What do you know about Iceland and Icelanders?
By isasice
@isasice (2015)
Iceland
14 responses
@jeandk (402)
• Denmark
12 Nov 06
I would really like to visit Iceland someday. I find it a very fascinating country because of the history (Iceland have been a part of Denmark) and geology.
I have met Icelanders here in Denmark, and is quite fascinated by the language - I even tried to learn a few words, but don't ask me as i don't remember !
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
12 Nov 06
Lol, I can't blame you for not remembering the Icelandic words you learned. I studied Danish for 10 years and can hardly remember a word of it.
You should check it out. It's easy to fly from Copenhagen with either Icelandair www.icelandair.dk www.icelandair.com or with Icelandexpress, www.icelandexpress.dk www.icelandexpress.com or www.icelandexpress.is
1 person likes this
@braveheartpt (3037)
• Portugal
20 Nov 06
Yes and I´m one of those, you makes a very big mess between Iceland, Finland and Norway. In an earlier comment to one of yours discussions I told you that I loved to visit Finland, lol. Sorry for the confusion.I know that you are a small near artic country, an Island. I really like to meat that countries near Artic. My father went to Norway and we was enchanted by the beautiful of Norway. I guess that these artic countries and yours are similar, hope I could visit your country someday.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
11 Nov 06
Unfortunately I know very little about either.
Of course I know the very basics, such as Reykjavik being the capital and it is roughly NNE of the UK, I also have a pictuesque view taken at Jokulsarlon which I occasionally use as a desktop wallpaper, but this is very general and tells me nothing of the culture and the people.
The climate is obviouly far colder than mine because I understand than Iceland is very close to the Arctic Circle, so with a heritage that includes the Viking settlers the Icelanders must be a hardy race.
It is reading posts such as yours that makes me realise just how limited my understanding of other cultures and traditions is, despite us claiming to be a "Global Village".
1 person likes this
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
11 Nov 06
Yes, Iceland is near the artic circle but it doesn't get as cold as most people think because of the gulf stream (don't ask me to explain how the gulf stream helps lol). The average temperature in January is normally a lot higher in Reykjavik Iceland than it is in New York.
You are from the UK right? Did you know that Icelanders now own a large share of UK department stores and are also becoming quite large in the UK bank industry? We might be small but we do big things :).
1 person likes this
@DeenaD (2684)
• United States
11 Nov 06
I've read that the Iclandic language preserves many of the features of the ancient Norse language of the people who settled there, so that the Iclandic language today is very similar to the language of the Vikings, while the European languages deriving from Old Norse (Swedish, Danish and Norwegian) have lost many of these old features as they evolved. Is this true?
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
11 Nov 06
Yes, this is very true. We have always taken good care of our language and we usually don't adopt slang from English or other languages when we need new words. We have a special comittee that makes up new words that fit into our language and they have done amasing work with all the new words for computers, internet and all the new technology. We can still read the old Viking language even though it has changed a bit.
The language that is closest to Icelandic today is Faroese but I only understand it in writing. Their prononciation is very different from ours
1 person likes this
@dorypanda (1601)
•
17 Nov 06
Well, I know it's cold and not all Icelanders have fire places. ;)
If I remember correctly the capital is Reikavick (sorry,I'm sure I've misspelt that). Magnuss Magnussen came from there too I think, sorry, I don't know much more than that.
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
17 Nov 06
:). Unfortunately not many Icelanders have fire places. I think the reason might be that we use geothermal heat to heat our houses so there isn' really much use for them
Yes, the capital is Reykjavik and Magnus Magnusson is pure Icelandic even though he moved to Scotland very young.
@margieanneart (26423)
• United States
11 Nov 06
Sorry, I don't know anything about it.
1 person likes this
@creativedreamweaver (7297)
• United States
11 Nov 06
My fiance was stationed there for a while. He liked it, but didn't like the cold. He really like the people though.
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
11 Nov 06
Was he only here during the winter? I always find it funny when Americans talk about how cold Iceland is because I have never experienced as extreme cold as I did when I lived in the US.
You should ask him to take you over for a visit. Everything has changed a lot since he was here, the navy base is gone now. Ask him if he ever went to the Blue Lagoon www.bluelagoon.com.
1 person likes this
@isasice (2015)
• Iceland
17 Nov 06
I have heard of Múm but really have no idea who they are. Sigur Rós have been quite popular internationally but I don't particularly like them.
It surprises me that nobody has mentioned Björk, she's usualy the first person anyone asks about when I tell them I'm Icelandic lol.
