Deep North - Stories from Iceland
Fiction
Iceland Review publishes translations of short stories by Icelandic authors.
Features
Deep dives into current events, contemporary issues, and the lesser-seen sides of Icelandic society.
Interview
Interviews with artists, scholars, politicians or other notable figures in Iceland.
Photography
View Iceland through the lens of some of the country's most accomplished photographers.
Looking Back
Looking back in Iceland's history, at the curious incidents, colourful characters, and heroic deeds that shaped the nation.
Issues
Keeping the Balance
Next year, Parity (est. 2017) is scheduled to release the adventure game Island of Winds. Loosely based on the so-called “witch-craze” in 17th-century Iceland, the game draws upon elements of nature, folklore, and history – with a focus on puzzles
Heart to Heart
Every now and then, when I turn on the radio and tune into the National Broadcasting Service in the morning,
Island in the Making
A wave crashes over us as we cling to the small rubber boat for dear life. I congratulate myself for
Breaking the Peace
By the 15th century, in the chaotic and violent times of Joan of Arc, the Hundred Years’ War and the
Mycological Magic
On a grey afternoon in late August, a small crowd has gathered near the old hydroelectric power station in Elliðaárdalur,
Words With Friends
On a late-August Wednesday in Reykjavík, it’s bright and still, but there’s a noticeable fall chill in the air. As
A Wealth of Water
Close your eyes and picture Iceland. What comes to mind? A powerful waterfall streaming down a cliffside? Bluish icebergs floating
From the Archive: President Vigdís
From the archive: This article was published in Iceland Review magazine in 1982. Archival content may not necessarily reflect the current editorial standards of Iceland Review. President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir got to know her countrymen intimately during the presidential campaign in
The Dip
FICTION the dip by Örvar Smárason When my fingers started falling off, it became harder and harder to put my shoes on and take them off. After I lost the first two, I switched from laces to Velcro. I used to wear them all the time as a kid, and I’ve always been fascinated by […]
Frost
Individually, snowflakes are fragile, easily broken, dissolving into droplets of water at the mere touch of a finger or a breath of air, while en masse, they’re capable of wreaking havoc on the city streets and causing catastrophe when avalanching
Sparsity Blues
“A brutal ballet of flesh and bone” It’s Saturday night – and it’s feckin’ freezing. Seven below. Even inside the Egilshöll stadium, my fingers feel like popsicles. Taking notes means pitting the will against whatever half-responsive nerve cells are relaying
Tall Tales and Treacherous Waters
The 17th-century voyage of Jón the India Traveller Christian IV was King of Denmark and Norway from the age of 11 until his death aged 71 in 1648. Contemporaries described him as above average height, most often dressed in French
Man of the Year
This is Haraldur Þorleifsson. In 2021 he sold his company, Ueno, to Twitter. During the sale process, he was advised how to legally avoid paying taxes on the profit. Instead, he demanded that the purchase price be paid as salary to maximise the
Born and Bread
On visits to my grandfather’s farm, I would often follow him around, helping him with the farmyard tasks. In the early afternoon, perhaps after mending a fence, we would come inside to have some coffee and flatbread topped with butter
Floating Through Oblivion
OASIS The word oasis refers to a fertile area in the desert. The essential component of the concept is water, for the area is made fertile because of it. The popular image is a half-dozen palm trees, huddled religiously around a small pond, surrounded by an expanse of sand. Although there are no smouldering deserts […]
MENTAL NOTE
Unnsteinn’s insights from half a lifetime in the music industry. It’s the last night of the Iceland Airwaves festival. There have been some good shows and a few bad ones. I’ve stopped trying to adhere to my thoroughly-researched festival plan in favour of a more vibe-based approach. What sounds like fun? As a more-interesting-than-expected act […]
RIDING THE WAVE
It started in an airplane hangar at the turn of the century but quickly became synonymous with the Icelandic music scene. It grew, it downsized, and grew in scope again. It saw some big names before turning its back on them to focus on fostering up-and-coming artists. It’s seen a banking collapse and a pandemic […]
Cream of the Crop
Row after row of steep but flat-topped mountains, interspersed with deep fjords. There’s barely enough land in between to make up a coastline, let alone farmland. But on the green patches between the cliffs and the waves, there are still
Material World
When Canadian media theorist and philosopher Marshall McLuhan wrote that “the medium is the message,” he did not mean that the content of all emails is somehow the same, given their common encoding as emails. Rather, he meant to critique the idea that communication is like a parcel service: we pack down messages into their containers, send them off, and they are received by their recipients in just the same state as when we sent them. Just as all language is not the same: a short “hey” can, depending on the situation, mood, interlocutors, volume, and so on be a greeting, a warning, a verbal touch on the shoulder.
The medium is not a neutral space through which a message passes, untouched. Rather, the medium plays a constituting role in the creative process, and when we interpret the artwork, we must pay just as much attention to the technologies, processes, and materials that made the work of art as the ideas and forms that shaped them.
