Maybe it would be best for both Jón Bjarnason and the whole country if he were to move to Grímsey, an uninhabited island in the West Fjords.  more

Iceland’s cabinet met at the presidential residence Bessastadir at noon today where new ministers were announced: Gudbjartur Hannesson of the Social Democrats will lead a new Welfare Ministry and Ögmundur Jónasson of the Left-Greens a new Ministry for Internal Affairs.  more

Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of a hike to Hraunsvatn lake in Öxnadalur valley in north Iceland, which lies at a height of 490 meters, interlocked between two steep mountains and a small glacier with a view of the majestic Hraundrangar peaks.  more

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.  more

Former President of Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, speaks to Catriona Burness thirty years after she became the world’s first democratically elected female head of state. At eighty she is still as vibrant and hardworking as ever.

Published in the 2010 summer issue of Iceland Review – IR 48.02. By Catriona Burness, photos by Páll Stefánsson.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir in her garden in Reykjavík.

In June 1980 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir made history when she became not only Iceland’s but the world’s first democratically elected female head of state. The first woman to run for President in Iceland, she defeated three male candidates and ultimately served as the republic’s fourth President from 1980-1996.

Former President Finnbogadóttir turned 80 on 15 April this year and Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir—in making her an Honorary Citizen of Reykjavík to mark the occasion—observed that Finnbogadóttir’s life was interwoven with that of Reykjavík. When I met her in October 2009 around the anniversary of Iceland’s banking collapse, it struck me that her life has also run parallel with the lifespan of the republic itself. She tells me that she and her family were present at the ancient parliament site at Thingvellir for the ceremony founding the republic on 17 June 1944.

Yet at 80 years young Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is remarkably youthful in appearance and in attitude.

Born in Reykjavík on April 15, 1930, Europe was ever-present in her family home. Her father was a civil engineer and professor at the University of Iceland, and her mother a nurse and, for almost 35 years, the chairperson of the Icelandic Nurses’ Association. Both parents studied in Copenhagen and were there when Denmark granted Iceland sovereignty on 1 December 1918. Her mother worked in Berlin during the period of rampant inter-war inf lation and literally had to collect her salary in a suitcase. Her parents followed the progress of the Second World War on maps marked with pins. As a child Finnbogadóttir collected postcards of art works and feared that Europe’s art might not survive the war.

RENDEZVOUS WITH EUROPEAN CULTURE

After the war she made what she called “a rendezvous with European culture.” In 1949 she left Iceland to read French and French literature at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne. Later she studied the history of theater at the University of Copenhagen, and French and English at the University of Iceland. Language study opened up the cultures of the war-devastated Europe that she found in 1949.

“I went to France,” she says. “I sailed to Copenhagen and then took the train through Germany to Strasbourg and then on. My parents had studied abroad and both were very aware of the impact of the First World War. […] From the train I could see Germany completely in ruins. In 1949 the hospital town of Freiberg was still flattened after being firebombed. That made me a pacifist.”

The girl that left home to discover Europe is still there inside the immaculately dressed and coiffed Finnbogadóttir who has welcomed me into her home close to the University of Iceland. And there is pain in her eyes as she recalls the death of her brother Thorvaldur in an accident at the age of only 20. His death had a great impact on her. “Time does not heal sorrow—you learn to live with it. He was my only brother and we were very close. And his death reduced the size of my potential family.” In December 1953 she returned to Iceland to marry Ragnar Arinbjarnar, a Reykjavík doctor now deceased, whom she describes as “a wonderful man”. The marriage ended in divorce within nine years. “It was good that we separated. It made me change my life to things that suited me better,” she says. The things that suited her better spanned further study, teaching French, working for the Icelandic Tourist Bureau—both as a guide and developing tour guide training courses—and, above all, the theater. In Paris in the 1950s, she “fell hopelessly in love with the theater.”

You can read the remainder of this article in the 2010 summer issue of Iceland Review – IR 48.02. Four times a year the print edition of Iceland Review brings you a wealth of articles on all aspects of life in Iceland including Páll Stefánsson's latest images of the country's majestic landscape. Click here to subscribe and here to browse through a selection of pages from the current issue.

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Historically, Hverfisgata has been Iceland’s working class neighborhood squeezed onto one street. Like its international equivalents Shoreditch in London, Brooklyn in New York, Södermalm in Stockholm, in a few years, it might just be the hippest place around. Rugged yet charming, derelict but buzzing, step off the main street to find the Icelandic take on urban living.  more

There is something supernatural about Arnarfjördur fjord. Stories of encounters and sightings of sea monsters which have come ashore to terrify, sometimes attack and even kill the remote farmers in this fjord are abundant. This inspired filmmaker and museum curator Kári Schram to establish the Sea Monster Museum in Bíldudalur, which is located in an old factory building above the town’s harbor.  more

Former President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir turned 80 on 15 April this year and Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir—in making her an Honorary Citizen of Reykjavík to mark the occasion—observed that Finnbogadóttir’s life was interwoven with that of Reykjavík. In June 1980 Finnbogadóttir made history when she became the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.  more

Amiina’s sound is intimate and rife with mellifluous dialogue. Though lyrics are few and far between, that’s not to say Amiina's new album Kurr doesn’t strike a chord with its listeners. On the contrary, it resonates in the most unexpected of ways.  more

Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of a hike to Hraunsvatn lake in Öxnadalur valley in north Iceland, which lies at a height of 490 meters, interlocked between two steep mountains and a small glacier with a view of the majestic Hraundrangar peaks.  more

The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book 2010 Eruptions as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.  more

Dadi Gudbjörnsson's art with its smiley faces, Aladdin's lamps, gleaming hearts, blue mountains and psychedelic flora of unearthly origin reminds me of the cheesy R.E.M. song “Shiny Happy People”. The sugar-sweet naivety fails to amuse me but I must admit it infects my mood with delirious joy.  more

Today, August 30, and tomorrow is your last chance to visit the exhibition “Eau De Parfum” by Andrea Maack at the Spark Design Space in Reykjavík. In the exhibition space, Maack introduces three perfumes that are the result of her collaboration with French perfumery apf aromes & parfums.  more