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Tag Archives: culture

Destroying Iceland for charity? Posted by on Aug 20, 2015

This week arrived with troubling news: the police were investigating two Scottish men who had apparently driven quite a long way off-road in Iceland, which is illegal. Let’s repeat, it’s illegal to drive off-road in Iceland, everywhere, no exceptions. Why the general ban? It’s because Iceland’s highlands are moss and lichen -covered, and the damage done…

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Laugadalur – hot spring valley Posted by on Aug 13, 2015

Near downtown Reykjavík is a historical site that’s almost hidden by all the other activities around it, though the whole area takes its name from this place: Laugadalur, the valley of hot springs, is now better known for the Botanical Garden, one of the best swimming pools of Reykjavík, an ice skating rink and a…

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Icelandic donut craze. Posted by on Aug 6, 2015

A few days ago a friend of mine who lives in the UK contacted me and made some complaints about the state of affairs in their home country. “What about Iceland”, she then asked me, “what’s in the news?” I quickly opened a news site and found out the day’s main news were someone stealing 60…

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Verslunarmannahelgi, party time in Iceland! Posted by on Jul 30, 2015

We’re preparing for yet another festival here, this time one that’s called Verslunarmannahelgi (= tradesmen’s weekend), our equivalent of the Labour Day. Originally started as all merchants’ holiday, it has turned into a country-wide one where people, merchants or not, party happily throughout the long weekend. People are already busily gathering food, getting ready to drive…

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Icelandic kennings. Posted by on Jul 16, 2015

What is “a wave’s horse”? If someone’s talking of “Ymir’s skull”, what are they talking about? What or who is being called Hringaná in the old song Hættu að gráta Hringaná? And who is “the possessor of the fallen slain and the owner of Sessrúmnir”? Kennings, or circumlocutions, form a large part of traditional Icelandic…

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Who hit Bam Margera? Posted by on Jun 25, 2015

Icelandic rap scene received some questionable fame last week when a fight broke out at the Secret Solstice music festival: headlines were made all the way to Europe and USA, stating that Bam Margera had been beaten up by three or four “popular Icelandic rappers”. Basics To put it in as simple and truthful terms…

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Hi ho yippee yay, Iceland! Posted by on Jun 18, 2015

…or as we say it in Icelandic, hæ hó jibbi jei! Anyone who’s been in the country for the past week has no doubt both seen this line and heard the song it’s from (link) countless times because yesterday was Iceland’s National Day and Sautjándi Júní is actually far more popular song for the day…

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