History & Language
The Reykjavík Grapevine takes on Iceland’s history, language and related topics
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Word Of The Issue: Mikligarður
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For a thousand years Icelandic has had its own Icelandic names for various places and geographic locations visited by Icelanders or discussed in the numerous sagas and other literature written in Iceland in…
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Axlar-Björn: The Tale Of Iceland’s First Serial Murder
Folktales did true crime long before podcasts Despite the current global obsession with gritty crime dramas and true crime documentaries, I find myself generally disinterested. Don’t get me wrong: I love crime. I personally live my life by the 21st-century meme-turned-adage “be gay, do crime,”…
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Word Of The Issue: A Fish With A Reversed Fin Bombs Iran
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Some international political commentators have voiced the opinion that the strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel are a case of “wag the dog.” The “wag the dog” idiom…
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Word Of The Issue: Flying Ice
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time It is the height of the Icelandic winter, which means that if you are planning to drive anywhere, you will do well to look up the road conditions on umferdin.is. And…
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Now And Then: Hotelification In Reverse
Buildings can become hotels; hotels can become something else At first light, guests of Hótel Hekla were rudely awakened by a group of men, dragged naked out of bed and all lined up against a wall at the point of a bayonet.…
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Wedding Bells And Wretched Smells: Three Folktales On Courtship, Marriage, And Beyond
So the endless onslaught of toxic positivity and shameless materialism that defines the Christmas season has long since ended but spring is still quite a way off – and further off in Iceland than anywhere else. Even in Scandinavia the crocuses can…
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Not-So-Winter Not-So-Wonderland: A Translation And Summary Of Two Icelandic Folktales On Surviving Until Spring
If you’re reading this, congratulations. You’ve made it past the winter solstice, the darkest part of the year, and the light is already returning as we speak. This is purely a technicality at this point, as the mere seconds of light that…
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Word Of The Issue: A Sip Of Elephant, A Puff Of Camel
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time Elephant is a brand of strong Danish beer, named after said strong animal. Camel is of course a brand of cigarettes, named after said ship of the desert. The usage of…
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Now & Then: The Land’s (New) Hospital
From neoclassical architecture to classical Icelandic problems The older picture is of the oldest building of Landspítalinn, The National University Hospital of Iceland, located by Hringbraut in 101 Reykjavík. The featured picture dates back to 1954, some 25 years after the building…
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Silent Night, Unholy Night
Four folktales for an unnerving Advent If you didn’t already know, Icelandic Christmas folklore is about as dark as Iceland at Christmastime. Surely you already know the season’s cast of characters. These range from the fairly light-hearted Yule Lads, who bring both…
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Word Of The Issue: Big-Fire-Christmas
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For this issue, because it is the season of Christmas, Yule, Santas and various Icelandic children-eating mythical yule creatures, we will attempt to explain a word whose exact meaning and etymology…
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Word Of The Issue: Tone-Play-Travel-Song
Iceland Airwaves is just behind us, so you either caught a weekend of great music or you missed out (in which case, read about everything you missed here). While one of the festival’s main purposes has historically been to platform the local…
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Now And Then: Reclaiming A Music Venue
A building that has been a school, a ballroom, a store and a live venue This house, standing by Austurvöllur, downtown Reykjavík, has, like many a house there, served multiple purposes in the past. It was built for Thora and Páll Melsted…
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Now & Then: The Women’s Strike 50 Years Ago Has Changed Iceland
An initiative that had a meaningful impact On October 24, 1975, 50 years ago this month, 90 percent of all women in Iceland went on strike. Their purpose: to show the importance of women in the workplace. Their demands: Equal pay and…
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Word Of The Issue: Stranded Idiot
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time On the last Monday of September, many a traveller found themself either stuck in Iceland or stuck trying to get to Iceland because Icelandic low-fare airline PLAY announced they were bust.…
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Now & Then: Carriages, Taxis, Busses And Burgers
Hlemmur’s trip from the periphery to the centre Until last year, Hlemmur Square, where Laugavegur meets Rauðarárstígur, served as the major public transport hub for Reykjavík, with a purpose-built building to host commuters since 1978. The square became somewhat notorious early on,…
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Word Of The Issue: Glowing Fruit
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time People often say that the sun is orange. That is not because the sun is actually orange, but because it appears so to us, standing on earth. This is due to…
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Word Of The Issue: Málþóf
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time The Icelandic word málþóf has been on everybody’s lips these past months. Why? Because last spring, the parliamentary opposition in Alþingi engaged in a filibuster in an attempt to block a…
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Now & Then: Prime Jailhouse, Minister Rock
From prison to PM’s offices Marking the beginning of the school year, we wrote in the last issue about the oldest school in Iceland, situated on Lækjargata, in a building from 1846. This time, marking the beginning of a new parliamentary year,…
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Word Of The Issue: Breathing Arrows
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time I’ll be with you in just a minute! Hey, can you wait a moment? Oooone second, I’m on my way! Are you chronically late? Work in customer service? Or sometimes just…
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Now & Then: Schola Reykjavicensis
Educating Iceland’s elite since 1057 Pictured is Lækjargata, home to many of the oldest buildings in Reykjavík, which — perhaps surprisingly — only date back to the latter half of the 18th century, at best, while most of the buildings on the…
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The Grapevine’s Guide To Learning Icelandic
Langar þig að læra íslensku? Whether you’re a polyglot looking for a new fix, a scholar of medieval studies hoping to bolster your résumé, or (probably more likely than the former two) someone who lives in Iceland and just wants to take…
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Word Of The Issue: Ægisif
The Grapevine’s guide to sounding Icelandic, one word at a time For 1,000 years, Iceland has given its own names to various places and geographic locations. Some of these names have stuck. In most cases, they are Icelandic renditions of place names…