Archive for 'Icelandic customs'
Can Folklore Express Iceland’s ‘National Soul’? Posted by Meg on Apr 8, 2018
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These past few months, I’ve had the interesting challenge of reading Icelandic folktales in Icelandic. The use of language is, as one might imagine, slightly different than reading a contemporary text – terminology and spelling conventions vary, as does prosody and phraseology. But those changes don’t preclude a deeper understanding of Icelandic culture through a…
Icelandic Fisherwomen, Ruling the Sea One Pair of Trousers at a Time Posted by Meg on Mar 18, 2018
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Happy March, everyone! We´re just approaching the end of the old Icelandic calendar month Góa, and I thought it might be nice to pay tribute to a few Icelandic women. And not just any women, but women of the sea– so-called sjókonur. Many of you certainly know of the densely-populated Icelandic fisheries – mainly women…
About That Icelandic Book Flood… Posted by Meg on Nov 25, 2017
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As per usual, I’ve been drowning in Icelandic lit projects again this month; just a few weeks ago, my cabaret show, The Poetry Brothel Reykjavik (Rauða Skáldahúsið) put on a masquerade show, right after I visited the director of the new Vigdís Finnbogadóttir World Language Centre to discuss an upcoming translation project for the organisation…
Menntun, Menning, Minning: Education, Culture, Memory Posted by Meg on Aug 25, 2017
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Last Saturday, a friend and colleague (who I’d never met before) arrived in Reykjavik. Belgian by birth, she is a world traveler, entrepreneur, artist, and yoga teacher. She’d just returned from a trip to the desert, where she finds poetry, and was on her way to produce and direct an event in Antwerp called Poëziebordeel…
It Started With Donald Duck…And Became a Revolution. Posted by Meg on May 26, 2017
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My initial intention with the somewhat winding road of a blog entry below started out as a look at translations of the names of storybook and fable characters – like Donald Duck (as below) – but my research and persistent questions took me down a rabbit hole that I couldn’t bring myself to climb out…
The First Day of Summer, Icelandic-Style (and a Knuckle-Calendar, Just For Fun) Posted by Meg on Apr 20, 2017
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Today in Reykjavik, it was a whopping 3 degrees (C), even though it is, according to the Icelanders, the first day of summer. The old Icelandic calendar is called the misseristal, or semester-count, and it’s been used since the Settlement Age. It emphasizes the two “semesters” of the year – summer and weather – with…
Quirks of the Old Icelandic Calendar: Þorri, Bóndadagur, and Hopping On One Foot Posted by Meg on Jan 16, 2017
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Þorri is the name of the fourth month of winter, according to the old Icelandic calendar (more on this later). It starts on a Friday – falling between the 19th and 26th of January, this year the 20th – and ends on the Saturday before the month known as Góa commences. Many of you may…