And now you’ve completely lost me - but I assume a good luck would be in order 
SCA stands for the Society for Creative Anachronism. Essentially, it’s a historical reenactment group. I’m not a member, but I’m sure that aruvqan can explain it in further detail.
Aha! That black hole of ignorance in my head just gets smaller and smaller.
Sounds kinda cool - I need to check it out.
Leaving aside the handball, how can a country with a population roughly that of Leicester have such clout? It seems like half the British high street, and West Ham Utd FC of course, is owned by Icelandic banks these days.
I read somewhere that Iceland is a “hedge fund masquerading as a country”, talking about the country’s liberal banking laws, I guess. I didn’t really understand it, to be honest, but it seemed to suggest that a ton of speculative and possibly dirty money from places like Russia was flowing through Iceland, hence the country’s apparent prosperity.
Is there confidence that Iceland’s recent economic prosperity is sustainable? I see that the ISK has been dropping like a stone recently, and inflation is pretty bad.
SCA=Society for Creative Anachronism. A group of historical recreators. I noramally play a shu-nu-shi mongolian named Aruvqan, or an Alexandrian ROman named Hyapatia Didius, or an elizabethan londoner named Margali [yes i know that is not an english name, bite me=)]
I like that pronunciation=)
Wardec - one corporation declared war on my corporation - declaration or war = wardec =) It means that they can kill me in what would normally be an area that is considered safe with impunity.
I might want to see if your cousin can come keep me safe sometime while I am mining in a lower security area … sigh titans are the hand of God wreaking vengence on people with lesser equipment.
Tech 1 is sort of like a mauser model 93 bolt action rifle
Tech 2 is an HK G3…you will really be in a world of hurt much faster and with less reloading =)
what I am flying right now, an omen cruiser is rowboat with a handgun and your cousins titan is the USS Iowa.
My father’s name IS William so had I been born in Iceland I’d be stuck with (something unknown) Vilhjálmsdóttir?
Ouch. 
I have a cousin named that, she was called Heidi growing up.
Yeah, me too. 
Thanks for reopening another fantasy of mine, moving to Iceland. Now my 50 year old mid life crisis questions.
How hard is it to find a job that can support living? By this I mean can I get a job tending bar, pumping gas, working at a 7-11 or Walmart (someone please translate 7-11 and Walmart to Icelandic for me) that will be enough to afford rent, food and clothes and drink?
How are cigarettes viewed? I quit a year ago but just a curious question. Here in New Jersey smokers are practically treated as lepers.
How much is rent/real estate? Links to real estate sites? (yeah, I could google but you might know the better ones)
Weed?
Cars, do you have cars that are at least a little bit fun to drive? I have an old Miata now, could I ship it there for me to use? Yeah, I know, it’s an MX-5, I have snow tires and a hardtop…
Any other links local to you that I (we) wouldn’t come across googling that would be interesting?
Thanks
And my father’s name is William as well. That’s why I chose the example.
We should form a club.
So the ‘ur’ is an ending or something, not part of the name?
I thought that Ð was used for the voiced TH sound (that, there), and Þ was used for the unvoiced TH sound (thin, thistle). Is that not true?
What format are your license plates? Ours in Ontario are LLLL NNN (on regular passenger cars) in the standard North American shape (where L is a letter A-Z, and N is a number 0-9, with some exceptions). Plus of course there are the personalised plates, which have up to eight characters of whatever you can convince the Ministry of Transport to allow. Commercial vehicles, motorcycles, and other vehicles have different combinations. I saw one last week that was BDZO plus three numbers, and of course I immediately thought ‘BOZO’…
And nashiitashii, a Dopefest in Reykjavik would be cool. Icelandair opened direct service from Toronto last spring… if I’d had the money, I would have gone to the UK via Iceland this past July.
There are a number of Dopers in the SCA, and some of them have posted magnificent pictures of themselves in their finery. Robes, mail, swords…
Since nobody else has bitten, here is the link to the SCA website, along with the Map of the Knowne World. Iceland, along with most of Europe, is in the kingdom of Drachenwald.
I spent 16 months at Keflavík, thanks to the Navy. I must say I enjoyed myself immensely despite it being a bit chilly to my taste. I have told people that when I was hiking, it was the only place I’d drunk from a stream without a qualm.
When I was watching The Two Towers and the fellowship rode into Edoras, I literally sat bolt upright and exclaimed, “Iceland!” Except for a few differences (horse heads instead of dragon heads on the crossed valences, for example) the art directors lifted the look directly from Iceland 200 years, or so, ago. Did you have the same reaction?
Hello WormTheRed!
My Mom was born in Canada, but both her parents were originally from Iceland. She grew up speaking Icelandic with her family at home, and English in school. She never taught her kids to speak Icelandic because that was the language she and her sisters spoke in when they didn’t want the kids to know what they were saying.
She has told me in past, when explaining how languages are the same, but a little different, that the saying “Necessity is the mother of invention” more directly translates from Icelandic into English as " A naked woman soon learns how to knit." I’ve always wondered, is this is true, or was she just putting me on?
Your mom wasn’t originally from the Prairies by any chance, was she? I seem to recall reading of a lot of Icelandic settlement there during the late 19th century, and possibly the influence continued.
There was very much confidence - until the ISK started dropping and inflation picked up again (now at 15%). And with the central-bank rate at 14,5% (if memory serves me right), people are really holding on to their money.
To describe what’s really behind and how we’ve managed to buy half of Fleet Street would be fit for a Doctor’s Thesis. But here’s the crash-course:
[ul]
[li]* Corporate laws and taxation was improved (from the corporate pow)[/li][li]* The Banks could offer cheap cash, when inflation was lower and central-bank rates the same.[/li][li]* Cross-owning of companies made it easy to transfer money from one company to another by means of share-exchanging. Thus reducing taxes.*[/li][/ul]
But it all really started in the early 90.s when the Government started selling of it’s companies. Everything from fisheries to banks got privatized and often at rock-bottom prices, giving those who bought free money to invest in other areas. And when there were no cheap areas left in Iceland - they went abroad.
The Russian mob connection is very vague and limited at the most. It surely hasn’t been such an influx of capitol to have changed the system.
*Hard to describe in a bullet-point, but that’s the general picture.
I’m familiar with both 7-11 and Walmart, so no need to translate 
But it would be 10-11 and Hagkaup.
Depends on how and where you want to live. If you’re satisfied with a down-town room with a shared bathroom and kitchen, you can get by ok with a job like that. Many young (late teens early twenties) people come to Iceland to work for a year and they usually live like that.
No smoking in bars or restaurants (or stores and so on), but no general stigma against smokers.
I live in a 60 m2 apartment with 2 rooms, kitchen and bathroom. It’s smack dab downtown and I pay a monthly rent of 115k ISK ($ 1280). That includes heating but everything else is extra.
Some sites:
Morgunblaðið - the biggest newspaper in Iceland and this their real estate ads.
Leiga.is - places for rent
You’ll want to look at zip-codes as close to 101 (downtown) and fjölbýli (condos and apartments)
Weed is not very popular. We like our booze.
If you with fun to drive mean “fast and the furious”-style cars, keep in mind that the maximum speed limit is 60 mph and we don’t have any highways. So there aren’t all that many cars of that type on the roads.
If you with fun to drive mean offroad - we’ve got plenty 
And you could take your car with you. There are some people who make a living out of importing used cars from the states for resale here, but I’m not certain on the rules and regulations.
Morgunblaðið - the main newspaper
Icelandic Online - an online course in basic Icelandic
Icelandair- the main Airline
Iceland Express - the cheap Airline
Bláa Lónið - the best SPA
and a Horse Farm
And you’re welcome.
It’s part of the name in nominative. The words change according to their declinations.
For example:
Here is Hestur (Horse)
About Hest
From Hesti
To Hests
The main rule is that Ð is always in the middle of a word and Þ in the beginning. I’d say the Þ is a thus and the ð is although. I’m really not comfortable diving to much into grammar-discussions as my knowledge is pretty much based in instinct.
Two letters and three numbers was the standard. But as we’ve run out of combos for that, it’s now three letters and two numbers. Set up as in this example. Blue numbers means company-car (no VAT) and black mean normal car.
Then you can personalize your plates as long as it’s not indecent or too long. My favourite would be the blonde babe in the huge SUV who had “GLD DGR”
Yeah - worth telling ya’ll is that Icelandair offers you to take a night or two in Reykjavik on their transatlantic flights, without any extra hassle.
Cool. Now I need to picture-hunt.
Thanks for the links! I’ll be sure to make the most of them.
I find that an awesome thing to be able to do! Not many places left where you can do that.
That’s my biggest let-down with LOTR. Iceland would’ve been brilliant for Middle Earth - we have it all! And it would’ve been much grimmer, grayer and better
But 200 years ago? Let’s make it 12-13th century and I’m with you
Well that’s one reason not to teach kids a language. A bad one, but one.
Neiðin kennir naktri konu að spinna.
Yup - that’s quite correct. And it has the same meaning
Do you mean “T” or “Th” for “Þ”? I’ve always seen it as “Th”, as in Thórhallur etc. It also sometimes seems to get transcribed as “P”, but I’m sure that’s just a mistake due to the similar letter shapes. (e.g. Googling “Pingvellir”) comes up with over 19,000 hits!
The letter “ð” just seems to get replaced with “d”, as in Eiður Guðjohnsen, the Barcelona and ex-Chelsea football player, who has “GUDJOHNSEN” on his shirt.
Which brings me to another question: From Wikipedia, Eiður “is the son of Arnór Guðjohnsen, a former professional footballer”. So why is he not Eiður Arnorsson? Can you “opt out” of the patonymic naming and use a family surname?
Oh and a nitpick:
Accents, not apostrophes.