Tag Archives: advanced
Icelandic horses for courses and… courses. Posted by hulda on Jul 17, 2014
Question and answer time! During the last month you’ve asked the Icelandic blog, via both the e-mail and the comments section, a couple of interesting questions that I’ll try to answer today. First a question was about horses: what are all the different words that mean horse in Icelandic? The most obvious one is hestur of…
Reykjavík calling: we’re on fire (again). Posted by hulda on Jul 11, 2014
Hi all, it’s been quite an insanely busy and action-packed week, not to mention a small injury in the family has momentarily made a nurse out of me (although hopefully if you ever need a nurse it will be someone with better handling skills). We’re doing fine at the moment despite all my best efforts at…
Hiding in plain sight: Hvalfjörður. Posted by hulda on Jun 16, 2014
When you hear of Hvalfjörður from the locals it’s often spoken of as how to avoid it. This time you should not listen to the advice: there’s clear logic behind wanting to avoid going there but it’s definitely not because the place wasn’t worth a visit! No, what Icelanders usually think of when Hvalfjörður is…
Nightless nights, dayless days. Posted by hulda on May 26, 2014
Like A hundred names for snow might show, Icelandic has quite a rich vocabulary when it comes to nature and the seasons. An obvious example besides snow is light and darkness and the change from one to other, because the time during which day and night are about the same length is very, extremely short. Due…
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…
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…
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…