{"id":4451,"date":"2015-09-17T15:07:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T15:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=4451"},"modified":"2015-09-17T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T16:58:11","slug":"soon-landing-in-reykjavik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/09\/17\/soon-landing-in-reykjavik\/","title":{"rendered":"Soon landing in Reykjav\u00edk!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1916256914_257a6805ce_b\"<\/a>

Krummi kr\u00fankar \u00fati by Helgi Halld\u00f3rsson at Flickr. Reykjav\u00edk airport in the background. \ud83d\ude00<\/p><\/div>\n

The ravens have returned to the villages and towns. In Iceland ravens are a seasonal sight, living the spring and summer in the countryside but spending the dark, cold season among humans. During the summer seagulls take over but come autumn they make way for the true kings who return to take their thrones atop houses, lamp posts and what few tall trees there are. Icelanders love ravens and feed them because not only are they beautiful and clever, they also bring good luck and are said to warn people who don’t know they’re in grave danger. Ravens\u00a0even feature in an important role in the legend of how Iceland was found.\u00a0Not surprisingly such an important bird has affected Icelandic language greatly, so let’s have a light studying day today and learn some raven-related words!<\/p>\n

\"2207352584_a03574e263_o\"<\/a>

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

Vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hrafn<\/em> = raven.<\/p>\n

Krummi<\/em> = a fond nickname for ravens.<\/p>\n

Hrafnsungi<\/em> = a raven chick.<\/p>\n

Krunk, a\u00f0 krunka<\/em> = to caw like a raven. Yes, Icelandic has a verb that specifically means “ravensinging”!<\/p>\n

Hrafnagangur<\/em> = ravens being very noisy ravens. Icelandic also has a word that simply means “ravens going loudly about their business”.<\/p>\n

Hrafna\u00feing<\/em> = a raven assembly, a parliament of ravens. Just like it sounds like, a group of ravens getting together, usually followed up by fierce hrafnagangur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"17898702350_9e2dd802d7_k\"<\/a>

Ancient technology – a broken piece of obsidian stone tool by aotaro at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hrafntinna<\/em> = raven-flint = obsidian, black glass of volcanic origin. No wonder that a volcanic country fond of ravens would make that connection.<\/p>\n

N\u00e1tthrafn<\/em> = a night raven, also known as a night-owl<\/em> in English.<\/p>\n

Hrafnahret<\/em> = raven spell-of-bad-weather, a period of sudden coldness right before the beginning of summer (in Iceland we have beginning of summer on a set date, just as we have the beginning of winter). Another similar term for this phenomena is…<\/p>\n

Krumma\u00e9l<\/em> = raven short-snowstorm, when it snows during the last three days of winter. This is actually a good sign according to folk belief, if “summer and winter freeze together” the summer becomes very beautiful and sunny.<\/p>\n

\"9213426859_844b77ca15_k\"<\/a>

Hrafnaklukka\/Cardamine nymanii by Gudny Olafsdottir at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hrafnaklukka<\/em> = Cardamine nymanii, lady’s smock; a flower.<\/p>\n

Krummast\u00f6r<\/em> = Carex saxatilis, rock\/russet sedge; a plant.<\/p>\n

Hrafn-bl\u00e1r<\/em> (also hrafnsvartur<\/em>) = the first one is raven-blue, the second raven-black, but both refer to the deepest shade of black there is – coal-black or ink-black. Often used to describe the colour of someone’s hair.<\/p>\n

Krummaol\u00eda<\/em> = raven-oil – it’s brenniv\u00edn<\/em>! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"4935126517_0a9b3d2543_b\"<\/a>

I see dead vikings… by Hans Splinter at Flickr. Table’s set for our raven friends!<\/p><\/div>\n

Kennings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hrafnbl\u00f3ts go\u00f0i<\/em> = the chieftain\u00a0of raven parties, if translated freely. In other words \u00d3\u00f0inn,<\/em>\u00a0the one who likes to see good fighting done among humans. A raven party is a war of course.<\/p>\n

Hrafnf\u00e6\u00f0ir<\/em> = raven-food… this has a gruesome meaning: it’s humans, more specifically warriors.<\/p>\n

Hrafnv\u00edn<\/em> = another one in line with the above one, raven-wine means human blood.<\/p>\n

Bl\u00e1gammr<\/em> = blue\/black vulture = raven (Old Norse).<\/p>\n

Bl\u00f3\u00f0valr<\/em> = blood-falcon = raven; any blood-[insert bird of choice] in Old Norse tends to be a kenning for a raven.<\/p>\n

\"14454619933_f8cd8d04df_h\"<\/a>

A raven by Kjartan Birgisson at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n

Proverbs and sayings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Krummi ver\u00f0ur ei hv\u00edtur \u00fe\u00f3 hann ba\u00f0i sig.<\/em> = The raven becomes no whiter though he had a bath – a tiger can’t change\u00a0his stripes.<\/p>\n

Sjalds\u00e9\u00f0ir eru hv\u00edtir hrafnar.<\/em> = Rarely are white ravens seen – said when something completely unusual or out of the ordinary happens.<\/p>\n

Gu\u00f0 borgar fyrir hrafninn.<\/em> = God pays the raven’s dues: give food to ravens and you’ll have good luck.<\/p>\n

A\u00f0 vera \u00ed hrafnafelum.<\/em> = To be raven-hidden, meaning something’s lost and no one can find it. Ravens are good at hiding things!<\/p>\n

A\u00f0 vekja hrafnana.<\/em> = To wake up the ravens. Ravens are always up early in the morning so if you wake them up you’re really an early bird, earliest of them all.<\/p>\n

A\u00f0 vera me\u00f0 krummaf\u00e6tur.<\/em> = To have raven feet. This one’s a bit funny, it means you have your shoes on so that the right shoe is on left foot and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Seint fl\u00fdgur krummi \u00e1 kv\u00f6ldin.<\/em> = Raven flies late into night. Sometimes there’s just not enough hours in a day to make a living, raven-wise.<\/p>\n

\"2105646667_b43349eb9f_o\"<\/a>

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

\"hulda078\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hulda recommends: Autumn foods<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rhubarb-blueberry jam<\/strong> (original recipe here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

1 kg rhubarb
\n1 kg blueberries
\n1 tbs water
\n1 kg sugar
\n500 g brown sugar<\/p>\n

Cut rhubarb into small pieces. Boil with water in a pot for 15 min or until the rhubarb begins to soften. Add blueberries and boil on low heat until soft and mixed. Let cool a little.<\/p>\n

Put in a blender and blend well. Pour back into the pot, add sugar and bring to boil again, let boil slowly for 15-20 min. Put in clean jars, let cool down before closing the lids.<\/p>\n

This recipe makes quite a lot of jam, so you can easily halve the ingredients if you don’t need this much. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The ravens have returned to the villages and towns. In Iceland ravens are a seasonal sight, living the spring and summer in the countryside but spending the dark, cold season among humans. During the summer seagulls take over but come autumn they make way for the true kings who return to take their thrones atop…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":4463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[90791],"tags":[10208,3,91386,10341,2332,91396,13],"class_list":["post-4451","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-culture","tag-beginner","tag-culture","tag-icelandic-lessons","tag-intermediate","tag-nature","tag-so-icelandic","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4451","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=4451"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4451\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}