{"id":3946,"date":"2015-01-29T09:22:09","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T09:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=3946"},"modified":"2015-01-29T09:25:05","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T09:25:05","slug":"an-icelander-walked-past-a-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/01\/29\/an-icelander-walked-past-a-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"An Icelander walked past a bar."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2073685927_73b11df038_o\"<\/a>

Laughter by Atli Har\u00f0arson at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

It happened years ago on an evening in May. I had just met my SO and we were sitting together in a garden swing talking of this and that, and eventually\u00a0started telling each other jokes. This was the first one he told me.<\/p>\n

(To understand the following you’ll have to know that reipi\u00a0<\/em>means rope, and a\u00f0 \u00fdta<\/em> means to push.\u00a0You can listen to the pronunciation of reipi here<\/a> and \u00fdta here<\/a>. Declension key: \u00c9g \u00fdti<\/em> = I push.)<\/p>\n

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Ropes by Boudewijn Berends at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

A group of American tourists was driving around Iceland. The roads were slippery and at one point they drove off the road and their car got stuck.<\/p>\n

Two Icelanders\u00a0came along and saw the group in trouble, but their\u00a0school days had been a long time\u00a0ago and as they\u00a0had had little chances of speaking English they\u00a0had almost forgotten the language. Nevertheless they decided to try to explain the\u00a0tourists\u00a0that they would attach a rope to tow the car with theirs and then one of them would also push\u00a0the tourists’ car, so they went over and the other one told them:<\/p>\n

“First we’re\u00a0going to reipi<\/em> you and then\u00a0I’m\u00a0going to \u00fdti<\/em> you.”<\/p>\n

You may want to read that line out loud to figure out where the joke is. Remember that when a word begins with a y it silences the i-ending in spoken language. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

The joke stuck with me for many reasons. I love puns and jokes where people make fun of themselves, so\u00a0an Icelander telling an Icelander-joke totally hit the spot. Thirdly… I love horror movies and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre just happens to have Gunnar Hansen (link<\/a>), an Icelandic actor, starring as Leatherface! Well, admittedly also because I was making heart\u00a0eyes at the one telling me the joke, but let’s not get too<\/em> mushy here.<\/p>\n

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Recreating 101 Reykjavik by jayneandd at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Do we even laugh over here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brandari<\/em>, dj\u00f3k<\/em>, gr\u00edn<\/em>, all three can translate as “joke”. Having said that it’s usually quite hard to know when you’re hearing one because the local sense of humour is very different from anything I’m accustomed to! It’s often self-deprecating, but in a way that leaves you guessing whether the person might actually be serious. No topic is considered too offensive or bizarre – in fact the stranger the situation the funnier the joke. Icelanders use\u00a0many puns and insider-knowledge, so\u00a0many jokes may slip past an outsider’s radar either because you didn’t realize the pun was there or did not know the specifics behind the joke. When obviously joking the Icelanders tend toward gallows humour\u00a0–\u00a0here’s a few lines that have apparently all been printed in the minningargreinar<\/em>, obituaries:<\/p>\n

Hann var sannur \u00cdslendingur og d\u00f3 \u00e1 17. j\u00fan\u00ed.<\/em> (= He was a true Icelander and died on the 17th June\/national day of Iceland.)<\/p>\n

\u00deeir sem gu\u00f0irnir elska deyja ungir. \u00deessi or\u00f0 koma m\u00e9r \u00ed huga \u00feegar \u00e9g minnist afa. Hann var 93 \u00e1ra \u00feegar hann l\u00e9st.<\/em> (= Those that are loved by the gods die young. These words come to my mind when I remember my grandpa. He was 93 when he passed away.)<\/p>\n

Hann giftist eftirlifandi eiginkonu sinni og \u00e1tu \u00feau tv\u00f6 b\u00f6rn.<\/em> (= He married his remaining wife and they ate two children.)(This one’s actually a really unfortunate printing error: \u00feau \u00e1ttu<\/em> = they had, \u00feau \u00e1tu<\/em> = they ate.)(Not too sure about “remaining” either… the SO confirms it sounds odd to him too.)<\/p>\n

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The Keeper by Antti T. Nissinen at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Laughter as a weapon<\/strong><\/p>\n

You don’t have to actually die to get a joke about you. Here’s one of the type where you have to know something very specific about Iceland to get the joke.\u00a0\u00c1rni Johnsen is a politician from Sj\u00e1lfst\u00e6\u00f0isflokkurinn<\/em> (= Independence party), the very party that caused the 2010 collapse of the economy and the depression that followed it. \u00c1rni is also known for having served time for\u00a0using a government\u00a0account\u00a0to pay for his\u00a0personal property.<\/p>\n

Hann \u00c1rni Johnsen fr\u00e1 Vestmannaeyjum d\u00f3 og f\u00f3r til himna. Lykla P\u00e9tur stoppa\u00f0i hann og sag\u00f0i: “Nei nei h\u00e9r kemstu ekki inn.” “J\u00fa J\u00fa v\u00edst kemst \u00e9g inn.” “\u00dea\u00f0 er best a\u00f0 \u00e9g n\u00e1i \u00ed Gu\u00f0 og l\u00e1ti hann tala vi\u00f0 \u00feig.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Og Lykla P\u00e9tur f\u00f3r og \u00feegar hann og Gu\u00f0 koma \u00fe\u00e1 er \u00c1rni farinn og gullnahli\u00f0i\u00f0 l\u00edka.<\/em><\/p>\n

(= \u00c1rni Johnsen from Vestmannaeyjar died and went to heaven.\u00a0St. Peter stopped him and said: “Oh no you’re not getting in here.” “Oh yes of course I’m getting in there.” “It’s best I’ll go get God and have him talk with you.”<\/p>\n

St. Peter went away but when he came back with God, \u00c1rni was already gone and so were the pearly\u00a0gates.)<\/p>\n

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Danger! Ha! I laugh in the face of danger! Ha, ha, ha, ha! by Hans Splinter at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Sense of humour is often a tool for surviving harsh conditions, and for Icelanders this may be\u00a0exactly so. Perhaps life on this island has been so difficult for so long that unless you learn to laugh about it you don’t stand a chance? Maybe that’s why the Icelandic flavour of comedy feels a little strange at first; it was born to battle these surroundings, darkness, cold, occasional poisonous ash falls, glacier floods, famine and so forth, Icelanders don’t laugh at people, things or situations as much as they laugh despite of everything<\/em>. I’ll end this post with a poem that has somehow managed to fit a lot of Icelandic-ness into one tight, compact package:<\/p>\n

Bros okkur s\u00fdnir a\u00f0 hjarta\u00f0 er heima,
\nhl\u00e6\u00f0u og l\u00e1ttu \u00feig stressinu gleyma,
\nlif\u00f0u \u00ed gle\u00f0i og l\u00e1t \u00feig svo dreyma,
\nlystisemdir sem \u00f3rofa bla\u00f0
\nog hamingju n\u00fdtur\u00f0u \u00e1 hverjum sta\u00f0.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

~Einar Sigf\u00fasson<\/p>\n

Our smile shows that the heart’s at home \/ Laugh and let yourself forget the stress \/ Live with good cheer\u00a0and allow yourself to dream \/ Pleasures as a\u00a0continuous\u00a0page \/ And enjoy happiness everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It happened years ago on an evening in May. I had just met my SO and we were sitting together in a garden swing talking of this and that, and eventually\u00a0started telling each other jokes. This was the first one he told me. (To understand the following you’ll have to know that reipi\u00a0means rope, and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":3955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[90791,91379],"tags":[91405,3,91382,91389,91390,10341,91391,2401,91387,91396],"class_list":["post-3946","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-culture","category-icelandic-customs","tag-advanced","tag-culture","tag-english-in-iceland","tag-icelandic-government","tag-icelandic-versus-other-languages","tag-intermediate","tag-living-in-iceland-info","tag-poetry","tag-sample-of-icelandic","tag-so-icelandic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3946"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3959,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions\/3959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}