Yup - if you speak any other Nordic language, just put -ur after it and you’re speaking Icelandic 
I’m afraid I can’t comment on that. You need a Top-Security or National Emergency-clearance to find that out.
Or - I just haven’t got a clue. I don’t know that specific song.
I want an Icelandic name! My real name is Eleanor–lay one on me.
I was going to ask about the Northern Lights–when do they start for you? How big is Christmas as a holiday?
I’ll ditch the bike and walk around instead. Are there museums that tell about your history, both natural and cultural? Were there ever any indigineous peoples on Iceland? Can you hook me up with a spare Viking? I like tall men… not too much facial hair. 
It sounds fantastic and I want to go. Stupid no money or time… grrrr.
We´ll just shorten it to Elín - or Elín Eyr
Christmas is the biggest family holiday of the year. We sit down for Christmas dinner at 18:00 on the 24.th and afterwards we do the presents thing.
The Northern Lights start when it’s cold enough. Usually you can see them once in a while from November through February.
Good choice Quite a few museums in down-town, that go into different segments. I haven’t been to any of them in a long time (well, it’s kindoffa tourist thing to do yanow ) but I hear some of them are supposed to be pretty decent.
We are the indigenous population. The (almost*) first and the only ones dumb enough to stick around for a thousand years
And what about this Icelandic Viking?
*Some Irish monks I wrote about earlier, but they left.
I agree - why do never money and time match up 
I love this thread! I’ve done a bit of research myself after reading your answers and wanting to know more, and my ignorance has been fought!
I’d love an Icelandic name too.
jali cook.
I’m glad you like it! I’m having a great time, so just keep those questions coming..
Jali… Jóna… nah, I´d go for Erla
And then your fathers name with daughter at the end (so not Cook)
I want an Icelandic name too!
My real name is Scott. Can you get me an Icelandic name with an eth or thorn? Ever since I discovered them when my sister studied Old English at university, I’ve lamented that we let those letters disappear from English. Or should I say, “ðat we let ðose letters dasappear from English”.
More minor questions…
Is there public transport in Reykjavík?
How does the whole State Church thing work, especially since you said that Iceland is culturally mostly secular? Do you pay taxes to support it? (In Canada, religion is common, but very much a private, family thing. Politicians who stress religion as part of their qualifications tend to be mocked.)
My uncle came from Sweden, so that side of the family has names like Eric, Linda, and Ingrid. Are those common Icelandic names as well?
And how do I work a þ or ð into Scott You could be Styrmir, or just Þórður if you really want those letters 
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More minor questions…
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There are no minor questions - I’ll answer all and everything that I know about (and the other stuff I’ll do my best on)
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Is there public transport in Reykjavík?
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Yes, there are buses in the greater Reykjavik area - they suck.
An example:
It takes me 10-15 minutes to drive to work. It would take me a little under an hour to go by bus (which includes changing buses once).
The main problem with the buses is that they go too seldom so therefore nobody uses them. Therefore they don’t make enough money and they have to cut lines, so even fever people use them and so on… The municipalities need to realise that for buses to be a realistic option, they need to set up a nice system that covers most areas most of the time and then wait a while until people realise that it works.
No patience for that.
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How does the whole State Church thing work, especially since you said that Iceland is culturally mostly secular? Do you pay taxes to support it? (In Canada, religion is common, but very much a private, family thing. Politicians who stress religion as part of their qualifications tend to be mocked.)
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It’s generally assumed that you’re a secular christian and that you celebrate Christmas, Easter, Confirmations and all that. But if you go overboard with it, people may look at you weirdly. So basically, the same way it seems to be in Canada.
I actually haven’t heard of any politicians stating their religious beliefs openly, which is the way it should be.
And yeah - the State gives the Church money, but there’s no specified post on my pay-check that says “church-tax”.
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My uncle came from Sweden, so that side of the family has names like Eric, Linda, and Ingrid. Are those common Icelandic names as well?
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Eric = Eiríkur (kinda common)
Linda = Linda (unusual)
Ingrid = Ingibjörg (kinda common)
Icelandic names can be split into two groups:
Christian names: Maria, Anna, Jóhannes, Markús, Pétur
Old Norse names: Sigfús, Baldur, Arnar, Guðbjörg, Sigrún
Is that pronounced like El/len?
We do too. And then we have the stockings on Xmas day. I’d fit right in!
But you all came from Scandinavia, hence my viking reference (you may differentiate amongst yourselves, to me you’re all Vikings). Is there something like the book of Kells (those damned literate Irish monks)? Are there neolithic settlements–mounds and such?
Too true.
Eelín, but with a soft e like in electricity and then just in as in in. (damn, my phonetic explanation sucks)
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We do too. And then we have the stockings on Xmas day. I’d fit right in!
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No stockings on Christmas day. But 9 days before Christmas the Santa Clauses (yes, we have 9 of them) start heading into town and put toys in shoes kids put in the windows.
Santa doesn’t show up and puts the gifts under the trees (well, he didn’t use to before all those movies started showing up ) and kids get their presents from the person who’s on the label
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But you all came from Scandinavia, hence my viking reference (you may differentiate amongst yourselves, to me you’re all Vikings). Is there something like the book of Kells (those damned literate Irish monks)? Are there neolithic settlements–mounds and such?
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Yeah, we are. And we’re all (reformed) Vikings
So there was no previous long-term population before they came in 856 (±5 years).
9Santas?
what in god’s name do you do with 9 of them? (I liked your Santa costume, btw). Your customs sound like a blend of UK, Holland and Scandinavia–which sounds about right, really.
Eelin…I like it. Is it old Norse? Does it mean anything? Eleanor is a derivation of Helen and means light. That’s me–your lil ray o’ sunshine!
I must admit to being somewhat appalled at the public transport situation. Is there a Tube? Doubt it…
Þórður. I like that. Makes me want to take my battle axe to the gym.
Bother.
Secular Christian? Interesting–I hadn’t heard that expression before. Only the Christian believers would go to Confirmation here, I think.
Here, you can’t assume anything about a person’s religion. Every week I speak with Christians, Neo-Pagans, Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Shintoists, Buddhists, and native Americans, and I have no idea what the Somalians and Mainland Chinese believe.
Here, we celebrate the non-religious Christmas with the tree and presents and everything, and only Christian believers (e. g. my sister) go to church on that day. Other popular celebrations include Halloween (candy, costume parties, dressing up as scary stuff), Easter (bunnies, candy eggs, a celebration of spring–again, only the Christian believers go to church for it), Groundhog Day (rodent looks at shadow, predicts whether winter will last for six more weeks), and New Years Day (stay up till midnight, get drunk–they run the buses till 4am even in the suburbs so that partiers can get home).
I guess you could say that some popular celebrations are slowly splitting off from their Christian ancestors. In addition, new popular celebrations are appearing like Chinese New Year and Diwali, brought to Canada by immigrant communities.
Actual statutory holidays, as in “days off from work”, include Christmas, New Year’s Day, Family Day, Victoria Day, the August Civic Holiday (which goes by different names in different localities), Canada Day, and Labour Day.
What are the popular celebrations and the statutory holidays in Iceland?
:: nods ::
Interesting. If we do that at all, and I have no idea if it’s true, it would be under ‘cultural funding’, alongside painters and theatre. With one big exception: for historical reasons, the Province of Ontario supports Catholic schools in addition to the public schools (which started out as Protestant, but lost that a century ago). People are divided about this; some want to extend public funding to all religious schools, and some want to end funding of the Catholic schools.
Do you teach any religion in your schools?
Cool.
Is/was he (Magnus ver Magnusson) as big a celebrity as I imagine him to be? Growing up in England everybody (well, every schoolboy) knew who Geoff Capes was, and I think he was only World’s Strongest Man once.
You are definitely fluent in English, by the way- I don’t know if you left that out of your list because it’s obvious, or what.
I bookmarked this thread yesterday and I have enjoyed reading it very much. I finally have some questions.
What are the favorite sports there?
Is Iceland mostly villages with one or two cities or are there more urban areas?
What kind of industry does Iceland have? What is the employment situation like?
They used to be evil bastards who snuck down from the mountains before christmas to steal things and vandalise stuff (Therefore they have names like, Candlestealer, Sausagenabber, Polelong, Sneaky (bad translations, but that’s the general idea)). But lately, they’ve reformed and instead sneak away from their troll mom and dad to give kids presents (or potatoes if they misbehave).
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Eelin…I like it. Is it old Norse? Does it mean anything? Eleanor is a derivation of Helen and means light. That’s me–your lil ray o’ sunshine!
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Elín also comes from Helen - so you get to keep your meaning
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I must admit to being somewhat appalled at the public transport situation. Is there a Tube? Doubt it…
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With the ground being as active as it is (geothermally and earthquakes), I for one, would never set my foot in a Tube-system here
Be sure to check local laws first
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Secular Christian? Interesting–I hadn’t heard that expression before. Only the Christian believers would go to Confirmation here, I think.
Here, you can’t assume anything about a person’s religion. Every week I speak with Christians, Neo-Pagans, Muslims, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Shintoists, Buddhists, and native Americans, and I have no idea what the Somalians and Mainland Chinese believe.
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It’s most likely since everybody who looks Nordic (which is 90% of everybody) is baptized Christian.
It doesn’t really come into play on a daily basis. Nobody cares. And nobody goes to church except for the aforementioned reasons.
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I guess you could say that some popular celebrations are slowly splitting off from their Christian ancestors. In addition, new popular celebrations are appearing like Chinese New Year and Diwali, brought to Canada by immigrant communities.
Actual statutory holidays, as in “days off from work”, include Christmas, New Year’s Day, Family Day, Victoria Day, the August Civic Holiday (which goes by different names in different localities), Canada Day, and Labour Day.
What are the popular celebrations and the statutory holidays in Iceland?
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I’d really like to have some more cool holidays - but we’re slowly getting there with more and more immigrants coming.
The days we get off are:
24-26/12 (Christmas)
31/12-1-1 (New Years)
Thursday through Monday in Easter
3.d Thursday of April - First Day of Summer (yeah right)
Ascension Day
1 of May - Labour Day
Whitsunday and monday
17 of June - Independence Day (take that you Danes :p)
1.st Monday in August - Merchants Weekend
Damn - that’s not nearly enough
Most of these involve meeting family and heavy partying (not combined). New Years Eve usually ends sometime in the early mornings of New Years Day, which most nights out do actually (there’s no regulated closing time for pubs and night-clubs).
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Interesting. If we do that at all, and I have no idea if it’s true, it would be under ‘cultural funding’, alongside painters and theatre. With one big exception: for historical reasons, the Province of Ontario supports Catholic schools in addition to the public schools (which started out as Protestant, but lost that a century ago). People are divided about this; some want to extend public funding to all religious schools, and some want to end funding of the Catholic schools.
Do you teach any religion in your schools?Cool.
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Yes - it even used to be called “Christianity” when I went to elementary school (almost 20 years ago). Not sure what they call it these days, but back then it was pretty much only about Christianity.
And NO - creationism and ID doesn’t get touched, even with a twelve foot pole. Not anywhere.
I think I wrote I was pretty good at English, but thanks
Everybody knows of him, but Jón Páll Sigmarsson is the one that stands out. He was the first and therefore the most famous!
Jón Páll won 4 times and Magnús Ver 4 times - cool
(ah, and worty saying is that most people are known by their first names. So our prez isn’t Mr. Grímsson, he’s President Ólafur Ragnar)
So Ver is an “active” part of his name? Whoops. I had always assumed it was Icelandic for “of” or “from”, like the Dutch van, French de/du, etc.
Thank you. Glad you enjoy it.
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What are the favorite sports there?
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At the moment Handball (with the Olympic silver and all), but Football (soccer) is usually the most talked about outside the major championships. The Premier League has a “huge” followship here with people mostly going for 'Pool, ManU and Chelsky. Golf has the most licensed players though (for obvious age reasons).
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Is Iceland mostly villages with one or two cities or are there more urban areas?
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Iceland is pretty much a city-state with the Greater Reykjavik Area having 2/3 of the population. The second largest area is around Akureyri (in the North) which has 30k inhabitants.
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What kind of industry does Iceland have? What is the employment situation like?
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I’ve touched on the employment situation before, but we are going from brilliant mega boom times into some hardship right now. Unemployment has doubled in this year (from below 1% to 1,8%), so the newsies are having a fit and are talking about the end of days :smack:
Most people work in the service sector, with the major industries being: aluminum smelters, fishing (mostly in the countryside), tourism (growing) and banking. Those are obviously not all service sector jobs, but you get my drift.
The quality of life is high. Most people aim for (and succeed) in owning their own house, having two cars and are able to go abroad on vacation a few times a year.
Yup - Ver is his second name (many people have two names, where you call them by both). I’ve never met anyone who has it as a first name though.
So he is (to repeat our lesson from before ) Magnús Ver Son of Magnus
Is there much demand for IT people?
What is vacation time like? Is it the Euro version of 6+ weeks per year or closer to the US version of less than 3 weeks on average?