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A young man armed with a knife threatened the clerk of Sunnubúd, a small family-run store in the Hlídar neighborhood in Reykjavík, on Sunday, demanding money from the cash register. The thief got away with the money and police are looking for him.
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Click on the picture to observe how to prepare a traditional Icelandic meal of roe and liver (hrogn og lifur). At this time of year, egg pouches are harvested from female fish, mainly cod and haddock, and sold in fish stores around the country along with the liver. The egg pouches may not look appetizing; just remember that caviar is fish eggs too.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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What better way to learn one of the world’s most complicated languages, than from your pooch.
A reader in the US wrote to me this weekend with an unusual request. It seems that she has been trying to learn Icelandic for years, but without the gentle pushes from local Icelanders (read: when the natives take it upon themselves to refuse you any English), this can be a formidable task.
So my reader’s proposition was this: since I have no reason to speak Icelandic daily, there is simply no way it’s going to stick in my head. So, I will train my dog with commands in Icelandic as a way to get into the language.
After doing some sleuthing on the internet, I have found that this is not such an uncommon practice. Indeed, there are websites dedicated to multilingual dog commands, so who am I to object. My favorite so far is Dr. P’s Dog Training Website, which runs the gamut from German and Dutch to Hungarian and even Finnish, for those who prefer to have loyal sidekick along in the sauna.
So without further ado, here is dog training, Icelandic style…
- Heel – Haell (HIGH-dl)
- Sit – Sestu (SES-tu)
- Stay – Kyrr (KIRR)
- Come/Here – Komdu (KON-du)
- Stand – Standa (STAN-da)
- Fetch – Saektu (SAIK-tu)
- Lie down – Leggstu (LIKS-tu)
- Go out – Út (OOT)
- Attack – Urrdan, bíttann (URRD-on, BEET-on)
- Speak – Gelta (GHEL-ta)
- Good (praise) – Gódur (GO-thur)
- Get in the car – Bíll (BEE-dl)
- No (correction word) – Nei (NAY)
- Don’t do that – Haettu (HIGH-tu)
- Eat food – Borda (BOR-tha)
- Roll over – Veltu (VEL-tu)
- Give us a kiss – Kyssa (KIS-sa)
- Shake hands – Saell (SIGH-dl)
- Play dead – Thykstu vera daudur (THIKS-tu VER-ah DOI-thur) – This one doesn’t really translate—not a command you really give an Icelandic dog. They are piss poor actors.
As long as you remember to roll your Rs you and Rover will be just fine. One more note, the Icelandic word for treat is “nammi”, which always sounds rather onomatopoetic. It is what Dórótea uxi (Dorothy the Ox), our future prize-winning English bulldog, gets whenever she does good.
So I hope this helps all you out there looking to have your dog teach you Icelandic. Now go out and unleash your language skills!
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New subscribers to the quarterly Iceland Review magazine will receive the photography book Puffins, which contains a wealth of information about this colorful bird, as a gift. Additionally, all subscribers will enter a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to Iceland Review. The new issue will be out next week!
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REVIEWS
When I first heard of the photographic book Legend by Fiann Paul, portraying people dressed in Viking-style in Icelandic landscapes, I imagined it would depict scenes from Norse mythology. However, the idea with the book is to tell a story of how “The Seeker” finds “The Legend” and it feels like a wishy-washy self-help book.
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Fresh back from Brazil, where she was one of 28 international judges at the ‘Cup of Excellence’ awards, Kaffitár founder and owner Adalheidur Hédinsdóttir sat down with Atlantica’s Mica Allan in Kaffitár’s Bankastraeti cafe to talk about her passion and delight: coffee.
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“Lucy” is a video and music installation by Dodda Maggý (1981), the 15th artist to exhibit in Reykjavík Art Museum’s D-gallery project in the Hafnarhús exhibition hall. In “Lucy” the artist explores the idea of the “acousmetre,” a film character portrayed only by voice, never in body, omniscient and ubiquitous.
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