Politics & the Pirate Party with Iceland’s Youngest President of City Council: Part 2 – Ep15

12/07/19 • -1 min

During part 2 of the interview that I did with Dóra Björt Guðjónsdóttir, Iceland’s youngest President of the Reykjavík City Council, she reveals even more details about Icelandic society that are unknown to the outside world. If you haven’t listened to part 1 yet, I highly recommend that you do because Dóra shares some insightful information about Icelandic politics and society.

In this episode, Dóra talks more about Iceland’s aggressive discussion culture and ways she is working to combat it in order to foster a more democratic society. She also hits on the shift toward freedom of the press, independent media, transparency and the growing feeling in Icelandic people that it is their responsibility to care about what is happening in politics in their country. However, there is a long way to go and this interview opened my eyes to some deep seated beliefs in Iceland.

The Questions I Asked Dóra During the Interview

Have other women assimilated to using masculine and aggressive ways of expressing themselves in the City Council?
Are men aware of the aggressive discussion culture and their role?
From a foreigner or outsider’s view, it seems as though the 2008 financial crash in Iceland sparked a change in the government because the people demanded it. How different is the political landscape now as opposed to before the crash?
What do you feel are some important topics being discussed in Iceland that people who live outside of the country or those that do not understand the language would not be aware of?
The financial crisis in 2008 and some scandals since then have weakened some people’s confidence in politicians in Iceland. What do you feel politicians and the government as a whole needs to do to gain back the confidence of Icelandic people?

I hope you enjoyed listening to part 2 of this interview. The third and final part will be released next week, so make sure you are subscribed to the All Things Iceland podcast so you don’t miss it. If you are able to leave a review, please do so, if you haven’t already.

Let’s be social! Here is where you can connect with me on social media platforms:

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega (Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

The Questions I Asked Dóra During the Interview

Have other women assimilated to using masculine and aggressive ways of expressing themselves in the City Council?
Are men aware of the aggressive discussion culture and their role?
From a foreigner or outsider’s view, it seems as though the 2008 financial crash in Iceland sparked a change in the government because the people demanded it. How different is the political landscape now as opposed to before the crash?
What do you feel are some important topics being discussed in Iceland that people who live outside of the country or those that do not understand the language would not be aware of?
The financial crisis in 2008 and some scandals since then have weakened some people’s confidence in politicians in Iceland. What do you feel politicians and the government as a whole needs to do to gain back the confidence of Icelandic people?

Let’s be social! Here is where you can connect with me on social media platforms:

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega (Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

Previous Episode

Jesse Byock Interview: Author of the Viking Language Series – EP1

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Byock, professor of Old Norse and Medieval Scandinavian Studies at UCLA and Háskóli Íslands for the All Things Iceland Podcast. We sat down in his lovely apartment in Reykjavík to chat about his book “Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas”.

I met Jesse at the 2017 Polyglot Conference in Reykjavík, Iceland after seeing the captivating cover of his book (below) that was laying on the table. I ended up having a chat with Jesse about living in Iceland, the Icelandic language and the Viking Language book series. As an archaeologist and an expat that has lived in Iceland for decades, Jesse has some fascinating stories to share. You will hear some of them in this interview.

Viking Language 1 – A Brief Overview

Can you guess what the creature is on the front cover of his book? Jesse reveals the answer at 24:05 in the podcast.

Viking Language 1 is a grammar book for beginners that want an introduction to Old Norse, but it goes beyond the normal humdrum grammar book. Over the course of 20 years, Jesse developed this book based on the feedback he received from his students while teaching Old Norse. Instead of just cramming the book with rote grammar and vocabulary exercises, he decided to weave in tidbits of history, culture and stories in between the exercises. He also included maps that display where Vikings traveled in Europe and North America. This refreshing approach made doing the exercises fun. History and culture enthusiasts will be delighted with the plethora of information he provides.

While Jesse uses this book to teach Old Norse in the classroom, he stated in the interview that he structured the book so people could use it for independent learning. As a do-it-yourself kind of person, I appreciate the effort he made to create a book that is also useful for people who are not taking a class.

You can find Viking Language 1 & 2 on Amazon

Learn More About Jesse Byock & His Other Books

Jesse’s Viking Language website

Jesse has authored many books and they are available on Amazon.

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að lesa (og að hlusta). Sjáumst fljótlega.

Thank you kindly for reading (and listening to the podcast). See you soon!

Next Episode

Iceland's Unique & Strict Naming Traditions – Ep. 29

Icelandic names can be difficult to pronounce, spell and understand when being spoken, especially for someone that doesn’t know the language. Even though, Icelandic people are pretty laid back about many things, mainly because they live in a world where flexibility of plans is a crucial part of their survival, they take their names seriously. I will first start out with explaining the structure of Icelandic names, and then I will delve a bit deeper into the fascinating rules and unique cultural aspects of this system.

Structure of Icelandic Names

In Iceland, a native person’s last name is usually a combination of their father’s first name and if they are his daughter or son. I say usually because this system is mostly patronymic. However, there are people whose last name is a combination of their mother’s first name and if they are her daughter or son.

For example, let’s say there is a woman named Guðrún who has a father with the first name Jón. Her name will be Guðrún Jónsdóttir, or literally Guðrún the daughter of Jón. If there is a man named Guðmundur and his father ́s first name is Helgi, his name will be Guðmundur Helgason. Literally, his name is Guðmundur the son of Helgi. You might have noticed that the names Jón and Helgi changed a little bit when they became last names (Jónsdóttir and Helgason). This has to do with the structure of the Icelandic language and how words are declined depending on the grammatical case they are in.

Additionally, someone’s last name can be a combination of their parent’s middle name and their gender. Some Icelandic people prefer to be called by their middle name rather than their first name. In fact, an Icelander might decide that their middle fits the child’s name better when made into a last name.

An Easy System to Learn

While this system might confusing at first, the good news is that the learning curve for understanding this system is fairly easy. If you know an Icelandic person’s full name, you will know right away if they are male or female. This can be helpful, especially since some Icelandic first names are quite unique. For instance, it might be hard for a foreigner to know if someone named Guðbjörg is male or female. Just for the record, it is a female name. Random side note, I am curious to see how Iceland’s system adapts to individuals that do not conform to a gender, but I won’t be diving into that topic today.

A Country (Mostly) Without Family Names

Because an Icelandic person’s last name is dependent on one of their parent’s first names and their gender, there are mostly no family names. For example, a family of four that has two parents and two kids, one male and the other female, will all have different last names. In the following example, I will do my best to explain this. However, if it gets confusing, please check out the list of names for the family below.

Gunnar Guðmundsson is married to Katrín Einarsdóttir. They have two kids, a daughter named Guðný and a son named Björgvin. The parents have decided to take the traditional route and the kids last names will have the father’s first name. The full names of the kids are Guðný Gunnarsdóttir and Björgvin Gunnarsson. When you look at all of the names spelled out in a row, they are all different.

Icelandic Family of 4 (Example)

Gunnar Guðmundsson
Katrín Einardóttir
Guðný Gunnarsdóttir
Björgvin Gunnarsson

Of course, same sex siblings, such as brothers, will have the same last name in a family as long as they share the same father or mother whose first or middle name is being used for their last name.

Icelandic people do not see this system as strange. However, the majority of people from other countries are shocked to hear this fact. Finding this out made Iceland even more intriguing to me, and it might even do the same for you.

While the surname system that I mentioned to you is the most common in Iceland, there are some people that have family names. There are very few family names here. Most of them were created by Icelanders that lived abroad in Denmark and adapted to the family name system before returning to Iceland. Some famous Icelandic people have inherited family names, such as Halldór Laxness, Iceland’s only Nobel laureate. There is a reason that there are few Icelandic people with inherited surnames That reason is that a law was put in place after 1925 that prohibited Icelandic people from having a family name unless that person has a legal right to do so through inheritance.