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Ask An Expert: Why do Icelanders Honour The Dead on Christmas?
We turned to a historian and a cemetery curator for answers If you’ve ever spent the holiday season in Iceland and have walked around the urban areas, you’ve probably noticed how bright and colourful not just the homes of the living are,…
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Ask An Expert: What Makes An Icelandic Ghost?
We asked a folklorist for all the spooky details The autumn air is crisp and the darkness is creeping back in. What better way to embrace the coming long night than to delve into Icelandic ghost stories? We have a bunch of…
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Ask An Expert: What Is Traditional Icelandic Music?
We asked a folk musician for answers With Iceland Airwaves just behind us, it is nice to take a moment to contemplate and appreciate the role music has long played on this island. But what do Iceland’s musical roots look like? Or…
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What’s The Deal With Icelandic Poetry?
We turned to a literature professor for answers Icelandic poetry is alive and well – as a quick glance at the current cultural scene will tell you – and frankly, it is rather impressive how it has remained so vibrant and culturally…
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How Will (Or Won’t) Climate Change Affect The Weather In Iceland?
What’s the easiest way to distinguish an Icelander from a tourist downtown? Easy. Icelanders have long given up dressing for the weather. What’s the point? It keeps changing over the day anyway, so you might as well feel cool in a jean…
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What Was The Purpose Of Witchcraft In Iceland?
You can summon money using a stolen coin, an ancient symbol drawn upon the skin of a black wildcat, a sea mouse and the menstrual blood of a virgin. Yes, all these things together will make you rich. So says an old…
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What’s Nibbling On Iceland’s Forests?
Tree growth in Iceland has risen almost exponentially in the last few decades. In part due rather unfortunately to rising temperatures, but also because of proactive reforestation efforts. Taller trees and thicker forests are good for the environment and create new living…
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How Did Reykjavík Pride Begin?
Iceland enjoys one of the queer friendliest reputations in the world and it just so happens that another Pride festival is happening as this issue goes to print. But how did such a small nation in the middle of the North Atlantic…
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Ask An Expert: What Happened To The Trains In Iceland?
We turned to Árbær Open Air Museum for answers Public transport certainly is…a thing in Iceland if the nice yellow buses are any indication – although most people seem to prefer getting stuck downtown in the comfort of their own car. We…
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Ask An Expert: Why Are There More Conspiracies Than Murders?
One of the joys of researching birds is the group names one comes across. So, while we are able to observe many conspiracies of ravens in Iceland, murders of crows are comparatively few despite the feathered fiends nesting in the same corvid…
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Ask An Expert: How Did Vikings Fight?
We found out from a real life Jarl Vikings are cool. They are rough and tough, the epitome of badass-itude and fearlessness, banging their shields and screaming at their enemies. And that’s not even to mention those fabulously big, bushy beards many…
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What’s up with the Icelandic Punk Museum?
We went to the curator for answers It’s a staple on Bankastræti — and pretty hard to miss with its signs, posters, graffiti and speakers blaring symphonies of dissatisfied rage rockers. The Icelandic Punk Museum (Pönksafn Íslands) is both a curiosity and…
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Ask An Expert: What Makes Icelandic Moss So Special?
We turned to an ecology professor for answers Icelandic Moss is frequently advertised for its high nutritional value and health benefits. People love to slap the name on their cooking herbs or cough pastilles to make sure you know that you’re getting…
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Ask An Expert: What’s Up With The Squirrel In The World Tree?
Mythology is kind of quirky. A lot of the elements people came up with to explain the universe seem really random. Like a squirrel that runs up and down a giant magical tree that connects different worlds. Where did it come from?…
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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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Ask An Expert: How Do Geysers Erupt?
Geysers are some of the most popular natural phenomena to be observed and studied — there’s just something fun about seeing the Earth let out a great big belch every once in a while. But how and why do geysers erupt? We…
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Ask an Expert: What Influences the Strength of the Northern Lights?
The magical beauty of the northern lights draws lots of people to Iceland. In fact, a whole lot of people plan their entire trips around the forecasted activity. So when are the Aurora Borealis at their strongest? And what, if anything, influences…
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Ask An Expert: Are there more than 13 Yule Lads?
With Christmas on the horizon, we can once again look forward to visits from our favourite holiday tricksters . But the thirteen Yule Lads we know and love today were not the only ones lurking in the mountains back in the day.…
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Ask An Expert: Why Are Icelandic Houses So Colourful?
If you’ve ever walked down Hverfisgata, or any street in Iceland for that matter, you’ve probably noticed a wide range of house colours. Vibrant greens, blues, purples—you name it, there’s a house in that colour. While we appreciate the architectural rainbow, we…
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Ask An Expert: Why Do Icelanders Switch Their ‘W’s And ‘V’s In English?
If you’ve spent time speaking English with an Icelander, you may have noticed some of their letters get mixed up. Somehow ‘vikings’ become ‘wikings’ and ‘west’ becomes ‘vest.’ We were curious if there is a scientific–or better yet, linguistic–answer to this consonant…
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Ask An Expert: Why Are Icelandic Horses So Important To Icelanders?
If you have ever driven through the Icelandic countryside, you have likely caught glimpses of majestic Icelandic horses standing in farmers’ fields. Perhaps your first introduction to Iceland was its special equine. But what makes the Icelandic horse so special and culturally…
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Ask An Expert: Why Isn’t Glass Recycled In Iceland?
The majority of apartment buildings in Reykjavík only have trash bins for mixed waste, plastic, and paper. “Where do wine bottles go?”—wonder those coming from other places. This question has puzzled Grapevine’s expat journalists for months, too. We reached out to Jamie…
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Ask An Expert: Why Don’t Icelandic People Have Family Names?
You wouldn’t mistake an Icelandic person for someone else. Their surnames give them away immediately, or rather the lack of them. Icelanders have a long tradition of using patronymic or matronymic names, but can you really say that there are no family…