Tag Archives: vocabulary
Here, there, trolls everywhere! Posted by hulda on Oct 12, 2012
Tröllið er þar / tröllið er þarna; tröllið er hér / tröllið er hérna: which sentences do you think should make you react faster? What about the difference between tröllið kemur héðan as opposed to tröllið kemur hingað? Of the first two examples both translate as “the troll is there” and the latter two as “the troll…
A landslide, aurora borealis and more! Posted by hulda on Sep 22, 2012
My, what an interesting week it has been for Iceland. After the storm we’ve had earthquakes, the colour of leaves has changed almost overnight and the first aurora of the year was seen over Reykjavík on the 19. September. Topping it off today’s haustjafndægur (= equinox) which means that Ásatrúarfélagið (= Asatru Association) will be…
The waterfall that flowed into the sky. Posted by hulda on Sep 11, 2012
Búast má við stormi (= a storm is expected) is a sentence that makes me immediately a little bit worried whenever I see it at the Icelandic Met Office‘s webpages. It tends to mean it’s soon going to be impossible to walk outdoors and if going out cannot be avoided it’ll be a very uncomfortable…
The epic berrypicking roadtrip. Posted by hulda on Aug 29, 2012
Today’s blog post is once again about traveling within Iceland, and due to the amount of material I’m going to divide the entry in two for easier following. You see, what was supposed to be only a short trip to pick blueberries turned into something that included Iceland’s natural wonders and a church that has…
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…
Knit a puffin. Posted by hulda on Jul 25, 2012
Things are not always black and white, not even if you’re a puffin. Quite the contraty in fact – there are many possible colours for puffins and Icelandic has a specific name for each type. The pufflings, pysja (also known as pésja, kofa and lundungi), are almost like adult puffins in colour by the time…