# Miss World 2005 (w/ gratuitous Icelandic Überpatriotism)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 12, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257 "2005-12-12T14:49:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/1 "2005-12-12T14:49:02Z")
[Miss World 2005](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051210/ap_en_ot/china_miss_world) was crowned December 10th. The winner was miss Iceland, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, once again confirming Icelanders’ aesthetic superiority. Unfortunately, this does not coincide with Icelanders having the World’s Strongest Man this time around, seeing as the two strongest men in the world, Magnus Ver Magnusson (seen here [walking his camper](http://www.isteve.com/magnuspullingcamper.jpg)) and Hjalti Ursus Arnason (seen here courting [Bill Kazmaier](http://www.mcshane-enterprises.com/ASL/images/Kaz/bhug.jpg) way back when) are in their 40’s or 50’s, meaning their hearts are due to explode any minute. 22-year-old Benedikt Magnusson (pictured [here](http://www.ak-frem.dk/ak-frem/styrke/images/vm-billeder/125+/magnusson.JPG) during World’s Cuddliest Strongman) should be ready in a couple of years, though, so, thanks to careful selective breeding, we should rule all international beauty pageants and strongmen competitions again before too long. This will not be very good for the intrenational community, as the Icelandic nation suffers from an epic national minority complex due its size, or lack thereof, and grossly overcompensates with delusions of grandeur. If you know any Icelanders (pretty unlikely, I know), beware; we’re gonna be getting a whole lot more annoying than we are now.
Incidentally, Bibliophage was putting the Iceland patronym record straight here about a year ago ([here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=283627)); the reason I bring that up is that he was talking about Unnur Steinsson, a former Miss Iceland and the Mother of Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, the current Miss World. Yes, Bibliophage, Unnur sure is a girl’s name.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/2 "2005-12-12T14:54:27Z")
OK-so no pic on that link, for us all to decide if she truly qualifies, ie, exemplifies the title of Miss World…
I’ll take your word for it. Congrats(?) Iceland!
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/3 "2005-12-12T15:08:17Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#):
>
> OK-so no pic on that link, for us all to decide if she truly qualifies, ie, exemplifies the title of Miss World…
> I’ll take your word for it. Congrats(?) Iceland!
Thanks… there are pictures of Unnur Jr. (does the “Jr.” thing work with girls?) [here](http://www.missworld.tv/bio/bio.sps?iBiographyID=51629); not quite as blonde as you may have thought, but there it is. I don’t think we were really expecting her to win–I was genuinely surprised, for one–but, then again, we are a terribly beautiful people so we probably should have seen it coming. Did I mention our strongmen? We also have the most grand chess champions and nobel laureates per capita in the world…
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/4 "2005-12-12T16:08:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> (from your link)
> In Iceland you can see a tremendous icecap, several glaciers, spouting geysers, steaming solfataras, volcanoes (hopefully dormant), raging rivers and magnificent waterfalls, a multitude of birds and cavorting whales.
While she is, admittedly, a pretty steamy solfatara, this whole thread is just one geyser spouting.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/5 "2005-12-12T16:25:55Z")
> [@UselessGit](#):
>
> Thanks… there are pictures of Unnur Jr. (does the “Jr.” thing work with girls?) [here](http://www.missworld.tv/bio/bio.sps?iBiographyID=51629); not quite as blonde as you may have thought, but there it is. I don’t think we were really expecting her to win–I was genuinely surprised, for one–but, then again, we are a terribly beautiful people so we probably should have seen it coming. Did I mention our strongmen? We also have the most grand chess champions and nobel laureates per capita in the world…
Well, she’s very pretty.
I see you are a humble people, as well.
😉
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/6 "2005-12-12T16:30:36Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> While she is, admittedly, a pretty steamy solfatara, this whole thread is just one geyser spouting.
That was a given… although the bird in question does deserve a whale of a thread. I fear my inherit modesty has already doomed this one.
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/7 "2005-12-12T16:32:17Z")
… Inherent modesty, rather–curse your inferior language for having so many similar words.
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### Author:  [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/8 "2005-12-12T16:59:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …Her favourite motto is “You are what you do” …
Wow. Beauty, AND an ability to turn a phrase. I’m impressed.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/9 "2005-12-12T17:08:25Z")
Icelandic women are hot. And they can put away liquor. I want to go to Iceland.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/10 "2005-12-12T18:12:14Z")
Wow, she looks like Shannon Dohehrty if Shannon Doherty was hot. 😛
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/11 "2005-12-12T19:00:09Z")
Well, I wouldn’t kick her out for eating crackers in bed. I _would_, however, kick her out for eating that Icelandic dish where they bury a shark in the ground for 6 months and then eat its decaying flesh, in bed. Or, ever. Or even talking about that dish. (shudder).
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/12 "2005-12-12T19:06:02Z")
> [@UselessGit](#):
>
> That was a given… although the bird in question does deserve a whale of a thread. I fear my inherit modesty has already doomed this one.
Perhaps you inherited your inherent modesty?
😃
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/13 "2005-12-12T19:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=UselessGit This will not be very good for the intrenational community, as the Icelandic nation suffers from an epic national minority complex due its size, or lack thereof, .[/QUOTE]
But you have a hell of a cool language. It saddens me to realize that, according to what you once said here, the electronic media in your country don’t even use the language, except for children’s programming. What language is used instead? English, or other Scandinavian languages?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/14 "2005-12-12T20:20:21Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> But you have a hell of a cool language.
And to think that a thousand years ago English looked like that, but due to centuries of errors, ignorance, Norman French invaders, vowel shifts, creative Dutch printers, prescriptivists who thought that Latin was the be-all and end-all of language, and l33tsp34k, we lost all that, even down to some of the letters (thorn and eth).
Now we have to limp along with a hideously-agglomerated wreck of a spelling system. At least we lost most of our inflections and declensions and have mostly a pure-positional grammar. (I’m waiting for the plural to go bye-bye, like in Chinese: one dog, two dog, three dog.)
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/15 "2005-12-12T20:24:49Z")
Vilhjalmsdottir
I am so glad I’m not Icelandic. I would never even learn to spell my own last name!
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/16 "2005-12-12T21:10:55Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> Vilhjalmsdottir
>
> I am so glad I’m not Icelandic. I would never even learn to spell my own last name!
Sure you would, because Icelanders don’t actually have family names; instead they use patronymics. Her name means Vilhjalm’s Daughter. Her brothers, if any, would use Vilhjalmsson for their surname.
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/17 "2005-12-12T23:51:04Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> Wow, she looks like Shannon Dohehrty if Shannon Doherty was hot. 😛
What he said.
Hmm, wasn’t there an episode of _Travel Sick_ where the guy went to Iceland and one of his tasks was to “snog a beauty queen”? He made mention of the fact that for such a small country, the beauty queen population density was rather high. The girl he ended up smooching was quite a looker.
There’s a _guy_ from Iceland in some of my classes. He is rather attractive, come to think of it.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/18 "2005-12-13T00:11:59Z")
> [@UselessGit](#):
>
> … Inherent modesty, rather–curse your inferior language for having so many similar words.
This piques my curiosity. Icelandic is heavily inflected, far more than, say, even German. What’s more, the inflections are mostly postfixed, which means that the last syllable of a word is likely to be the _inflection_ rather than the meaningful root of the word. So when Icelanders learn English, I wonder if this results in a tendency to confuse words that are similar in this way–the two words you mentioned are different by only a couple letters in the last syllable.
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/19 "2005-12-14T14:07:48Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> This piques my curiosity. Icelandic is heavily inflected, far more than, say, even German. What’s more, the inflections are mostly postfixed, which means that the last syllable of a word is likely to be the _inflection_ rather than the meaningful root of the word. So when Icelanders learn English, I wonder if this results in a tendency to confuse words that are similar in this way–the two words you mentioned are different by only a couple letters in the last syllable.
You’re good… Icelandic is indeed monstrously inflected (not as much as Finnish, though) but I don’t think that’s why I confused the two words–I think I just took “inherit” and “inherant” as the same word. I mean… if you inherit a trait, it becomes inherant, no?
You may have misunderstood me slightly in the past, as Icelandic is actually very much alive and well. Our official language is the original Icelandic (accept no substitutes) but we do have to learn Danish and English too; a lot of people add German, French and/or Spanish to their repertoire later (I’m taking Spanish, as I detest the French). Children’s programs are, however, the only dubbed media in Iceland, for reasons I can’t explain, which is probably from where the misunderstanding comes. Also, when you were asking about Icelandic grammar back when ([here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=306922) ), I kinda went overboard explaining the delights of the Icelandic language, probably obscuring my point somewhat.
NurseCarmen: Come one, come all; I’ll buy the beer (trust me: you’ll want me to).
> [@eleanorigby](#):
>
> I see you are a humble people, as well.
1. Our humble people all perished in the years 1783 to 1785, along with the weaklings and uglies. Natural selection at its finest…
2. Modesty aparently means “having or showing a moderate estimation of one’s own talents, abilities, and value”. I’ll forgive you for thinking me impudent since you don’t know me personally, nor my talents, abilities nor values. [I tried to resist; I really did]
Oh, and thank you, Spectre of… thank you Spectre, for helping me unleash the awesome power of the word “piqued”. It will come in handy (mouthy?) in the future.
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-world-2005-w-gratuitous-icelandic-uberpatriotism/335257/20 "2005-12-14T14:11:14Z")
By Odin’s beard, I’m bad at this… the first part of my post was in reply to this:
“according to what you once said here, the electronic media in your country don’t even use the language, except for children’s programming. What language is used instead? English, or other Scandinavian languages?”
But not the post I wound up qouting
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