Author: - The Reykjavik Grapevine

This Was The Real Iceland

by

It is a little difficult to decide which of two ways to describe Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon’s new book ‘Wasteland With…

Vikings in America

by

By now we all know that Scandinavian settlers reached Greenland in the late 900s and built settlements there that endured…

Two New Guidebooks To Iceland

by

Need to buy a guidebook to Iceland? You can choose from Lonely Planet, the Rough Guides, Frommer’s, Insight Guides, and…

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman

by

The title and blurb of this book leads you to think it’s about Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, the wife of Þorfinnur Karlsefni…

Children’s Reykjavík

by

By the time adults have children, they’re often out of touch with kid culture and need help figuring out what…

Book Review: The Travels Of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson

by

On a summer day in 1627, pirates landed on Heimaey, the largest of the Westmann Islands. They swarmed over the…

The Windows of Brimnes

by

In 1998, Minnesotan writer and teacher Bill Holm bought himself a house called Brimnes in Hofsós, a small village a…

Inside Reykjavík: The Grapevine Guide

by

Yes, I have a conflict of interest in reviewing this book, as I have done work for the author, and…

The English Dane

by

On 25 June 1809, the Danish governor of Iceland, Frederik Trampe, was arrested in his home on Aðalstræti in Reykjavík,…

Dreaming of Iceland: The Lure of a Family Legend

by

 Scottish television anchor Sally Magnusson asked her father, the Icelandic-Scottish translator and television personality Magnus Magnusson, to go with her…

The Killer’s Guide to Iceland

by

The main character in this novel is a Scottish dot-com entrepreneur who sells his company and moves to Iceland to…

Two Holes in Your Pocket

by

You’re an Icelander, studying at an American university, and you’re pregnant. You had planned to go home to Iceland to…

You Too Can be a Citizen

by

At the Grapevine’s request, the Icelandic Ministry of Justice has explained the procedure for applying to receive fast-track Icelandic citizenship…

Iceland-China

by

As Iceland and China moved closer towards signing a free trade agreement, the state television news came up with a…

Five Classic Books About Moving to the North Atlantic

by

You know the story already: a comfortably off writer buys an old farmhouse in France or Italy, drags their sceptical…

Roots Tourism in Hofsós

by

At the Icelandic Emigration Centre in Hofsós, Nelson Gerrard shows me a thick, heavy book that he wrote about the…

Who Knows How the System Works?

by

On April 16, 2007, the Icelandic Parliament passed a law granting Icelandic citizenship to eighteen people who presumably did not…

Share Your Ancestors

by

Iceland’s genealogy is nearly done. “Finishing” a whole nation’s genealogy would be unthinkable in North America or Western Europe, where…

Recent Books about Iceland

by

The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule By Joanna Kavenna. The Ice Museum is a kind…

Beware: Polar Bear May Bite

by

I had never been on cruise ship in my life before I spent three weeks last summer giving lectures on…

If You Can’t Make It to Gdan´sk

by

Stokrotka is Iceland’s Polish supermarket, and like a good foreign food store, it has some things that you just can’t…

Identity Theft:

by

More than 600,000 Americans and more than 100,000 British residents fall victim to identity theft every year. It can take…

We Know Your Identity Number:

by

The kennitala — Iceland’s personal identification number — has been getting a bad rap lately. Persónuvernd (the Icelandic Data Protection…

Cheaper Calls Abroad

by

Buy a phone card. Three companies, Atlassími (www.atlassimi.is), Heimsfrelsi (www.heimsfrelsi.is), and Digital Frelsi (www.phone.is) sell pre-paid calling cards. The per-minute…