History & Language
The Reykjavík Grapevine takes on Iceland’s history, language and related topics
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Listen! It’s Heyrðu’s Time To Shine
The Grapevine’s Guide To Sounding Icelandic, One Word At A Time In many languages, telling someone “Listen!” is a good way to start a fight. Telling bank tellers to listen will get you kicked out, telling the receptionist at the doctors’ office…
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Word Of The Issue: Everything Is Geggjað
The Grapevine’s Guide To Sounding Icelandic, One Word At A Time Learning Icelandic is hard. There are all these cases and genders and rules that even the Icelandic teachers can’t explain the reasoning for. It can be frustrating. And it all feels…
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What If The Nazis Had Invaded Iceland?
Another alternative history thought exercise to wrap your head around What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief…
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What If The Nordic Countries Had United?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if the Nordic countries had united? Keep…
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What If There Had Been a Revolution in Iceland?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if Iceland Had Joined The British Empire?…
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What If… Iceland Had Joined The British Empire?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if Iceland Had Joined The British Empire?…
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What If… Iceland Had Been Wiped Out By A Volcano?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if Iceland had been wiped out by…
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The Rocky Foundation of Law and Order
Travel doesn’t have to entail hitting the road, hopping on a plane or lacing up your hiking boots to trek into remote destinations. There’s something to be said for the staycation, or travelling in time by getting to know the places you…
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What If… Icelanders Had Colonised North America?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if Icelanders had colonised North America? Keep…
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Ask an Expert: How the fuck do Icelanders Swear?
As much as it’s discouraged by our elders, curse words tend to sneak into the vocabularies of most people at some point in their lives. Icelanders are no exception. However, given that Icelandic is one of the older languages still spoken,…
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What If… The Vikings Had Conquered The World?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended question and one friend of the Grapevine Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight relevant-to-Iceland historical happenings over as many issues. Expand your mind, suspend your disbelief and consider: what if Vikings had conquered the world? Keep…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: Flatus Lifir Enn
Probably The World’s Longest Running Fart Joke On the road between Reykjavík and the North stands a wall that should be entirely non-descript. The vertical expanse of concrete was erected in the 1970s to protect the nearby section of Route 1 from…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: Police Try To Buy Machine Guns From Norway
On October 21st, 2014, Icelanders woke to the news that the Icelandic police had acquired an arsenal of MP5 machine guns and Glock 17 semiautomatics. While this might not be news in many other countries, Icelandic police are known for not carrying…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: The 1949 NATO Riots
Iceland has been a part of NATO for as long as most generations can remember, and will likely stay there for some time to come. Even the sole existing political party that used to call for Iceland’s withdrawal from the organisation–the Left-Greens–have…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: President Refuses To Sign Law
The president of Iceland used to be a largely ceremonial position. All we ever expected of our heads of state was to carry themselves regally, take foreign dignitaries to Gulfoss and Þingvellir, and put their signature on the laws Parliament passed. A…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: Klettagos
In December 2010, a newly minted beverage company called Gosverksmiðjan Klettur launched Klettagos, an Icelandic soft drink that looked and tasted much like internationally-available dark colas like Coke or Pepsi. They boasted being able to sell the soda for less than Coke…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: The Bónus Flag at The Parliament
This moment has a pretty unique stand in this writer’s mind, as I witnessed it take place. I was a young journalist when it happened in 2008 and I remember the tension it presented, which I tried to explain in an article…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: The Smurf Porn Incident
It was on a cold day in January 1992 when an unsuspecting mother rented the newest Smurf Movie for her darling children. The mother found the movie in the rack, somewhere between Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ and Whoopi Goldbergs’ ‘Sister Act’. The Smurf movie…
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Great Moments In Icelandic History: “Why is everyone feeding the bird of prey?”
Election night in Iceland, 2016. The nation is still smarting from the Panama Papers scandal that collapsed the government and prompted these elections. But as the results came in, it became clear that the Independence Party—despite several of its members, including current…
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Just Sayings: Shock And Rain
Do you remember that scene in, well, every movie, when there is a funeral and it’s pouring rain? Well, Icelanders have a saying for that. „Oft kemur regn eftir reiðarsalag“ translates literally to “there is often rain after a shock/tragedy.” [su_pullquote]What are…
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Just Sayings: On With the Butter
There are a few ways to carry on. You could do it like a proper Englishman and keep calm at the same time. [su_pullquote]Join our High Five Club at either the ‘Secret Handshake’ or ‘Elbow Five’ level, and get our monthly magazine…
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Saga Stories #10: What Happened On Drangey Island?
Join Dr Matthew Roby for an extra special episode of Saga Stories about the famous Grettis saga sterka, known in English as “The Saga of Grettir the Strong.” Grettir is an extremely complicated hero: sometimes kind and honourable, sometimes lazy and rude,…
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Saga Stories #9: Berserks and Zombies in Eyrbyggja Saga
Join Dr Matthew Roby on another trip to the majestic Snæfellsnes peninsula for the second of two videos about Eyrbyggja saga. This saga depicts more supernatural phenomena than most others of the same genre, and this video looks at two such episodes:…