From Iceland — Don't Ask Nanna: About The Viking Clap

Don’t Ask Nanna: About The Viking Clap

Published July 15, 2016

Don’t Ask Nanna: About The Viking Clap
Nanna Árnadóttir
Photo by
RMM

Dear Nanna, 

I see that the famous Viking Clap your countrymen did at EM has become popular all over Europe, other teams using it, people at concerts and major gatherings. Does that piss you guys off? That you invented something cool and now everyone’s doing it? 

Húh! 

Hey Húh,

It’s a fucking clap, who cares? If anything Icelanders are probably busy stroking their international media boners or they’re having fun feeling superior and calling others poseurs, everybody wins.

Nanna

Dear Nanna,

I recently went out with some friends and at Prikið I got stuck talking to a tourist who told me very personal things about themselves and it made me feel very awkward. I don’t like it when people share intimate stories with me. It’s not that I am unfeeling, I just don’t enjoy it when people I don’t know speak to me in a familiar way.

How do I stop things like this from coming up in the future?

Sorrí

Dear Sorrí,

I understand. Often I suspect that it’s easier to catch an oversharer in an Icelandic bar than chlamydia (a.k.a The Viking Clap – ZING!).

It may be time to indulge that unspoken desire in your heart to withdraw from society completely. I can feel it in your email, you know the world is overrated, I know it’s overrated, your cat knows it (I’m assuming you have a cat, if you don’t have allergies, consider it).

Nanna

Hey Nanna, 

I love going to supermarkets when I’m abroad and one thing I noticed is that there are literally hundreds of condiments here. So. Many. Sauces.

Remoladi, Pitusosa, Hvitlauksosa, Samlokusosa, Graenmetissosa, Hamborgarasosa, Kockteilsosa, those are the one’s I remember at least. Like, what even is this stuff? What’s the deal? 

Gravlaxsosa 

Hey Gravlaxsósa,

You did it, you uncovered our national secret. Icelanders worship at the altar of condiments with more rigour and faith than we ever have to elves.

Nanna

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