Icelandic Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: culture

Icelandic – unchangeable? Posted by on Jun 11, 2015

At some point or another anyone interested in Icelandic will come across the popular idea that Icelandic is being kept unchanged, or at least that it has changed very little with time. Occasionally you’ll even hear people claim that Icelandic is so close to Old Norse that Icelanders can still understand it. Alas, all of…

Continue Reading

No dogs, TV, beer or Spaniards allowed. Posted by on May 28, 2015

Icelanders of the Westfjords area are no longer allowed to kill Basque people on sight. The law was revoked just last month and very, very quietly too – you’d almost think someone didn’t want anyone to notice anything. In any case it’s now a fact, Basque people are no longer outlawed by default! It may sound like…

Continue Reading

Eurovision – Iceland loves it! Posted by on May 21, 2015

It’s that time of the year again. People are slowly migrating towards the magic box in the living room, beers are cooling and grills are almost hot enough for the first course. There may be flags of each person’s favourite country, if the viewers are young there may well be a drinking game as well…

Continue Reading

Five culture shocks of Iceland. Posted by on May 14, 2015

A culture shock will always catch you by surprise no matter how well you thought you had prepared yourself. Here are some that have given people big jumps before. 1. No ice hockey The ice hockey world championship games are in full swing and the whole world is watching, holding its breath. The whole world? No! One…

Continue Reading

Elliðarárdalur, Reykjavík’s Central Park Posted by on Apr 30, 2015

A secret oasis of Reykjavík, Elliðarárdalur, can be found only a short bus drive away from downtown. Well, when I say secret it actually means something more like “this is a place the locals certainly know of but visitors barely ever visit and that’s a shame”. It’s a popular place for walking, jogging, biking, horse…

Continue Reading

Happy First of Summer! Posted by on Apr 23, 2015

Summer is finally here! I mean it did snow a few times today and the night before was freezing, but that’s just good luck according to old beliefs, it’s said that if winter and summer freeze together the summer will be good. Sumardagurinn fyrsti, The First of Summer, divides the year into its warmer half just like…

Continue Reading

Vatnsenda-Rósa: a legendary poet. Posted by on Apr 9, 2015

The most famous love poem of Iceland is written by a woman. Though little is actually known of her the amount of legends that circle around Rósa Guðmundsdóttir, also known as Skáld-Rósa (= Rósa the poet) or Vatnsenda-Rósa (= Rósa of Vatnsendi), would suggest she was a striking and noteworthy person in her time just the same…

Continue Reading

Older posts
Newer posts