Author: Grayson Del Faro
Saga Recap: The Saga of Bosi And Herrauður
One thing you should know about the Icelandic sagas is that some of them are not only sexually charged, they’re…
Saga Recap: The Saga Of Grettir The Strong
This is the saga of Grettir, the grandson of the “bravest and nimblest one-legged man to ever live in Iceland.”…
Saga Recap: The Saga Of Crooked Refur
This saga starts with a lazy asshole named Refur, which is the Icelandic word for fox. So you probably already…
Saga Recap: The Tale of Þorsteinn Housebaby
This story starts with a dude called Þorsteinn Housebig. He is so huge that he can barely fit through any…
RECAP: Saga Of Gísli Súrsson
There are more sex jokes in the sagas than you might guess, and neither jokes about butt-sex nor the literary…
RECAP: The Tale of Shady Halli
This Old Icelandic story begins and ends with dick jokes, which is totally my type of story. It’s classified as…
RECAP: Saga of Egill Skalla-Grímsson
This saga starts out with some big, hairy asshole named Kveld-Úlfur (“evening-wolf”), who may or may not be a werewolf….
RECAP: The Dream of Star-Oddi
So some dude named Oddi, who is a good at astronomy but shitty at poetry, eats a bunch of psychedelic…
The Saga of Hrómundur Gripsson
I’m gonna skip all the “son of blahblahblahson” bullshit and get straight to the juicy man-meat of this Saga. Okay?…
RECAP: The Saga of Sigurgarður the Valiant
It’s purely coincidence that “frækna,” the Icelandic word for “valiant,” looks a bit like the English word for “freak” because…
RECAP: Saga of Ragnar Shaggy-Britches
Listen up because I am about to recap the Saga on which your favorite, wildly inaccurate History Channel drama series,…
What We Talk About When We Talk About Americans
Listen up, fellow Americans. We need to talk about how you talk. Or we, rather, because I (often reluctantly) am…
RECAP: The Tale of Dumbass-Hrói
Our summer Saga series has taken us to Norway and Sweden (and will again) but has largely skipped all things…
Fjord Serenity Now! A Kayaking Day In Hvalfjörður
Kayaking has always been a favorite sport of mine because its effort-to-awesomeness ratio is incredibly low. Sure, pro kayakers can…
RECAP: The Tale of Jökull Búason
I know we’re all pretty sick of trolls in 2016, but trolls were way funnier in 1260. So this recap…
RECAP: Saga of the People of Kjalarnes
If you’ve ever stopped along Reykjavík’s waterfront to ogle the magnificent mountainess known as Esja, you’ve probably seen some little…
RECAP: Möttuls Saga, the Saga of the Mantle
If you remember the portrait of Arthurian nobility painted by Erex, this Saga is about to fuck your shit right…
RECAP: Saga of Eiríkur the Red
Let’s just get this out of the way upfront: forget what the history books told you because Columbus did not…
RECAP: Saga Of Hrolf The Tramper
The Saga of this issue is Göngu-Hrolfs Saga, literally “Walking Hrolfur’s Saga” but typically translated as the Saga of Hrolfur…
Answers Instead Of Questions
One trans Icelander’s experience with sexism and transition. The past few years have seen an explosion of international media coverage…
The Giantess Speaks: Gerður Kristný Adapts Bloodhoof
Gerður Kristný Guðjónsdóttir, usually known more simply as Gerður Kristný, is one of Iceland’s most notable poets, well-known both at…
Arts Festival ’16: Grapevine’s Quick ‘n’ Dirty Guide
by John Rogers and Grayson Del Faro
The Reykjavík Arts Festival is a breath of fresh summer air to the city’s cultural scene, bringing together a rich…
RECAP: The Eddic Poetry Special
Although I’d like to think that every month in Iceland is National Poetry Month, the reality is that Iceland doesn’t…
RECAP: Laxdæla Saga, The Allegedly Romantic One
If you ask the average native English speaker which of Shakespeare’s plays is their favorite, most will probably say ‘Romeo…
Njáls Saga RECAP: The One Where They Burn That Motherfucker Down
We need to talk about Njáls Saga. Fully titled the Saga of Burned Njál, it is considered the absolute zenith…