The smiths of Old Norway could never have pulled it off so well.
And drinking glasses, too. Skold!
Modern Viking Armour and Weaponry in Reykjavik
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Tag Archives: Iceland
How to Beat the Icelandic Weather
Well, you can’t beat rain, snow, ice and muck, but you can be cleverer.
Note that in Reykjavik, if you park your car just right, at least one passenger (your sweetie, maybe?) can get in and out with dry feet. Now, that’s true love.
Improvisation vs. Subsidization: Class Power, the Icelandic Way
Iceland has one of the highest divides between wealthy and poverty people in the world. One result is that private construction is improvised and not meant to last.
Frakkastigur, Reykjavik
While government construction is sturdy and maintained.
The Church at Borg
This is not new. Private, circa 1945:
Private, 2016:
Government:
Looking out from the Harpa Concert Hall over the New Harbour in Reykjavik
Well, OK, government-financed completion of failed rich man’s extravagance. That’s part of the picture, too.
At Dawn, Iceland is Four Worlds at Once
At first, dawn is pure light.
þingvellavatn
Then it reveals another world.
Then it turns blue. The other world is still there, but white now.
Then there are colours, and mountains, as the two worlds join.
When you count the houses built at þingvellir each time Iceland enacts a new constitution, that’s three worlds. Well, four if you count the ice.
Reykjavik Has Gone to the Birds
But they’re sweet.
And pretty.
Who needs trees?
Glaciers are Tricksters
Anyone can see that.
Jokulsarlón
Sólheimajökull
But they’re also very friendly beasts. You just have to wait for them to come to you.
A kind of troll, really. Or, a whole family of them.
Snæfell
Big and sneaky.
Langjökull
Three Species of Icelandic Camouflage
Like the troll’s hair it nests upon, the white fleck of the gull hides in plain sight.
Islands, like Iceland, do the same in the middle of the sea.
Dyrhólaey
Out of Bounds
This photographer on Dyrhólaey is out of bounds. She crossed a barrier to get here. Thousands do.
Some die. Is this view not good enough?
Is this one not good enough?
What about this? So bad you need to die to get a different one?
We’d rather you were alive, really. Really. Besides, if you just turn around, you can see almost forever.
Then we could all go back and grill a lamb or something, drink some lava beer and have a great good time.
Well, ok, maybe not that.
Shadow Troll
It’s a thing for the end of those early winter days. Never a lonely moment in Iceland!
Dyrhólaey
A Different Perspective on the Reynisdrangar Trolls
They are famous, these ship-stealing trolls of South Iceland. You can see them off the point in the distance below, looking east…
…and looking west below.
But it’s the few from the north, from their lair, that shows how close they came to dragging those fishing boats in for dinner, and how alive they still are.
Never think a troll is dead. That would be a big mistake for your subconscious life, indeed.
A Farm in Iceland 