Iceland / Useful Notes

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Ó, guð vors lands! Ó, land vors guð!

So "Cold" from all the "Ice"

— Iceland's heading from The Onion's Our Dumb World

It's an island. With less ice than you would expect.

Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland) is a Northern European country and island in The Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. It's notable for having a population more or less on par with a mid-sized European city (380,000 inhabitants), which wouldn't have been notable if not for the fact that they live in 103,000 square kilometers of area, making it not only the smallest Nordic country population-wise, but also the least densely-populated country in Europe.

Situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological faultline, Iceland has a lot of volcanoes and new islands pop up from time to time (e.g. see the isle of Surtsey, a classic study in ecology). On account of its placement on the Ridge, it is therefore technically both in Europe and North America (or rather the Eurasian and North American geological plates), with the capital Reykjavik being on the North American side. One particular volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted in the summer of 2010, causing a massive ash cloud that essentially closed most of Europe's airspace. In the 1780s, it nearly suffered a Class Zero Apocalypse How, when it suffered a Phreatic Eruption.

The country, as with the rest of Northern Europe, is highly developed; it topped the list of the world's most developed in 2007. Despite not having an army, Iceland is a member of NATO, but not of The European Union (it has EFTA membership, the next closest thing). Iceland is also a member of the Schengen Area which in practice means that if you fly from - say - Spain to Iceland you'll have to pass through customs, but not immigration.

Medieval Iceland was renowned for its storytelling culture, and most of the famous Norse sagas (including the Eddas, our best source of Norse Mythology) were written there in the forms we know them today. For that reason (along with the remarkable linguistic conservatism of Icelandic) most recitations of text from the Eddas use modern Icelandic pronunciation rather than reconstructed Old Norse pronunciation. The reason behind this is that we can be 100% certain what modern Icelandic sounds like (so no squabbling over minor details), and it is a bit easier to learn. Jackson Crawford (of YouTube fame) notably uses reconstructed Old Norse pronunciation, which he usually informs his audience of whenever he recites Old Norse texts.

The island was first settled in 874.^note. The world's oldest parliament, the Althing, was founded in Iceland in 930. It ended up as part of Norway in the mid 13th century, which later merged with Denmark and Sweden to form the Kalmar Union. Following the dissolution of the Kalmar Union in the 16th century, Iceland remained intertwined with Norway until the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, in which Denmark gave Norway away to Sweden, in return for keeping its overseas territories, including Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland.

When Denmark fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, the United Kingdom invaded Iceland, believing that it would stop the Germans going after it (the Germans weren't planning to do so). The Icelandic government protested, but resigned itself to cooperating after the British promised compensation and a withdrawal after the end of World War II. As British forces were needed elsewhere, occupation was handed over to the United States. There were more U.S. forces (40,000) than adult male locals, and many of the former married the local women. Iceland declared independence from Denmark in 1944 and became a republic. U.S. forces left in 1946, before returning in 1951, two years after Iceland joined NATO.

Iceland was of vital strategic and economic importance to NATO. A stopping point for shorter-ranged aircraft travelling the Atlantic (it is also a divert point for transatlantic flights), Iceland lacked the capacity to defend itself—the British invasion had been done with fewer than 1,000 men. If the Warsaw Pact took over the place, it would provide them with Tu-22M "Backfire" coverage of a good part of the North Atlantic, causing major problems for convoys bringing supplies and troops across the Atlantic. The United States set up a Naval Air Station at Keflavík Airport, which was a base for U.S. interceptors, like the F-15. The civilian terminal was in the middle of the airbase, meaning that travellers had to go through military checkpoints, until the terminal was re-sited in 1987. This base stayed open until 2006. Keflavík is now a solely civilian-run airport, but military flights do use it. The other NATO air forces now provide air defence on Iceland on a rotational basis. The airport can take the Space Shuttle.

Iceland is by far the largest nation on Earth which has no standing army (the next ones being Panama and Costa Rica). However, it has some special police forces and a capable coast guard with a small air unit that can act as an impromptu defence force. Other than that, most of the defence in a time of crisis would be up to Norway and other NATO countries. During a short period of the 19th century, there was also a small Icelandic garrison of the Danish royal army.

The majority of the electricity in Iceland is generated through Hydro Power, with the rest being geothermal. Iceland is one of the leading nations in the usage of renewable power. It plans to completely phase out carbon fuels by 2050. Or so the politicos claim...

Got into a few disagreements with the UK in 1958, 1972-1973 and 1975-1976 about exactly where its territorial waters were - this was important, as said waters are rich in cod. The UK claimed that the waters were international, so it could fish there. Iceland said it couldn't, because it was its territorial waters. The Royal Navy was sent in to protect the British trawlers and the whole fracas was dignified with the name "The Cod Wars". One shot - possibly a blank - was fired during the three Cod Wars. Of course Iceland won... by threatening to close the NATO base at Keflavík unless the British backed down. It was also noted that in one confrontation, a Royal Navy frigate had to limp home with significant damage caused in a confrontation with an Icelandic coastguard vessel less than half its size. Although this was more by accident than design, it was not lost on observers that Iceland had effectively defeated the Royal Navy in a showdown.

Also, Reykjavík's where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in October 1986 to continue ultimately failed discussions (although it did cement Reagan and Gorbachev's nascent friendship) about scaling down their European missile arsenals. You might get extra points on your Cold War quizzes if you mention that.

Suffered a large scale banking collapse and a drop in the value of its currency in 2008. This led to an odd situation where money and junk earned in EVE Online was worth more than their real currency (CCP Games is based in Iceland and the game's currency has the same code, ISK, as Iceland's krónur). The collapse was sufficiently bad that Iceland applied to the IMF for currency stabilization (something that rich countries haven't done on a large scale in quite some time) and applied to the EU for membership (before, Icelanders hadn't decided they needed it). However, the EU membership bid seems doomed since only one party supports it (and not whole-heartedly at that) and also because the question will have to be decided in a referendum, and polls show that as of now, about 70% of the population is against it. It doesn't help that Icelanders were left pretty cold by what happened to some countries that received the EU's "help", like Greece. The banking collapse affected the UK, where a lot of councils had banked with Icelandic banks.

In 2013, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson was elected prime minister on the promise that he would crack down on Iceland's foreign creditors. Three years later, the leaked "Panama Papers" revealed that Sigmundur's wife possessed millions in an offshore bank account, money which was housed by the same shell corporation which was a creditor for the collapsed Icelandic banks. In other words, Sigmundur's wife was one of the very creditors he promised to go after. Sigmundur resigned soon after the leaks. Elections were held in October 2016. His then fellow party member, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson bridged the gap as PM 2016-2017 and Bjarni Benediktsson (minister of finance since 2013) became PM in January 2017. That government burst in late 2017, there was yet another election in October 2017 and Katrín Jakobsdóttir became PM. The next elections are to be held in autumn 2021.

Also notable is the language. North Germanic languages are already known for their conservative tendencies among the Germanic languages, but Icelandic takes it up to eleven by practically being a carbon-copy of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings when they first settled the island in the 9th century. Icelanders can read the works of Snorri Sturluson (helps that he's also an Icelandic Viking) without any prior learning of Old Norse at all; though the works might feel a bit archaic at times, it's still perfectly understandable for them than it is to, say, the Danes. Icelandic orthography also preserves many archaic letters that have been long lost in other modern Germanic languages, like the Þ. Faroese, the language of Iceland's closest neighbor, the Faroe Islands, is closely related to Icelandic and also famously conservative.

Famous Icelanders

When looking at this list, note that Iceland is one of the few cultures today to still use a strict Patronymic (or Matronymic) naming system rather than using family names. A person's last name is their parent's name suffixed with -sson (for men) or -dóttir (for women). This sometimes causes problems for Icelandic families travelling internationally, where children who have a different second name to any adult travelling with them tend to flag up abduction alerts.

Egill Skallagrímsson, 10th century Viking and poet immortalized in a Saga named after him.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former president (1980-1996), the first democratically elected female head of state (also a single mother and cancer survivor).
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the world's first openly gay head of government.
The 80's Alternative Rock band The Sugarcubes.
- Their lead singer, Björk has subsequently had a very successful career as an experimental singer and musician, and is the best selling Icelandic artist of all time.
Ethereal post-rock band Sigur Rós
Hera Hjartardóttir, known more commonly as Hera, a singer-songwriter who was born in Reykjavik but moved to New Zealand when she was 13
Of Monsters and Men
Snorri Sturluson, medieval chieftain, poet and historian who composed the Prose Edda, Poetic Edda and Heimskringla.
Eythora Thorsdóttir, senior international elite artistic gymnast (b. 1998), who currently competes for the Netherlands.
Halldór Laxness, novelist, poet, playwright and the winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Magnus Magnusson, who emigrated to Great Britain and became a BBC household name, mainly for the intellectual general knowledge quiz Mastermind which he presided over for twenty-five years (1972-1997). He also presented historical, arts and science documentaries.
Magnús Ver Magnússon, a famous strongman who won the World's Strongest Man competition 4 times during the 90s.
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, another strongman (inspired to become one by the aforementioned Magnús Ver Magnússon, after a knee injury ended his budding basketball career), best known for playing The Mountain in Game of Thrones.
Hildur Guðnadóttir, a composer and musician known for scoring films and TV series such as Chernobyl and Joker, for which she won an Academy Award for the Best Original Score in 2020.

Iceland in fiction

Red Storm Rising
Journey to the Center of the Earth starts in Iceland, following the writings of an Icelandic explorer.
James Bond:
- A View to a Kill: The Action Prologue in Siberia was actually filmed in Iceland for the water and iceberg scenery (the ski sequences were shot at Piz Palu in Switerland).
- Die Another Day: Gustav Graves has built a giant ice palace in Iceland to receive guests. The Palace was built and filmed at Pinewood Studios.
LazyTown
Hetalia: Axis Powers personifies Iceland as having a Sugar-and-Ice Personality with white hair and a puffin. His older brother is Norway though he vehemently refuses to call him that.
Scandinavia and the World personifies Iceland as a Pretty Boy with a disturbing mind and a love of extreme sports. Oh, and he sparkles. He's also the least metal country among the Nordics.
The Icelandic Sagas, natch.
Appears in a chapter or two of Protect and Survive: A Timeline.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2:The final level takes place in Iceland, where the heroes need to take over one of the Fold towers.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has a mission set in Iceland, where the invading Soviets destroy a major Allied air base.
- In Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, Director Redmond Boyle turns out to be hiding in an underground bunker in Reykjavik when he orders you to use the Liquid Tiberium Bomb in the final GDI campaign mission.
The final arc of Atlantis: Milo's Return takes place on Iceland.
The first level of Splinter Cell: Double Agent takes place in Iceland, near Akureyri.
Riley Blue (née Gunnarsdóttir), one of the main characters of Sense8, is an Icelandic DJ and sensate living in London, though she later returns home to Reykjavik. Yrsa is another Icelandic sensate, and she serves as a protector to Riley.
The webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent is set in a post-apocalyptic world where Iceland is the largest "safe area". Of the main characters, stowaway Reynir Arnason is Icelandic, and Icelandic lore and language sneaks in among the other Nordic-country elements.
Indiana Jones travels to Iceland in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, to the site of one of his earliest digs, to look for clues to the location of Atlantis. Later on Indy learns that one of Atlantis' three colonies was in Iceland.
Early 11th century Iceland is depicted in Vinland Saga as Thorfinn's birthplace which he eventually returns to after being freed from slavery
Totally Spies!: Iceland appears twice:
- Once in Passion Patties, when Dr. Bittersweet plans to go to her warehouse in Reykjavik and hopefully get the Icelandic people hooked on her cookies.
- In The Getaway, the girls go to Iceland to get help from Jerry's friend Dr. Sorenson, who they ask about all the volcanoes errupting aound the world at the same time. It is also the only Nordic country they've been to.
Nancy Drew Sea of Darkness takes place in Iceland during January.
American Gods ends in Iceland, and mentions that the language has changed very little, which probably accounts for the original Odin still being there.
Reykjavik is one of the cities where your band can perform in the Rock Band series.
In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the eponymous character ends up on Iceland. Scenes set in Greenland and Afghanistan were also shot there.
Spirit of the North follows a fox traveling through Icelandic landscapes.
The Mighty Ducks: Team Iceland are the bad guys of the second movie, infamously (and inaccurately) portrayed as possibly the best in the world.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga stars Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as a pair of Icelandic musicians who compete in the titular Eurovision Song Contest. Part of the film was actually filmed in Húsavík (where the characters are from) and its Award-Bait Song ("Húsavík") is named for it.
- Iceland's real-life history with the competition is infamously spotty; as of the most recent edition in 2019, they are currently the country with the longest gap between their debut (1986) and first win (0) ^note but they have placed second on two occasions in 1999 and 2009. They were actually hotly tipped to win the 2020 edition with Daði Freyr, but their hopes were dashed by the COVID-19 Pandemic causing Eurovision's first-ever cancelation.
Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League have a scene in which Bruce Wayne goes to a remote village in Iceland where Aquaman helps feeding the locals during harsh winters, in order to recruit him in the Justice League.
Katla, an Icelandic TV series, makes full use of the place's scenery, and includes references to its folklore.
Running Blind, a Cold War spy thriller by Desmond Bagley is set there.
In The Survivialist series by Jerry Ahern, Iceland is the only country that survives The End of the World as We Know It after World War 3.
Bokeh, a Post-apocalyptic drama starring Maika Monroe and Matt O'Leary which is about an American couple on holiday in Iceland who wake up one morning and discover that every other human on earth has disappeared.

Useful Notes / Iceland

Famous Icelanders

Iceland in fiction

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Famous Icelanders

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