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11 unusual facts about Iceland


2008 Icelandic lorry driver protests

The 2008 Icelandic lorry driver protests were protests started by lorry drivers in Iceland through March−April 2008.

Árni Magnússon

The character Arnas Arnæus in Nobel prize-winner Halldór Kiljan Laxness's novel Iceland's Bell (Íslandsklukkan) is based on him; the novel concerns the manslaughter case against Jón Hreggviðsson, a farmer whose conviction was eventually reversed in part due to Árni and Vídalín's investigations.

Gljúfrafoss

Gljúfrafoss is a small waterfall north of the larger falls of Seljalandsfoss in Iceland.

Hvítá

There is more than one river called Hvítá in Iceland.

Iceland GeoSurvey

It also aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the Iceland landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research.

Keyta

Keyta was used instead of soap in Iceland before it was introduced there.

Leiðarhólmsskrá

Leiðarhólmsskrá was an agreement and an open letter to the King, named officials and the whole public, signed by 26 Icelandic chieftains in 1513, protesting ecclesiastical encroachment.

Merchant submarine

Its fate was never decisively uncovered, though she may have collided with the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Mantua south of Iceland, as was theorized after the war.

Mormaer of Moray

Njal's Saga was not written as a historical guide for details outside Iceland or Scandinavia and the text is notoriously unreliable.

Náttfari

Náttfari escaped from Garðar Svavarsson with a slave and a woman when Garðar set sail to the Hebrides from his newfound land which he named Garðarshólmi, now known as Iceland, in the 9th century.

The Letting Go

It was recorded in Reykjavík, Iceland and produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, who is known for his work with the Icelandic artist Björk.


1948 Winter Olympics

Chile, Denmark, Iceland, Korea, and Lebanon all made their Winter Olympic debut at these Games.

342d Fighter Day Group

The enemy was on the defensive, and the American defensive outposts in the Atlantic (Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and Bermuda) were shifting to secondary roles.

493d Bombardment Group

Aircrews left McCook in early May and flew the northern transport route to the U.K.; via New Hampshire, Labrador, thence to Debach by way of Iceland and Wales, or by way of Northern Ireland.

Á Móti Sól

Most of Á Móti Sól's members come from, and continue to be based out of, the south Iceland region that includes the towns of Hveragerði and Selfoss, about 45 km SE of Reykjavik.

Angela Rawlings

As an arts educator, rawlings has led creative writing workshops for Ryerson University, terminus1525.ca, Learning through the Arts, League of Canadian Poets, Ontario Arts Council's Artists in Education Program, the Toronto District School Board, Writers in Electronic Residence, the Toronto Public Library system, the State Library of Queensland (Australia), Menningarverkefnið Hlaðan (Vogar, Iceland), and Listaháskólinn Íslands (Reykjavík, Iceland).

Aron Gunnarsson

Aron has played club football in Iceland, the Netherlands, England and Wales for Þór Akureyri, AZ, Coventry City and Cardiff City.

Auseklis Limbazi Theatre

Production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Play Strindberg went to Belgium, Estonia and Lithuania, Sławomir Mrożek's At Sea travelled to Denmark, Iceland and Lithuania, Inga Abele's Dzelzzāle (Iron Weed) had its premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Baldur Sigurðsson

Baldur Sigurðsson (born 24 April 1985) is an Icelandic footballer, former player for Norwegian Adeccoligaen club Bryne and Icelandic clubs Völsungur and Keflavík.

Borgarhreppur

Borgarhreppur was formerly a rural parish (hreppur) in Mýrasýsla county, west Iceland, named after the ancient farm and church estate Borg á Mýrum which was occupied by Skallagrímur Kveldúlfsson, one of Iceland's original settlers.

City Star Airlines

City Star Airlines started operations on 28 March 2005 with one aircraft flying between Aberdeen, Scotland (Aberdeen Airport) and Oslo (Oslo Gardermoen Airport) in cooperation with and on the AOC of domestic airline Landsflug in Iceland.

Dagsbrún

, as well as most of the Icelandic media company Norðurljós, making it the largest corporate network provider in Iceland, offering mobile and fixed telephony and high-quality data networking, with a large footprint in the residential broadband and TV market.

Eistnaflug

Eistnaflug is an indoor festival situated in Neskaupstaður, a quaint little town located on the Norðfjörður fjord on the Eastern coast of Iceland, 700km away from Reykjavik

European Network Against Racism

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is an EU-wide network of NGOs in all European Union Member States and Iceland.

H-dagurinn

H-dagurinn or Hægri dagurinn (Icelandic: H-day or Right day) on 26 May 1968 is the day that Iceland changed from left hand traffic to right hand traffic.

Hannes Sigurðsson

Hannes Þorsteinn Sigurðsson (born 10 April 1983 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic football player.

Harpalus affinis

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Novaya Zemlya, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Haukur Halldórsson

Haukur Halldórsson (The Hawk) was born 1937 in Reykjavík is an Icelandic artist and member of the Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið.

Hofn Air Station

The Greenland, Iceland and United Kingdom air defense sector, better known as the GIUK gap, was routinely utilized by the Soviet Union's long range heavy bombers and maritime reconnaissance platforms as a transit point towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Icelandic outvasion

In 2005 a group of Danish journalists found that Thor Björgólfsson, his father Björgólfur Guðmundsson and friend Magnús Þorsteinsson all have background in Russia, where they ran beverage businesses in the 1990s before moving to Iceland.

Kalli Bjarni – Kalli Bjarni

Kalli Bjarni is the self-titled debut album composed of the songs performed by the Icelandic Idol Stjörnuleit winner Kalli Bjarni.

Kjartan Finnbogason

Kjartan Henry Finnbogason (born 9 July 1986 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Iceland international football player currently playing for KR in Iceland.

Laugarnes

Later the Bishop of Iceland had his residence in Laugarnes (1826–1856) and in 1898 a leper hospital was erected there.

MaJiKer

The album was recorded in Valgeir Sigurdsson's Greenhouse Studios, and in a remote summer house on a mountain in Laugarvatn, Iceland.

Möðrudalur

Möðrudalur is a farm settlement in Norður-Múlasýsla in Eastern Iceland, and the highest inhabited place in the country, at 469 m (1,539 ft) above sea level.

No. 271 Squadron RAF

For a while the Squadron operated a detached flight at RAF Wick running a regular service to Reykjavík in Iceland using de Havilland DH.91

Obrigado Saudade

Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, a former member of the Icelandic band Múm, makes a notable appearance in "Two, Three, Fall" and "Spain".

Olaf Tryggvason

In the 1190s, two sagas of Olaf Tryggvason were written in Iceland, by Oddr Snorrason and Gunnlaugr Leifsson.

Pétur Pétursson

Guðlaugur Pétur Pétursson (born 27 June 1959 in Akranes) is a retired Icelandic footballer who was active as a forward.

Randy Bolden

After his collegiate career ended, Bolden played professionally for teams in Iceland (Grindavík), Brazil (Londrina), and Canada (Saskatchewan Hawks).

RÚV

Gettu betur is a popular annual quiz tournament pitting teams from senior secondary schools around Iceland against each other in five rounds which are broadcast on radio and TV.

Samantha Britton

In summer 2000 Britton played for IBV in Iceland, finishing as the club's top goalscorer with 12 goals in 14 games.

Second cabinet of Davíð Oddsson

Halldór Ásgrímsson replaced Guðmundur Kristján Bjarnason as Minister for the Environment and Minister of Agriculture.

Símun Samuelsen

Símun Samuelsen (born 21 May 1985 in Vágur) is a Faroese football striker currently playing for HB Tórshavn after playing in Iceland for some years for Keflavik as a right or left winger but can also play as a second striker.

Skalla-Grímr

Skalla-Grímr did as his father directed, and when he arrived in Iceland, he discovered the casket had come ashore in the Mýrar district, near Borg.

Skjálfandafljót

At the north end of Sprengisandur road, the river drops down 10 m over the waterfall Aldeyjarfoss, in the lowlands, very near Route 1 there is another waterfall, Goðafoss which is among the most famous waterfalls in Iceland.

Stefán Karl Stefánsson

Stefán Karl Stefánsson (born 10 July 1975 in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland) is an Icelandic film and stage actor who is best known for playing the character Robbie Rotten on the television show LazyTown.

Steingrímur

Steingrímur Steinþórsson (1893–1966), Prime Minister of Iceland from 14 March 1950 to 11 September 1953

The Laundromat Cafe

In 2010 two more cafés were opened, at Austurstræti 9, Reykjavík, Iceland and at Gammel Kongevej 96 Frederiksberg, Denmark.

The Laundromat Cafe is the name of four cafés in Copenhagen, Denmark and Reykjavík, Iceland.

There's a Star

Mark explains the original plan for the video: "We're off to Iceland to shoot it up in the mountains, imagine vast area covered in snow, think Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, we're all dressed Han Solo style with Rebel Alliance logos with rescue flares going up in the night and we're gonna comes across 'Snow Jawas'. Whilst Tim makes a quest across the snow scape searching for his "Flying V" just in time for the solo. How epic".

Thomas Gernon

His work on the internal structure of volcanoes also takes him to many active volcanoes around the world, including those of Iceland, Italy, Greece, and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

Thóra Arnórsdóttir

Her father Arnór Hannibalsson was a philosopher, and professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland.

Turkish Abductions

This event is popularly known in Iceland as Tyrkjaránið – the 'Turkish Raid', as it was launched from areas within the Ottoman Empire, although no Turks are known to have been involved.

Violeta Chamorro

Chamorro was the first elected female head of state in the Americas, the second in the Western Hemisphere after Iceland's Vigdís Finnbogadóttir and the fifth in the world after the elections of Agatha Barbara in Malta, Elisabeth Kopp in Switzerland and Corazon Aquino in the Philippines.

Wilhelm Junker

After a series of short journeys to Iceland (1869), Western Africa (1873), Tunis (1874) and Lower Egypt (1875), he remained almost continuously in eastern Equatorial Africa from 1875 to 1886, making first Khartoum and afterwards Lado the base of his expeditions.

Þorri

The pagan sacrifice of Þorrablót disappeared with the Christianization of Iceland, but in the 19th century, a midwinter festival called Þorrablót was introduced in Romantic nationalism, and is still popular in contemporary Iceland, since the 1960s associated with a selection of traditional food, called Þorramatur.