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Give Trash Another Chance
Everyone wants to recycle. Especially in 2016. It was your New Year’s resolution, remember? Sure you do. But, it can get confusing. “Where do the jam jars go?” “Is there a special thing for cork?” “What do I do with all these…
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“RASSGAT” – Ragnar Egilsson Explains Words!
So we have a word, which is this word: “rassgat”. It 100% literally means “asshole”, as in “the hole part of the general ass area”. But unlike “asshole” in English, the word is never used to refer to a person that is…
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Wintern Diaries #2: ‘Tis The Season
Winter is kind of scary, especially on this ungodly, windy, hella random rock in the middle of the ocean. Even moreso when even the sun hides its sweet face for months at a time. So after hearing horror stories about three-hour days,…
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Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoða RECAP: The One With The Goddamn Horse
This Saga begins the same way Iceland did, and the same way many Sagas do: some Norwegian guy (this one is named Hallfreður) settles his family in Iceland to farm. Welcome to Iceland, Hallfreður. All this would normally be fine, but it…
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Wintern Diaries #1: SADwatch
Winter is kind of scary, especially on this ungodly windy, hella random rock in the middle of the ocean. And it’s even scarier when the sun all but vanishes from the heavens above. So after hearing and sharing horror stories about three-hour…
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So What’s This I Hear About Bankers Defunding Poets?
In 2011, a teacher named Þórarinn Hannesson established the Poetry House (“Ljóðasetur”) in Siglufjörður, a small fishing hamlet up north. Its operations have been mostly funded by the founder himself, with the help of various private donors. The largest of those, a…
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UNCOVERED: Gerri Griswold’s Sordid Affair With Iceland!
If you happen to find yourself in Winchester, Connecticut at just the right time this month, you can observe some bona fide Icelandic horses grazing below the autumnal foliage as you chew on a strip of authentic harðfiskur while taking in the…
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Meet Two Icelanders Who Want You To Eat A Bunch Of Crickets
Best friends Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson and Stefán Atli Thoroddsen have been tight since they first met up in secondary school. All grown up now, the duo are getting ready to commence mass production of what they call a “Jungle Bar,” which is…
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NOT SCARY: Meet The Icelandic Company Working On Artificial Intelligence
The Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines (IIIM) might be the next tech company to make international headlines. Boasting an impressive staff of computer scientists, physicists and electronics engineers, IIIM is currently and actively working on creating machines that possess artificial intelligence. The…
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Case Study: Ísafjörður As Safe Haven For Persecuted Families
In 1996, the people of Ísafjarðarbær welcomed thirty refugees into their community with open arms. After a period of preparation, six families of mixed Serbian and Croatian marriages from former Yugoslavia arrived to take shelter in the relatively small (pop. 3,500) fishing…
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That Time The United States Was Thinking Of Buying Iceland
“The population of Iceland is about 70,000, but in view of its pasture and arable lands, its valuable mines, its splendid fisheries, and its unsurpassed hydraulic power, it could, when fully developed, sustain a population exceeding 1,000,000. It has been greatly neglected…
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Love In The Land Of The Midnight Sun
It’s nearing four o‘clock and the boys at the bar are tearing their shirts off. Bare chests multiply on the dance floor like drunken amoeba—three, four, five. This is a high-stakes game and all stops are pulled. You don’t go gently into…
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Screaming Jumpers
There are not many things that scream “cultural heritage” as loudly as the humble Icelandic woollen sweater or “lopapeysa” as us natives refer to it. Having one on is like wearing knitted Iceland. It resembles the country’s rugged nature and reminds us of…