We’re not Iceland remember?
Eoin Conlon writes:
Myself and one of the lads in work have created a website to generate Irish support for the Icelandic football team, ahead of their World Cup play-off against Croatia on Friday: The population of Iceland is 320,000 (that’s 200,000 less than Co.Down), so I’m making them the 33rd county and I want to get more supporters for County Iceland here, than actual Iceland.
She could not or would not thaw.
Kidnapped Irish Princess ‘Melkork’ and her son Olaf with spouse/kidnapper Hoskuld in background.
She gave Hoskuld the silent treatment for three years.
He would look back on it as their happiest time together.
Sibling of Daedalus writes:
Just browsing through the Laxdæla saga when I came across the story of Melkorka, an Irish princess abducted as a slave (the exact word is ‘bondswoman’) by Icelandic raiders back in 910 or so.
In protest against her enslavement, she refused to utter a word, and her purchaser, Hoskuld the Viking, only discovered she was able to talk three years later when he overheard her chatting in Irish to their son (see pic above).
Melkorka getting her voice back proved a mixed blessing for Hoskuld; domestic tiffs between her and his primary wife became so frequent and heated that she had to be given her own farm at the other end of the island and, later married off to Thorbjorn the Feeble.
Melkorka’s son with Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, became one of Iceland’s premier heroes and never forgot his Irish origins, even making a visit to see his relatives back in the auld sod after he had grown up (some say Melkorka’s marriage to Thorbjorn was to assist him in obtaining funding for this trip).
Melkorka’s story (apart from the royal descent and the self-imposed silence) was not unusual.
With few of their own women prepared to make the trip to Iceland, its settlers had to look for home comforts closer by, and, even today, a very considerable portion of Icelanders (some say as high as fifty percent) are of Irish descent in the matrilineal line…
Three years.
Iceland has now formally halted its EU application. Those mad, swivel-eyed loons evidently prefer prosperity and democracy to immiseration.
— Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) May 22, 2013
Former Icelandic PM Geir Haarde has been found not guilty of negligence over the 2008 financial crisis that saw the island’s economy go into meltdown. A special court in Reykjavik said Mr Haarde would face no punishment and his legal expenses would be paid for. However, he was found guilty of one charge: failing to formally inform his ministers about the troubles ahead.
Previously: Literally Uncanny
A report on the former Icelandic Prime Minister’s trial for “gross negligence” on last night’s Nine O’Clock news on RTE 1.
Eileen Dunne: “Iceland’s former Prime Minister has gone on trial, charged with negligence in relation to the financial crisis of 2008. His country’s top three banks collapsed during economic turmoil after years of debt-fuelled expansion.”
Photographer Joe Capra took a 17 day trip around Iceland in his car last June, making the most of the midnight sun to capture round-the-clock images for this extraordinary timelapser. He sez:
During my days shooting this film I shot 38,000 images, travelled some 2900 miles, and saw some of the most amazing, beautiful, and indescribable landscapes on the planet. Iceland is absolutely one of the most beautiful and unusual places you could ever imagine.
Go full screen.
This winter Iceland wants you to come and experience the unique charm of Icelandic hospitality, as natives open their doors to the world. Go see upcoming events planned specially for you by native Icelanders that will make your stay in Iceland truly unique, personal and magical.
Now. Go forward six months. Replace the ‘c’ in ‘Iceland’ with an ‘r’.
Hat tip to Alan Butler who sez:
… of course they’ll have to replace “delicious pancakes” with “rancid breakfast rolls”, but same diff.
Polar explorer (among other things) Huang Nubo – China’s 16th richest person – has offered $100 million to buy 300 square kilometres of Iceland’s wilderness for an hotel, golf course and tourist resort.
That’s 0.3% of the total surface area of Iceland. As Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing usefully points out, the tattoo on Bjork’s arm there represents 0.3% of the total surface area of Bjork.
Opponents have questioned why such a large amount of land – equal to about 0.3 per cent of Iceland’s total area – is needed to build a hotel. They warned that the project could provide cover for China’s geopolitical interests in the Atlantic island nation and Nato member.
While home to just 320,000 people, Iceland occupies a strategically important location between Europe and North America and has been touted as a potential hub for Asian cargo should climate change open Arctic waters to shipping.
Chinese tycoon seeks to buy tract of Iceland (Financial Times)
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Spanish photographer, Enrique Pacheco’s time-lapse chronicle of his travels through Iceland. Sez he:
Iceland is much more than the volcano Eyjafjallajokull. Iceland is the place where the light is made. It has the most amazing light I have ever seen, endless sunsets in summer, crazy northern lights in winter and beautiful colors all the year.
If you lived there, you’d vote to default on loan repayments, too.
