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Tag Archives: poetry

Ready, steady, rhyme! Posted by on Nov 10, 2016

This blog post won’t have anything political in it. Instead I’m going to fill it with poetry and cute animals, because every now and then everyone needs at least a few moments of something calming, harmless and good in their lives. Besides, I believe that looking at pictures of cute animals is good for the…

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Independently Icelandic. Posted by on Jun 16, 2016

Guess what day tomorrow is? That’s right – Iceland celebrates its independence on the 17th June with Hæ Hó Jibbi Jei, það er kominn sautjándi Júní (= Hi Ho Yippee Yay, it’s come the 17th June), parades, bouncy castles and lots and lots of flags. I’ve already dug out my own 17th June kit well in…

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Golden plovers seen in Iceland! Posted by on Mar 31, 2016

If ravens entering towns is a sign that winter is coming, sightings of a golden plover mean summer is on its way. The golden plover is a migratory bird that only spends the warm season in Iceland so it’s gained itself a reputation of a spring bringer, and each year people eagerly wait for its first…

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8 Icelandic Christmas facts. Posted by on Dec 24, 2015

Greetings from snowy Reykjavík! It’s almost time for Christmas here, so let’s have a look at some really Icelandic Christmas -related traditions. Work hard It’s not unusual at all that an Icelander would work on the 24th. Over here a Christmas break from work is almost unheard-of, unlike my previous home country Finland that enjoys…

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Run for your life! Posted by on Oct 15, 2015

The autumn nights are growing colder and we’re heading for the long dark season, so let’s talk about spooky things! Icelanders of old thought that the only safe place in the world was within the walls of a house (and occasionally not even there, but more on that later on) and well, they were right…

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Sleep, you pig – scary Icelandic lullabies. Posted by on Sep 3, 2015

Sofðu nú svínið þitt svartur í augum Farðu í fúlan pytt fullan af draugum. (= Sleep now you black-eyed pig, fall in a deep pit of ghosts.) Lately this little lullaby has been popular on quite a few social media sites, gathering people’s attention simply by being a really horrible-sounding thing to sing to the…

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Reciting Icelandic poetry. Posted by on Aug 27, 2015

If I had to describe Icelandic as a language, one word would come to mind immediately: poetic. For most of their existence Icelanders have always valued poets highly, so highly in fact that an important person was practically assumed to be a skilled poet and even the poorest farmer could (and often would) show off…

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