My favorite things Iceland

1. Saga: First choice goes to Njal’s Saga.  It’s the clearest and crispest of the lot.

2. Novel, modern: How about Audur Ava Olafsdottir’s The Greenhouse?  This is a boom area.  There are one hundred twenty Icelandic novels translated into German each year [correction of earlier estimate].

3. Popular music: Sigur Ros, Agaetis Byrjun.  This CD has a transcendental and also anthemic sound, even if the group never quite lived up to their initial promise.  Bjork albums I usually find pretentious and I would rather listen to her earlier group The Sugar Cubes.

4. Annual tournament: Ram groping.

5. Sea bird: The puffin, followed by the guillemot.

6. Video: Daniel Tammet learns how to speak Icelandic in a week.  That’s hard.

7. Economist: Erik Brynjolfsson, although I do not believe he was born in Iceland.

8. Movie: Maybe 101 Reyjkavik?  I have yet to see The Deep.

9. Movie, set in: Die Another Day, an underrated Bond movie in my view.

10. Vista: How about Höfn?

I am excited that we are arriving this morning.  And as for the food, don’t forget the glories of skyr.

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