We tell you how to “freeze” your youth, how shark fat and volcanic lava are useful, what jokull is and why beauty contests are banned in Iceland.
"No" bikini
Girls in Iceland, like most Scandinavian women, age late - all thanks to the climate. Regular cold really prevents the appearance of deep wrinkles, which are typical for residents of hot countries. Given that in Iceland, even in summer, the temperature rarely rises above 10 degrees, the girls do not have to lose much weight: they do not often wear skimpy bikinis. Icelandic women feel quite sexy in woolen sweaters.
Natural cryotherapy
The beautiful skin of the inhabitants of the island is due to natural cryotherapy. True, strong icy winds can harm the skin if not protected. Therefore, fatty creams and textures are here in every girl's cosmetic bag.
In Icelandic stores, light and airy fluids and flowing serums almost do not come - there is no demand. The most popular is the Icelandic national remedy Shark Cream, that is, a cream made from shark oil. It not only protects the skin from frost, but also heals, soothes, tones it.
Blue Lagoon
Iceland is an amazing place with unspoilt nature, incredible cliffs and a huge amount of geothermal healing springs. The most famous is the natural pool called the Blue Lagoon. It is distinguished by a rich azure milky color and thermal water of 36.6 ° C. Naturally, the Icelanders have a cult of water, they are not averse to spending all their free time in hot springs.
Tourists are usually embarrassed that Icelanders drink water straight from the tap. The fact is that it undergoes complete purification, but still it is taken from thermal springs, and therefore has a characteristic smell of hydrogen sulfide. But Icelanders firmly believe in the benefit of their water.
Take care of your nerves!
Icelandic women are perhaps the calmest girls, while one of the happiest. Let the world be obsessed with plastic, beauty injections, weight loss and trips to psychoanalysts.
Icelandic girls believe that these complexes are a manifestation of self-dislike. They accept themselves for who they are. Icelanders are tolerant: in 2011, they refused to host the Miss Iceland national pageant, believing it was discrimination. Perhaps that is why they look better: in their life there are no stresses and complexes based on appearance.
Always in moving
In Iceland live strong tall girls with mostly blond hair and full lips. Interestingly, they cannot imagine life without sports: cycling, climbing, rafting, swimming, horseback riding, handball, golf - all this in the fresh air among the beautiful Icelandic landscapes.
Jokull and volcanic lava
Icelanders are "the richer, the more happy." Women support the domestic manufacturer by choosing cosmetic products made from volcanic lava, shark oil and jokull, as the Icelanders call the water obtained from the iceberg.
Melt water, like lava, becomes a component for scrubs and tonics. By the way, despite the constant cold, creams with SPF are also a must-buy here: snow reflects the sun and enhances its effect on the skin.
The calm fury with which Icelandic footballers perform at Euro 2016, and the fans support them, makes one believe that Icelanders are the most proud nation on the planet.
Even the most optimistic Icelanders did not believe that Iceland would beat England at Euro 2016, although, of course, everyone hoped in their hearts.
In fact, football has never before held any place of honor in the Icelandic sports hierarchy. For many years, handball was considered the national sport, which brought Iceland silver at the 2008 Olympics and bronze at the 2010 European Championships.
But about 15 years ago, football began to develop actively - at the suggestion of the authorities, who financed the construction of seven closed fields. Prior to that, only open areas existed in the country. Like residential buildings, they were heated by geothermal energy.
The nation is very small - a little more than 300 thousand people, so everyone stands behind the other mountain.
Already after the first performances of the national team at Euro 2016, the whole world started talking that Iceland has the best fans and the warmest relations between football players and fans. And many got goosebumps through the almost ecstatic action that the athletes performed when they defeated the England team - they hooted menacingly and clapped their hands in sync with the crowd of thousands of compatriots in the stands.
Huge screens were put up in the center of Reykjavik by the beginning of the championship, as if calling everyone to cheer in the crowd. More than 10,000 people dressed in T-shirts of the national team watched the match with England on the square. The victory was celebrated until morning. Many after that could not come to work, and the authorities treated this with understanding. The match between the Icelandic team and the Austrian team took place at 16:00 local time, so the end of the working day across the country was officially announced at 15:30, so that everyone could get to the TV.
A few years ago in Iceland, almost all men wore beards (such as those of the Vikings in the pictures) - this trend appeared here much earlier than throughout Europe. Now it has practically disappeared, although you can still meet a bearded Icelander. A bright representative is the captain of the football team Aron Gunnarsson.
Typical Icelanders are tall (seventy meters and above) and mostly slender people with porcelain skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Icelandic women have a completely unique beauty, but, unfortunately, they do not really try to emphasize it (especially young girls). The manner of dressing can be described as indifference to what you are wearing. Older ladies, as well as most men, pay much more attention to their appearance and manners. But by nature it is a very beautiful nation!
In Iceland, especially in small towns and villages, everyone knows each other. This is true even for the capital of the country - Reykjavik, whose population is 125 thousand people. In your environment, there will definitely be a person who knows who you need. There is even an online directory containing information about every inhabitant of the country with addresses and telephone numbers, the so-called "Book of Icelanders". When a young man and a girl enter into a romantic relationship, they can check the degree of their relationship by entering information about themselves into an online directory.
Most Icelanders respect family values, despite the fact that more than half of the population is not officially married. Even if the family breaks up, then, as a rule, both parents are equally involved in the upbringing of the child: one week he lives with his father and his new family, the other with his mother and her family. Such a schedule is in order here. Fathers spend just as much time with their children as mothers, and on weekends, somewhere on a walk in the city center or a shopping center, you can easily meet a bearded two-meter Viking with a stroller in which two small children are sitting, and the third one is running nearby. He walks alone with them and, if necessary, changes diapers, straightens pink bows, calms the roar, and does it all with undisguised pleasure!
It is impossible to say that Icelanders are all sailors. Of course, many are involved in fishing, but this is far from the only thing they do here.
A distinctive feature of the Icelanders, perhaps, is their versatility. Heimir Hallgrimsson - football coach and dentist at the same time - is not an exception, but rather the rule. You can often meet, for example, an accountant-actor (works in the office during the day, plays in the theater in the evening), an IT musician-musician (writes code during the day, performs with a group in clubs in the evening) and so on.
The working week in Iceland is 37.5 hours. Many work from 8 am, so at 4 pm they are already moving towards the house or playing football with friends. Around 7 pm, the roads in the city are empty, as this is dinner time, and dinner is a sacred thing. If you are invited to dinner in Iceland, then in 99% of cases you will be expected by 7 pm.
Icelanders are very fond of traveling and, as a rule, the whole family. Domestic tourism is very popular in the country, it is customary to relax either with tents or rent summer houses. This is something like our dachas, but without a garden, since you can’t grow much on lava fields, and there is no such culture here, just as there are no natural forests. But Iceland has its own strawberries all year round, its own cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, greens, which are grown in geothermal greenhouses and without the use of inorganic fertilizers. The fact that all vegetables and fruits must be washed before eating, my Icelandic husband learned from me at the age of 37 and laughed.
The weather forecast plays an important role in the life of Icelanders, which is understandable, because their country is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and not far from the Arctic Circle. The weather changes literally a hundred times a day. Moreover, if the forecast is bad, then you can be sure that it will be so, and if it is good, then there is always a chance that the weather will quickly change for the worse. That is why all warm (+12-15 degrees) and sunny days in June-August are just worth their weight in gold and all Icelanders sincerely rejoice at them.
But in general, everyone is used to frequent changes in the weather and has adapted to such a life: people ride bicycles around the city almost all year round and even during snowfalls in winter (unless they have announced a storm warning and asked citizens not to leave their homes), and also commit running in pouring rain or squally winds. They say that if they wait for good weather, they will never start playing sports.
The citizens of Iceland take a very active part in the political life of the country. For example, last Saturday the presidential elections were held here, and everyone considered it their duty to vote. None of those with whom I spoke said: nothing depends on me anyway, so I'd better stay at home in the rain, as is often the case in Russia.
Iceland gained full independence from Denmark in 1944, since then more than one generation of people has grown up who consider themselves absolutely free Icelandic citizens. Nevertheless, in schools, children are required to study Danish (as, indeed, English), many of them then leave for Denmark to receive higher education. Icelanders do not consider Denmark their big brother, they talk more about friendship and warm relations between the two countries. But Iceland has a younger brother - the Faroe Islands, which are part of Denmark, but support Iceland in everything - from the football team to the financial system in the 2008 crisis.
1. Iceland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, with about 320 thousand people living here, and before the Second World War the country's population was only 50 thousand.
2. Since everyone in Iceland knows each other, when parting or divorcing, a couple always tries to maintain a good relationship. Cases when an ex-boyfriend does not communicate with an ex-girlfriend or ex-spouses do not talk to each other are extremely rare, because in any case, they have almost all friends and acquaintances in common.
3. Instead of surnames in Iceland - patronymics, that is, an analogue of our patronymic. The particle “sleep” (that is, son) or “dottir” (if it is a daughter) is added to the name of the father, for example, Silia Palmarsdottir, that is, Silia Palmars daughter, is added.
4. In the event that the father for some reason does not recognize the child, the son or daughter receives a matronym as a surname, that is, the same patronymic, but by the name of the mother.
5. Since everyone in Reykjavik knows everyone else, the doors of houses are often not locked, car keys are left in cars, and children in strollers are left unattended at the entrance to a cafe, bar or shop.
6. In Reykjavik, it's normal to go out to the nearest grocery store in your pajamas.
7. Residents of Reykjavik almost always pay for purchases with bank cards, even if they order coffee at a bar. Cash is not accepted here.
8. Icelanders are sure that blowing your nose is unhealthy, so in winter everyone here sniffs, that is, sorry, they draw snot into themselves.
9. But spitting, on the contrary, is not considered indecent, even girls spit on the street and in public places without any problems.
10. In fact, in Iceland in winter it is not as cold as we used to think, the temperature here rarely drops below -6 degrees.
11. But in winter it is dark in Iceland, on December 21 - on the shortest day of the year, dawn comes at 10.30, and the sun sets already at 16.00. In the summer, long nights are replaced by long days, compared to which the white nights in St. Petersburg are simply nothing, in June in Iceland the sun sets for only a couple of hours.
12. The lack of sunlight in winter is compensated to some extent by the northern lights, you can see it all the time, so after a couple of weeks you no longer pay attention to it.
13.
Since the sun does not shine in Iceland in winter, all the inhabitants of the country, in order to avoid rickets and other unpleasant diseases, take fish oil without fail, but not in liquid form, but in tasteless capsules.
14.
Almost all Icelanders have profiles on Facebook, according to the latest data, Iceland is an active country in the social network.
15. Even if an Icelander doesn't have a Facebook profile for some reason, they can still be easily found online. All residents of the country, of their own free will, register on the website www.ja.is, where they indicate their first and last name, phone number, address and place on the map where their house is located.
16. In Iceland, if a person is well disposed toward you, he demonstrates this by touching something and something.
17. There are an order of magnitude more blondes in Iceland than brunettes, so local residents like to dye their hair in a darker shade.
18. In order to spend the night with an Icelandic girl, long courtship is not required, most Icelandic women are, as they say, easy going, which is why Italians and Spaniards love to come to Reykjavik so much.
19. Icelanders are very tolerant, a gay pride parade is regularly held in Reykjavik, homosexual marriages have been allowed here since 2010, and the percentage of bisexuals in the country is very high.
20 . The most popular professions in Iceland are artist, musician or designer. Every second bartender or waiter tries to get an education in a creative specialty, and at the same time plays in some kind of rock or folk group.
21. For the reason described above, no one uses the services of designers, for example, to come up with the design of an apartment or a wedding dress. The inhabitants of Iceland are sure that each of them is an artist himself, therefore they prefer to invent the interior of the apartment and the design of the dress on their own.
22. Repairs in apartments are also done mainly with their own hands, without hiring workers.
23. Icelanders are crazy about Eurovision, they take the competition of young singers very seriously here, and during the live broadcast, the whole country is watching what is happening on TV.
24. There are no McDonald's restaurants in Iceland, the latter closed in 2008 during the crisis.
25. The most popular names in Iceland are Jon for men and Guvrun for women. Also, ancient mythological names are still common, for example, aðalsteinn, which means "main stone".
26. Icelanders, like Russians, like to use in everyday life not full, but abbreviated versions of names, so David in the diminutive Icelandic version will be Dabby, Guvrun - Gunna, Stefan - Steppi, Jon - Nonni, etc.
27. The language of Iceland has not changed much over the past 1000 years, so there are letters in it that have disappeared from English, plus the inhabitants of the country can read the old Viking sagas in the original without any problems.
28. The local population generally loves to read, today, according to some reports, the Icelanders are the most reading people in the world.
29. The price of wine in Iceland is often determined not by the year of its production or quality, but by the strength. Thus, an expensive but light French wine can cost many times less than a 15-degree chatter.
30. There are no armed forces in Iceland, their functions are performed to some extent by the Coast Guard.
31. The police in Iceland do not carry weapons, they are not issued pistols.
32. Residents of Reykjavik for the most part are terrible at parking, they can throw the car right across the street. The presence of tow trucks and fines for parking in the wrong place do little to help.
33. Icelanders are trying to use only renewable energy sources, gas and gasoline are used here only to fuel cars and boats, and this is because electric cars have not taken root in the country.
34. There is no need to pay for water in restaurants and cafes, it is still poured from a tap. This is water from local thermal springs, and therefore it is absolutely drinkable.
35. But the hot tap water in Iceland smells like rotten eggs. The fact is that it also enters the water supply system directly from hot thermal springs, and they are rich in hydrogen sulfide.
36. Taking hot thermal baths is a popular evening activity in Reykjavik, the cost of visiting with the purchase of a subscription is about 5 euros.
37. In the houses of Iceland, as in Russia, there is a central heating system, which distinguishes the country favorably from Italy or France, where you have to pay for each inclusion of the heater.
38. Until the seventies of the twentieth century, Icelandic law allowed the inhabitants of the country to kill Turks with impunity. This is because in the past, Turkish pirates often plundered Icelandic ships and coastal villages.
39. To this day, Icelandic law allows the inhabitants of the country to kill polar bears for food.
40. In Iceland, licorice is very popular, it is added to any dishes, plus chocolates with licorice filling are produced here.
41. The national dish of Iceland is haukarl, the rotten meat of the Greenland shark cut into small pieces. If you do not chew it and just swallow it, it is still quite edible, but if you chew the meat, you will feel the “magic” taste of urea. The fact is that the Greenland shark does not have a urinary tract and its meat contains poisonous ammonia. In order for the meat to be eaten, it is left to rot for three months underground or in the basement. The creators of The Simpsons sneered at the taste of this dish, among other things, in one of the episodes of the animated series.
42. In Iceland, they eat mostly fish, while all dishes are poured over the top with mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup, after which the real taste of fish can not be recognized.
43. Most Icelanders have very bad teeth, while Iceland is one of the main sugar-consuming countries, and Coca-Cola is also very popular here.
44. Most Icelanders still believe in elves and trolls, which makes it difficult to build a house or a road. Before construction begins, local “witches” are consulted here to see if it is possible to move this or that stone, or whether an elf lives under it. Sometimes, in order not to “offend” the elf and move the stone, the Icelanders have to perform magical rites, for example, keep the stone in honey for some time.
45. 2,148 people in Iceland adhere to the pagan teachings of the Ásatrú Association, which is based on a revival of Icelandic and Norwegian pagan beliefs. This religion is officially accepted, and its ministers can perform a wedding ceremony, which is equivalent to the traditional registration of marriage.
46. In addition to the well-known Santa Claus in Iceland, there are 15 Santa Clauses of different types, by and large they are all elves, in which the locals believe.
47. Every major store in Reykjavik has a playground.
48. All Icelanders wear lopapeysa - a knitted jacket made of sheep's wool with a characteristic national pattern. We can say that this is the very example of a national costume that has not disappeared over time.
49. The Icelanders are proud to have the oldest undisbanded parliament in the world, it is called Alþingi and was founded in 930.
50. The inhabitants of Iceland are very trusting, when applying for a job, they do not ask a foreigner for recommendations from a previous job, but simply take the newcomer's word for it.
Each people of the world has its own characteristics, which are absolutely normal and ordinary for them, but if a person of a different nationality gets into their midst, he may be very surprised at the habits and traditions of the inhabitants of this country, because they will not coincide with his own ideas about life. We invite you to find out 10 national habits and characteristics of the Icelanders, which may seem surprising and a little strange to Russian people.
When meeting an Icelander personally, it may seem that you have met the hero of an ancient saga, because you will introduce yourself as, say, Petur, the son of Bjorn, or Gudrun, the daughter of Vilhjalm. The Icelanders have preserved the custom of the Vikings to give the newborn the name of the father instead of the surname. In the past, when the population of these cold lands was very small, there was really no need for surnames. Today, however, in a typical Icelandic family of three, mother, father, and son will have different initials. Therefore, in order to successfully find someone in the Icelandic phone book, you will have to remember their family tree well.
Local jokers like to express the population of Iceland in sheep. It's a funny fact, but there are twice as many of those on the island as people. Charming woolen balls on short legs walk around for six months wherever they please, enjoying the green grass and incredible landscapes. This is really a sheep's paradise: in Iceland there are not even predators that are dangerous for cattle, so pet guards are not needed. When the grazing season (from spring to autumn) ends, farmers go in search of sheep throughout the country. How are they different, you ask? An ancestral system operates here: sheep are collected in large paddocks, and then sorted according to special marks on the ears, the appearance of which each farmer thoughtfully invented himself (there are even special catalogs of marks in the country). Sheep gathering in Iceland is a fun, noisy event that attracts entire families.
In the everyday life of Icelanders, knitting is as important as discussing the weather: men and women simply masterfully use knitting needles. The townspeople, however, today are already a little embarrassed to do this in public places, considering it a little old-fashioned, but in the villages there are many amusing stories about enthusiastic knitters. So, some farmers are noticed with knitting needles in their hands right at work - for example, during pasture of a herd of sheep.
Imagine that in a gourmet restaurant the menu is replete with the positions “black pudding”, “pickled lamb testicles”, “sour whale meat”, “jelly from lamb horns and hooves”, “ram's head”, “rotten shark meat tenderloin” ... No , this is not a nightmare of a Parisian gourmet! Forced for centuries to live in difficult climatic conditions, the Icelanders have formed very special taste preferences. The bowels of Iceland are devoid of minerals, there were also no freezers for a long time, so the locals had to learn how to do without salt and somehow solve the problem of food storage. They dried the food, smoked it, waited for it to go rotten - they experimented, in general. For example, the dish haukarl is known - dried meat of the Greenland polar shark. It is poisonous fresh due to the high content of urea, so shark pieces are first kept in barrels with gravel for six months (during this time, excess juices will leave the meat), and then dried in the sun for about three more months. However, not only Icelanders have bizarre taste preferences. You can read about the strange gastronomy of other inhabitants of the planet in our article Unpleasant Appetite.
How to build a house in a country where there has been practically no forest for many centuries? Using the meager possibilities of the ice island, the Icelanders built peat houses for housing, somewhat reminiscent of dugouts from ancient Russian fairy tales: original dwellings, half underground, with stone walls and a thick layer of turf on the roof and walls to keep warm. But after all, you had to fight for your life with colds and poverty in the distant past, what kind of dugouts can we talk about in the 21st century, you ask? But the Icelanders are an amazing people: today many of them will completely upgrade traditional houses from the inside, keeping the peat cover, and the roofs are not averse to sowing with a lawn. The choice in favor of eco-friendly housing made from natural materials turned out to be not only wise, but also fabulously beautiful!
If a domestic theatergoer decides to attend a dramatic production in Iceland, then in his evening dress he risks seeming an eccentric. Icelanders can safely watch the play right in their outerwear: jackets, coats and even hats. During the intermission, spectators with young children can climb onto the stage and wander among the scenery, and even on the stage itself, the most radical experiments with nature have been noticed more than once. Easier, gentlemen, in Iceland you need to be simpler.
Despite the rather traditional way of everyday life in Iceland, the local religious institute works in a very original way. The official state religion on the island, Lutheranism, allows women to be priests on an equal footing with men. Agree, for Orthodox Christians the thing is unimaginable. Lutheran churches are scattered all over Iceland, and their appearance is even more striking - they look more like futuristic art objects than meeting places with God. The fact that the building is a church, and not a museum of modern art, can only be guessed by the presence of a cross, although that is often absent. The question is, why not?
We can safely say that the family is the main value in the life of any Icelander. The country has created all the conditions for a happy and safe childhood: comfortable schools with a variety of curricula, centers for creative development, state benefits. But what inspires me the most is the lack of orphanages. In Iceland, there are only temporary shelters, where an abandoned child or orphan is quickly picked up by parents from a whole line of hospitable families ready to take him under their care. The first nursing homes, by the way, also opened quite recently, as traditionally younger children consider it their duty to move in with their elderly parents in order to provide them with a decent old age.
Surely you have already heard that the crime rate in Iceland is almost the lowest in the world. Locals are not afraid of neighbors and strangers - you will not see high fences, iron doors and bars on the windows. Icelanders often do not lock the doors of houses and cars at all. Murders and other violent crimes happen once or twice a year, and then in the heat of passion. No deliberate plans for violence.
The saying "born in a shirt" in Iceland is definitely used a little differently: "Lucky, he was definitely born in a sweater!" Groups of people in colorful, patterned sweaters with the local name "lopapeys" against the calm, deep tones of the Icelandic landscapes - a familiar, cozy picture. The wool of Icelandic sheep will warm you better than any down jacket - however, products from it come out prickly. This material, although rough, can withstand penetrating drafts and has water-repellent properties. Amazing mutual assistance: the farmer takes care of his pets, and vice versa.
Iceland
The kidnapping of an Icelandic woman
Icelandic bards told of a kind magician called Eirikur, who owned one such book and used it to help his compatriots when dark forces began to threaten them. (Meaning the magical book of Agrippa). One of his charges was a young farmer from the Westmann Islands. Seven weeks after the wedding, his young wife got up early in the morning and, as usual, went to collect firewood. She didn't return again. The farmer searched all around, but did not find her. Imagining that she had drowned in the icy sea, he fell into such despair that his friends began to seriously fear for his life. They advised him not to lose hope and to speak with Eirikur.
When the farmer approached the wizard's house, he realized that they were already waiting for him there. The sage first asked about the missing woman. Then he promised to put all his art at the disposal of the unfortunate husband.
For three days Eirikur studied the book and did nothing. One morning, in bad weather, he put the farmer on a horse and drove him to a pile of large stones on the side of a lonely hill. There he laid the book on a stone, and although the storm raged over them, the book remained dry and its pages did not even move.
Eirikur stared at the book intently, as if trying to absorb its contents. Then he circled the rock, moving in the time-honored manner of sorcerers, counter-clockwise, and cast a spell.
While the wizard was conjuring, some figures appeared from the stones and gathered on the grass. They were, Eirikur explained, mortals who had been kidnapped by trolls and taken to the underworld. He asked the farmer to look closely to see if his wife was among them. The farmer walked around the silent figures with blank faces. His wife was not among them. The sage sadly thanked those who came for responding to his call, and they again disappeared into the rock.
Eirikur returned to the book, found a new place in it, then walked around the rock again, muttering something. A new group of people emerged from the rock, but the farmer's wife was not among them either. Eirikur made another attempt and again failed. The pale and tired sorcerer admitted that he had summoned all the trolls in Iceland, and now he did not know what to do. Suddenly his eyes lit up.
Eirikur decided to summon a couple more trolls, whose names had not yet been mentioned in his spells, and pulled out a page with an ancient inscription from under his robe. Unrolling the parchment, he placed it on top of the open book and silently recited the incantation. A pair of terrible creatures stepped out of the rock, carrying a glass cage. Inside was a figure of a woman only a few inches high. The farmer screamed. The little creature was his wife.
Eirikur sent the trolls back to their dark world. When they disappeared, the glass cage fell to the ground and shattered, and Eirikur freed the prisoner. At first she remained just as unnaturally small, as if visible from a great height, but Eirikur cast a spell, and she, assuming her former appearance, threw herself into her husband's arms.
For safety, the wizard accompanied them to the island. Trolls deprived of their prey could be vengeful. He stayed at the farmer's house for three days, each evening lying down by the door with a book under his head for a pillow, and listening to the sounds outside. What he heard was not the crashing of the waves on the shore and not the cries of seagulls, but the witch's whisper of inhuman hatred. The trolls, unwilling to accept defeat, came to claim their slave.
They hid behind the door outside, peering through the windows with red, vicious eyes, muttering threats and curses through cracks in the wall. But Eirikur drew strength from the book that served him as a pillow. He rose, and spells so terrible broke from his lips that the night sky turned white, and the kidnappers - trolls - hid in the lower world with a frightened squeal. After hearing this story, women in Iceland began to walk very carefully, realizing that somewhere nearby on a deserted coast or at the foot of a black volcano, a couple of angry trolls were hiding, hunting for a new victim...
"Secret Arts", M., "Terra", 1996, 144 p.; ss. 20-22
ICELAND WOMEN
Women's Day in Iceland is celebrated annually on February 28th. This is due to the fact that around this day, according to the Old Norse calendar, the fifth month of the winter of Goa began, the mistress of which, according to various legends, was either the wife, or the daughter, or the sister of the previous month, Tori. This day has been celebrated since the 19th century. Men try to please their wives by taking on the burden of housework and serving them coffee and breakfast in bed. With the advent of flowers on the Icelandic market, multi-colored bouquets have also become an attribute of the holiday. Now it is also popular to give the ladies of the heart a special cake, the recipe of which is chosen every year by a special commission, which makes the standard of "Cake of the Year" the same in all pastry shops in the country.
Icelanders say that "if you haven't seen Iceland, you haven't seen anything". Nature is varied. A large part of the country is covered with majestic glaciers. And nearby fire-breathing volcanoes, geysers, lakes. Also rocky mountains and swift rivers, fabulous caves. In winter, you can swim in the lake - thermal springs heat the water all the time.
The harsh nature and living conditions hardened the Icelanders. A woman in Iceland has always had equal rights with a man. An expression of this is the fact that at the birth of a girl she is given a "surname" which remains with her for the rest of her life. If a boy, when born, receives the “surname” Hanssen, that is, the son of Hans, then the girl is given the “surname” Hansendottir, that is, the daughter of Hansen. This "surname" is retained after marriage.
This situation is explained historically. Before the first settlements, the island was deserted. The groups of settlers who arrived on the island were predominantly male. There were few women. Therefore, they were appreciated. As the sagas tell, it was not considered shameful if a woman got married several times.
Bjork (Björk) Gvyudmundsdottir is an Icelandic singer, actress, musician, composer and songwriter:
Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdóttir. She is 25 years old, she is from Reykjavik, in 2005 she received the crown of "Miss World". Currently working as an anthropologist:
Sif Agustsdottir. Model:
Anita Briem. 27 years old, actress, best known for her role in the TV series The Tudors, and in 2008 starred in the blockbuster Journey to the Center of the Earth as Hannah. She is the daughter of drummer Gunnlaugur Briem and backing vocalist Erna Þórarinsdóttir:
A woman who had illegitimate children was not condemned, on the contrary, it was valued as a fact indicating the ability to bear children. The small Icelandic society rejoiced at every new citizen, under whatever conditions he was born.
Although the sagas say that it is humiliating to be dominated by women, married women in Iceland have always been in a strong position. Iceland was originally a country of peasants and fishermen. There were no helpless non-working women of bourgeois society. Until recently, there were almost no cities in Iceland - only courtyards and places for cutting fish. Everyone was equally busy with work.
Icelandic women do laundry in a geothermal spring
The strength of Icelandic women is also in the fact that they are eternal workers. They were the wives of fishermen who were constantly at sea and often did not return. The fisherwomen themselves managed the difficult peasant household and did not feel oppressed. Without their labor, families would starve to death. It is clear that in such conditions there is no time to take care of yourself. Girls start to get fat early, but this problem does not bother them. The main thing is the state of health and to be hardy. Food - fish, dairy products, little meat and the constant use of fish oil.
Iceland ranks first in the world in terms of male life expectancy. Icelandic men overtook even the Japanese in this indicator. The life expectancy of Icelandic women was 82.9 years last year, slightly less than Japan's (85 years).
Another factor had some influence on the position of women. Iceland has never had an army. The country does not have this typically male organization. Iceland was the first country in the world to pass a law on equal rights for women and men. However, women still do not have equal rights in state government, despite the fact that the president is a woman. In some industries, a woman receives much less than a man for the same work. In 35 years, there have been 4 major women's strikes. But the changes happened only on paper.
Due to high taxes, the working week is 60-80 hours. Even Icelandic women do not have such a thing as a "female psyche", everything looks like a masculine look. "To the left" women go more often than men, so there are no tantrums about betrayal for her. With the advent of the prime minister of a woman with "pink inclinations", in 2010 same-sex marriages were legalized.
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir
Icelandic women are excellent drivers, it is clear that they gravitate towards large and powerful cars. They also love wrestling.
The Icelandic folk style of wrestling "Glima" (literally "game of joy") is at least 1100 years old. Glima was brought to the island by Viking settlers, and the Icelanders have been engaged in this struggle since those ancient times. In the old days, the life of the Vikings was cruel, and wrestling was not only entertainment, but also of great practical importance for the training of warriors. Like most folk types of wrestling, glima was originally a purely male affair.
Probably the main feature of modern glyma are special leather wrestling belts. The main belt girdles the waist, while the other belts are pulled under both hips and connected with straps to the waist belt; these straps allow wrestlers to produce glyma-specific grips similar to those of many other styles of folk wrestling.
Despite the fearlessness, strength and endurance of Icelandic women, for a long time they were not allowed to compete in glima; this is partly due to the fact that until 1905 they fought in pants that were not women's clothing (women wore long dresses and aprons). Replacing pants with belts opened the way for women to glima, and it is reliably known that as early as 1914 Icelandic women were engaged in glima wrestling. Since then (with some interruptions) women have successfully mastered this sport, and since 1988 girls and women have officially competed in glim. The peculiarities of the glima technique make it very suitable for women who have a better developed lower body, because the hips and thighs are the most important levers of the glima fight.
In ancient times, Icelandic women were engaged in witchcraft, although this activity was condemned, but there were no obstacles for it. Belief in trolls and fairies remains to this day.
National women's costumes in Iceland are designed primarily to protect against wet and harsh weather, and are denoted by the hard-to-pronounce word fjoudbuningurinn. The national costume of Iceland has undergone many changes over the past centuries. Today in Iceland even a special commission has been set up to ensure that the national costume is modified as little as possible. There are 5 types of national costumes for Icelandic women:
Skjetbuningur. It was created by the artist Sigurd Gudmundsson in the 19th century. The costume looks like a long dress and a jacket in black tones with gold ornaments. This includes the traditional black Icelandic hat. Now this costume is worn only on special occasions: holidays, weddings, etc.
Kiritl. Also created by the above artist. Kirtil is somewhat reminiscent of Viking clothing. Initially, the kirtil was white. Gradually multi-colored kirtillas began to appear. Kirtil is a lighter and more comfortable version of the national dress of the Icelanders. These clothes are also worn on holidays.
Two Icelanders. The one on the left put on a skjetbuningur, and the one on the right wore a kirtil
Sigurd Gudmundsson in 1858
Sigurd Gudmundsson (Sigurður Guðmundsson) is a famous Icelandic artist. Born in 1833. At the age of fifteen he moved to Denmark to work as a painter, but changed his mind and decided to take private drawing lessons. He was sponsored mainly by immigrants from Iceland, among whom was Jón Sigurdsson, the informal leader of the Icelandic independence movement. In 1858, Sigurd returned to Iceland, where he earned his living by giving private drawing lessons. Sigurd not only painted pictures, but also participated in social activities. He was one of the strongest supporters of Icelandic independence. Sigurd's artistic gift was useful in the planning of the city of Reykjavik, as well as in the creation of two national Icelandic costumes - kirtil and skeytbuningur. Along with Gudjoun Samuelson, he is one of the most important architects of the city of Reykjavik.
Faldbuningur
. The oldest version of women's clothing. It was created in the 17th century. A distinctive feature of this costume is a hat with a curved ornament.
