{"id":2300,"date":"2013-06-18T21:15:51","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T21:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2013-06-18T23:12:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T23:12:23","slug":"happy-birthday-iceland-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2013\/06\/18\/happy-birthday-iceland-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, Iceland!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday on the 17th Iceland celebrated its independence in the usual way: lots of noise, live music everywhere, street art, candy, flags in every form and shape and material, children running around and climbing on absolutely anything and everything they can hold on to, fierce chess matches in the rain, parades, circus shows, the selection of Fjallkonan (= mountain lady, a title of honour given to an important woman of the year), choirs, speeches by the president and other politicians… describing it would not do justice to it so let the photos do the talking instead – at least most of it. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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The day turned out to be cloudy with an occasional drizzle. The joke is of course that it always rains on the Independence Day, but it’s one of those jokes that are so close to reality that they may not make you laugh too much. However, at least in the north Iceland the weather seems to have been absolutely wonderful, sunny and warm.<\/p>\n

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Downtown was absolutely thronging with people, although the cloudiness made people arrive a bit later than last year when the day was mostly sunny. All the streets were naturally closed for traffic.<\/p>\n

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Shop windows were decorated in style. Sometimes perhaps slightly too much style – what am I saying, there’s no such thing as too much style!<\/p>\n

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…I have NO idea what’s going on here. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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Sumar g\u00f6tur eru sumarg\u00f6tur<\/em> – some streets are summer streets. This refers to Laugavegur<\/em> being closed for traffic not only for the 17th June but for the rest of the summer as well.<\/p>\n

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Three generations wearing the upphlutur<\/em>, a type of Icelandic national costume.<\/p>\n

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More national costumes – from left to right: faldb\u00faningur<\/em>, peysuf\u00f6t<\/em> and upphlutur<\/em>. Of these the faldb\u00faningur is the oldest and has the familiar Icelandic headpiece with the curving plate on top. The other two dresses have small, round velvet hats with large silk tassels.<\/p>\n

(By the way if you happen to see a woman wearing the faldb\u00faningur with its headpiece pointing back instead of front… run. That may be an extremely malicious kind of an Icelandic ghost called skottur. <\/em>It follows its victims until they go mad or die, some of them even go after whole families, generations after generations.)<\/p>\n

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An entirely different kind of traditional Icelandic clothes! This group was partaking in the festivities not only as a guest, they also hosted duels and other sword battles for children.<\/p>\n

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I am so not kidding by the way. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The shield in the middle has an ancient magical stave called \u00e6gishj\u00e1lmur<\/em> (= helm of awe) painted on it. It protects its wearers and strikes fear into their opponents.<\/p>\n

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Someone had drawn the coat of arms of Reykjav\u00edk into concrete. \u00a0Nice work, definitely better than the usual cat paw prints I’d say!<\/p>\n

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Another, less permanent sort of street art. Every part of this one seemed to be a traditional Icelandic knitting pattern. I was amazed at the sheer size of it – you’ll see the whole thing in the video at the end of this entry.<\/p>\n

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Art in process. I saw at least three artists working on this piece simultaneously, it certainly looked a lot of work.<\/p>\n

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In case you’d like to add to the art pieces found everywhere in the city make sure of one thing: it has to be made strong. This is something that inevitably happens to every statue downtown, they get climbed upon every time something special happens.<\/p>\n

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Chess is almost a national sport in Iceland – bear this in mind if you come over and like playing it! Every national celebration will have long rows of chess tables for people wanting to play, or if fancy strikes you nothing stops you from heading downtown with just a set of pieces. You won’t need a board, there are permanent ones right in the middle of the City Centre.<\/p>\n

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Some handy vocabulary for any kind of a ticket buying situation here:<\/p>\n

Mi\u00f0asala<\/em> (= ticket sale)<\/p>\n

ATH! kort, peningar<\/em> (= attention! card, cash)<\/p>\n

Tilbo\u00f0!<\/em> (= offer!)<\/p>\n

Armband\/armb\u00f6nd<\/em> (= arm band, arm bands)<\/p>\n

Tilbo\u00f0, 11 mi\u00f0ar \u00e1 1000 kr.<\/em> (= offer, 11 tickets for 1000 kr.)<\/p>\n

Gildir ekki \u00ed fj\u00f3rhj\u00f3lin<\/em> (= not for the quadricycles)<\/p>\n

(meaning that the arm bands will not allow you entrance to this particular attraction)<\/p>\n

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There is one house in Reykjav\u00edk that every single year flies the Hv\u00edtbl\u00e1inn<\/em> (= the white-blue) instead of F\u00e1ninn<\/em> (= the flag, a name used only for the official flag of Iceland). Hv\u00edtbl\u00e1inn was never an official flag of Iceland although it was a very popular option when Icelanders were choosing their flag, not the least because it’s an obvious jab at the Dannebrog, the Danish flag. The proportions of Hv\u00edtbl\u00e1inn are the same, but the colour obviously very different. Eventually another flag, the one with the red cross included, was selected to avoid confusing the flag with the Swedish or the Greek flags of the time.<\/p>\n

I’m not certain why this particular house always flies the Hv\u00edtbl\u00e1inn, but there it is without a miss every single year. I’ve heard two stories that might have something to do with it – either at this house, a young man once climbed on the roof and replaced the Dam-nish flag there with the Hv\u00edtbl\u00e1inn as a sign of rebellion, or it may be flown in honour of the women’s association that flew the white-blue first in the summer 1897. I’ll let you know if I’ll ever manage to solve this mystery!<\/p>\n

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Here we have the coat of arms of Iceland with its four guardians: Gri\u00f0ungur<\/em>, Gammur<\/em>, Dreki<\/em> and Bergrisi<\/em>, the bull, the eagle\/griffin, dragon and the mountain giant. Together they’re called landv\u00e6ttir<\/em>, land wights. They each guard a fourth of the land, meaning that the bull is the guardian spirit of Reykjav\u00edk.<\/p>\n

According to Heimskringla, king Haraldur bl\u00e1t\u00f6nn (= blue tooth) Gormsson wanted to take over the country and told his wizard to find out how easily he could hope to accomplish this. The wizard turned himself into a whale and swam to Iceland, where he found that the land was absolutely teeming with v\u00e6ttir<\/em> large and small. He tried to step onshore at Vopnafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the northeast of the country, but there a giant dragon attacked him and with it came all kinds of snakes and lizards that all attempted to poison him. The wizard escaped, swam to the west and tried to come ashore at Eyjafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the northwest.<\/p>\n

Here he saw a giant bird, so large that its wings touched both sides of the fj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, that came flying at him with a horde of other birds. The wizard then swam south, arriving to Brei\u00f0afj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the southwest, but did not even manage to set a foot on land when he saw a giant bull with all kinds of animals following it, bellowing fiercely at him. He tried one last time in Vikarsskei\u00f0, but here he was attacked by a giant who was flanked by other creatures of giant and troll kind. Thus he had to return to Haraldur bl\u00e1t\u00f6nn with bad news – the land was so well guarded it did not pay to even try.<\/p>\n