Tag Archives: history
Ready, steady, recite! Posted by hulda on Sep 5, 2012
Did you know that the world tungl (= moon)* has been said to be the hardest word of Icelandic to rhyme? According to a story by Jón Árnason there’s only ever been one man capable of finding a rhyme for it, a famous skáld (= poet) called Kolbeinn Jöklaskáld (= Kolbeinn glacier poet). One time…
Sheep, shrubbery and Strandarkirkja. Posted by hulda on Sep 2, 2012
Now for the second part of our recent travels to the south! Hliðarvatn lakeside (pun intended) is not only fully of berries but of people picking them as well, yet they were almost impossible to see. The small hills and the thick undergrowth completely hid an adult, crouching person, and small children could run around…
Brimstone Mountain earthquake. Posted by hulda on Aug 31, 2012
Originally I was going to write more about the roadtrip next but Iceland itself decided otherwise. It habitually throws surprises at the people living here and one such happened yesterday: a larger than usual earthquake very near the Capital City area. As most earthquakes here stay below the level of 3 they’re hardly noticeable at…
These roads were not always here. Posted by hulda on Aug 23, 2012
When looking at the map of Iceland there’s one unusual thing that easily catches the eye: there don’t seem to be many, if any, roads in the middle of the country. Most of them go around Iceland along the main road called Þjóðvegur 1 or Hringvegurinn (= Ring Road), and the few that venture inlands…
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…
Welcome home. Posted by hulda on Aug 8, 2012
“Dömur mínar og herrar, velkomin heim.” The friendly voice of the announcement you hear soon as the plane lands on Iceland welcomes you first in Icelandic and then English, and listening to it carefully you may catch the small difference in the message. The English one welcomes you to Iceland, the Icelandic one – home…
The trolls. Posted by hulda on Jul 16, 2012
Perhaps the most variable of all supernatural creatures of Iceland is tröll, a troll. Stories of them describe their size alone ranging from the size of a mountain to something resembling a very large human. Their behaviour varies likewise from friendly and loyal to solitary, hermit-like sages to beastly and violent man eaters. Sometimes trolls…