Variously known over the centuries as Thule or “the northernmost land” in Viking myth, a strategically important rocky outcrop in the North Atlantic during the Cold War, and more recently as the home country of Björk and Sigur Rós, Iceland with its rich heritage of Norse sagas, beautiful language and hard-earned prominence in the global cultural imagination is a special place often overlooked by Paris and Rome-crazed Europe-bound travelers about as likely to correctly identify Reykjavík on a map as Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia.
Yet, it’s hardly surprising – for those looking to learn more about the Icelandic culture and language will sadly find few quality resources available. Constrained by their volcanic island’s remote geography and a small population base of just 300,000, the Icelanders have only recently, with the advent of new communications technologies, begun to make their cultural presence felt around the world.
On the upside, however, this just means it is not too late for those of us intrigued by the Land of Fire and Ice to get involved and do a little bit of researching and discovering on our own. Hence, below I offer a brief overview of the some of the best materials available on Iceland which I have personally enjoyed and hope you will likewise find useful.
The Tricking of FreyaPublished in 2009, Christina Sunley’s beautifully written debut novel The Tricking of Freya is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Iceland and the greater Scandinavia region in general. At once a heartfelt tale of familial intrigue, a thoroughly researched introduction to the culture and history of Iceland, and a testimonial to the importance of exploring one’s roots, the work is roughly organized around the search of 30-year-old Freya Morris for a long-lost relative. The daughter of an Icelandic-Canadian mother and an American father, Freya lives a mundane life in a Connecticut suburb commuting daily to work in a darkroom in New York City. Haunted by the memories of her traumatic past and disinterested in the uneventful present, she struggles to come to terms with her childhood experiences, Icelandic heritage and identity as a person. Building on this premise, Sunley delivers a powerful, culturally potent narrative every bit as memorable as the much-referenced Icelandic sagas and eddas themselves.
Waking Up in IcelandWhile a bit dated by rapidly changing music industry standards, Paul Sullivan’s excellent book Waking Up In Iceland, published in 2003, reads much more like a personal travel memoir rather than a collection of facts about the Icelandic music scene an uninformed prospective reader might mistakenly assume it to be. In addition to providing a thorough overview of Icelandic pop, rock and punk, Sullivan takes plenty of pages to share his music-related interviews and firsthand experiences with native Icelanders. The work is remarkable in that it covers not only the pop culture of modern Iceland, but also its origins and many more obscure yet deeply fascinating aspects of Icelandic life such as the structure of rímur and the widespread superstitious belief in Hidden People, spirits that supposedly inhabit rocks and other inanimate objects. Equal parts cultural primer, music review, and Viking travelogue, this should be regarded as mandatory reading for those seeking an Icelandic adventure.
Beginner’s IcelandicOnce you’ve familiarized yourself with the books listed above, you’ll likely want to learn to speak a bit of the language – and here’s the resource to help you do just that. Part of the Hippocrene series of language books, Beginner’s Icelandic is an excellent introduction to the essentials of Icelandic grammar and comes equipped with two audio CDs for mastering pronunciation. Well organized and concisely presented, each of the 14 chapters in the book begins with a dialogue or two exemplifying new concepts, then moves on to add on individual grammar and vocabulary items, before throwing at you some practice exercises to review. While having studied this introductory text from cover to cover will not make you anywhere near fluent in Icelandic, it’s a good starting point for those looking to get a structured overview of the language before diving deeper into something more serious like Stefan Einarsson’s comprehensive Icelandic. Another possible next step would be to check out an audio course like Hildur Jonsdottir’s Teach Yourself Icelandic.
So now, dear reader, armed with your personal curiosity, good sense and the resources presented in this article, I wish you the best in your Icelandic odyssey in the hopes that it will eventually lead you to consider taking a trip to Iceland, as mine has certainly done for me.
In the meantime, we will continue to add relevant materials to the site, and periodically update this page with information on additional Iceland-related resources, links to in-depth book reviews and travel tips.
As devastating as they might be, the photographs from erupting volcanoes is quite awesome.