Forty Black and White Photographs Slide show and gallery. Added 15 March 2002.
Color Photos Slide show and gallery.
Myvatn Tour
: Akureyri, Goðafoss, Krafla Geothermal. Photos made
1986, added here June 2002.
Iceland has a long history, much longer and more tangible
than
is found in the United States or most of North America. North
America has plenty of ruins; but how many places have been continually
occupied for more than a thousand years? I have visited the
farm Drangur near Stykkisholmur, where in the year AD 950 Erid the Red
(Eirik
Rauthi) killed someone and, fleeing vengeance or justice, took ship
westward
and discovered Greenland. At the time, it was green enough to colonize,
so he accomplished the colonization of Greenland. His son, Leifur
Eiriksson
(Leif Ericson in English) continued westward, landing on what is now
northeastern
Canada.
Then there's Snorralaug -- the pool of hot water adjacent
to Snorri Sturleson's house (130 degrees Fahrenheit, 54 degrees Celsius). He wrote the Sagas
in the 1100's, 1132 comes to mind for one of them. That's incredible. It is still there, still hot.
Warning: At least in 1985, Icelanders did not worry
much about idiot tourists. Since then, some effort has been made
to protect the survival-challenged visitor. The whole island is
dangerous and the sea even more dangerous. Face it, that's why
you want to go there. It's dangerous, but it is beautiful and
exciting.
Some of the dangers (keep in mind some of these dangers have by now been fenced off):
The language is in English: Icelandic, in the native language Íslensku (Icelandic) or Íslenskumal (Icelandic language).
It is not much changed from Old Norse but had 500 years of Danish
influence. In written form it seems somewhat Skandinavian but
when spoken it does not much resemble any of the Skandinavian
languages; voiced fricatives (voiced and unvoiced forms of "th" and that sort of thing) are more common than in Norwegian or Danish.
It is highly structured and regular with not very many surprises
once you learn the rules. This fact is very interesting to me; it
suggests that language in general has not evolved toward greater
sophistication. Icelandic is amazingly sophisticated and conveys
quite a lot of meta information. Meta information is implied by
the structure -- "he picked up the box" reveals that the person doing
the lifting is male. Icelandic conveys quite a lot of
meta-information, and the presence of it changes the structure of the
sentence as well as the words themselves.
For instance, the saying and spelling of Keflavik is as I have
written, but only if you are naming it on a map. If you are
telling someone that you are going to it, then it becomes possessive --
it "owns" your destination: Eg fara till Keflavikur.
Why? I'm not sure, but you cannot go to Keflavik -- to an
Icelander, the concept is absurd -- Keflavik is not a place, it is a
collection of many places (houses, businesses, streets).
Therefore, the full sentence ought to be "I go to Keflavik's bakery"
but they leave off "bakery" for privacy or something. You say, "I
go to Keflavik's..." and just stop. It is incomplete and that's
okay but the word must still be written and spoken possessive case.
Notes: Icelandic has strong "case" and "gender". The gender and case of an object modifies any adjectives, comparitives or enumerations -- the word for "one" depends on what you are numbering! With three genders and four cases, it is possible for some words to have twelve different forms (spellings and pronounciations).
Consequently it is more or less impossible for Americans to learn Icelandic fluently. To add to confusion, not all Icelanders agree on how Icelandic should be spoken and spelled; Snorri Sturleson, the famous writer of the Sagas in the 1100's, is considered an authority but he did not have much to write about modern technology devices.
Icelanders are wonderfully patient and appreciate that you try to speak
the words even though you use the nominative masculine form when you should
have used the imperative feminine case and gender. They may laugh but it
is in good spirits and you can try really hard (I did) to remember the forms
but don't feel bad if you cannot. After two years and some serious study
I almost had a grasp of when to apply the different forms as well as a small
vocabulary.
Alphabet and phonetics. Icelandic has 36 letters; each letter
has usually only one sounding. Adjacent letters can modify the
sounding in unexpected ways but I have not found very many such
deviations. You can learn to read Icelandic without too much
difficulty and you might even be able to make yourself
understood. Words tend to be very literal -- I worked and lived
(dwelt) at Keflavikurflugvollur which is literally translated
to something like "Keflavik's flying flat place" (Keflavik
airport). It means you can learn a few hundred root
words and be reasonably confident that nearly every new word is a
composite of those root words and has the implied meaning.
Syntax. Not a lot different as compared to English but the
important difference is adjectives. The first adjective is
usually suffixed and without a separating space. You would
not have a "fast boat", you would have a "boatfast". If the
"boatfast" is painted red, then you might call it a "red
boatfast". In English, you have "fast red boat" and you are
wondering whether it is a slow boat painted "fast red", or a fast boat
merely painted red.