimates that can either be ignored if necessary or used to one’s…
Knit a puffin. Posted by hulda on Jul 25, 2012
Things are not always black and white, not even if you’re a puffin. Quite the contraty in fact – there are many possible colours for puffins and Icelandic has a specific name for each type. The pufflings, pysja (also known as pésja, kofa and lundungi), are almost like adult puffins in colour by the time…
Road rage! Posted by hulda on Jul 23, 2012
Welcome to Iceland where the roads may be passable for driving or not, depending on the season and weather conditions. There may also be sheep on them, ice, volcanic ash or as a worst case scenario a large section of a road or even a whole bridge may be swept away by a jökulhlaup, a…
Stereotypes and Myths Posted by sequoia on Jul 21, 2012
When you read about Iceland or talk to Icelanders you often get a picturesque view, compounded by the fact that most things about Iceland easily available stem from the Icelandic tourist board. Many things about Iceland are only in Icelandic, or aren’t mentioned at all, and most Icelanders don’t know what it’s like from a…
There once was a puffin, just the shape of a muffin Posted by hulda on Jul 19, 2012
…And he lived on and island in the bright blue sea! ~Florence Page Jaques Few birds are as iconic to Iceland as lundi, Atlantic puffin. They live in large colonies all around the shorelines of Iceland but especially in the Vestmannaeyjar (= Westman Isles) where the largest puffin colony of the world is located. Often they…