> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • The Evolution of Race in Admissions
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Lingua Franca-Circular Icon

Lingua Franca: An Orgy in Iceland

Language and writing in academe.

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

An Orgy in Iceland

By  William Germano
November 26, 2017
Laxness_portrett_einar_hakonarson_1984
Portrait of Halldór Laxness by Einar Hakonarson, 1984

At least there was no orgy on board the plane.

I say this with some relief, and also embarrassment, since I should have known better, language-wise.

The message peeking over the top of the seat pocket read ÖRYGGYI UM BORÐ. No need to panic — this was Iceland, and the heading merely announced “Safety on board,” with a card that mimed the familiar visuals — international, wordless — in which imagined persons act out with imagined calm the necessary precautions.

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Laxness_portrett_einar_hakonarson_1984
Portrait of Halldór Laxness by Einar Hakonarson, 1984

At least there was no orgy on board the plane.

I say this with some relief, and also embarrassment, since I should have known better, language-wise.

The message peeking over the top of the seat pocket read ÖRYGGYI UM BORÐ. No need to panic — this was Iceland, and the heading merely announced “Safety on board,” with a card that mimed the familiar visuals — international, wordless — in which imagined persons act out with imagined calm the necessary precautions.

ADVERTISEMENT

Iceland is a ridiculously beautiful place, but what I had not remembered from a visit more than two decades ago is that the Icelandic language, famously our closest living relative to Old Norse, is mysteriously beautiful, too. Unlike my medievalist friends, I don’t get to play in the world of the early Germanic languages, but if you thought you might become a medievalist, Iceland is the place to visit and Icelandic the language to hear.

There you will discover a small country famous for its literacy, the English-language competence of its inhabitants, the alarming cost of food, fumaroles, glaciers, puffins, the landscape’s rapid-fire delivery of visual stunners, the home of the first European parliament, and the place where the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia meet.

Also a written language with those two visually appealing dental fricatives, both of which appear in, for instance, the word það (“that”).

Iceland is everywhere a language lesson.

I listened to a guide patiently explaining to our group that Icelandic was a “cousin” of English, none of which immediately helped with mastering an insouciant delivery of “Eyjafjallajökull,” the name of the glacier over the volcano that paralyzed air traffic to Western Europe back in 2010.

ADVERTISEMENT

In Iceland, the disposal of trash is systematized through categories — no longer a rarity in the U.S. — but there was still something delightful in coming across almost-familiar words. Discarded “papers and cardboard” should be deposited in the bin marked “Pappír og Pappi,” which seemed like an excellent name for a children’s show, possibly with gently misbehaving puppets.

One quickly learns not to misread signs for Háskóli Íslands as “the Haskoli Islands” but as the University of Iceland.

And everywhere the double shadow of the Vikings — the historic past of the peoples who came to this island, and the cinematic northerners of HBO. I asked a cashier where Game of Thrones was filmed, and he obligingly pointed to a spot on a map.

For literature types, the medieval Icelandic Eddas mark one end of the historic spectrum and Halldór Laxness, Iceland’s 1955 Nobel in Literature, the other. Reykjavik’s bookstores have plenty in both Icelandic and English.

I’ve already been telling friends that should a cable-TV series need an extra, possibly one set in the fictional Haskoli Islands, I’ve picked out my name: Bjór Garðurinn. Yes, it means Beer Garden (and was the name of the pub in my hotel), but it just looks so Icelandic. The fanbase would spread, and I might even gain a loveable nickname (the “Thirstquencher”).

ADVERTISEMENT

I‘m sure það would smarten up my c.v.

[[Image courtesy of Klettur at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3984002]]

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin