The Mouse That Roared
If you’ve taken even the most cursory glance at recent Icelandic history, chances are you’re familiar with the Cod Wars: big, bad Britain sends warships up against pluc
The Opportunity: After Utøya
I don’t know much about Jens Stoltenberg. He is a Norwegian politician and I assume he’s no better or worse than his colleagues. But I would like to elaborate on [&hell
Too Huge For A Monument
When Helgi Hóseasson passed away two years ago, he had since the 1930s fought a harsh fight to get the National Church to revoke the baptismal covenant that was forced […]
A VIEW FROM THE CHURCH TOWER
A few weeks ago I was wandering around Skóla-vörðu-holt where Hallgrímskirkja—the large church dedicated to the poet and psalmist Hallgrímur Pétursson—stands. From the to
Catching Up To The 21st Century
A couple of weeks back, we ran a news story about a city proposal to give police the power to issue tickets for littering on the spot. Anyone who has […]
STATUES OF THE FUTURE?
We asked a handful of clever people to think about a statue of the future. Specifically, we asked, “which person, place or thing from the twenty-first century do you think [&hell
Post-Financial Crisis Iceland
‘The Pots and Pans Revolution’ of 2008 and 2009, which happened during the aftermath of the total failure and collapse of the financial sector, had two distinct demands; firstl
Timberland
Timberland brand hiking boots, outdoor clothing and other products for the active outdoors-y type have finally arrived on Laugavegur. The ‘classic Timberland boot’ (rappers cal
Iceland’s Underground Sex Scene
Paul Fontaine investigatesA long-standing stereotype about Icelanders is that they do not date. The notion of asking for someone’s number, inviting them out for dinner or mov
Piles Of Trash And Pigs In Traffic
Since the beginning of the year, garbage in Reykjavík has been collected once every ten days, rather than once a week as it was before the city council voted for […]
Walking In The Shadows Of Giants
There are many sculptures and attempts at public art strewn over Reykjavík. Most of the time we don’t notice them, blinded by the familiar surroundings of our day to day. [&hell
Icelanders On The Anarchy In The U.K.
Riots and looting have spread across London City over the last few days, with copycats spilling over into Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol on Monday night. What began as a peacefu
Sour Grapes and Stuff
MOST AWESOME LETTER It is ridiculous that Don Freeman gets to write in this paper. [https://grapevine.nhdev.is/Home/ReadArticle/WHALING-IN-ICELAND] First of all, he is nothing more
Revoked: License to Kill
007 is pissed off with Iceland—that’s right, James Bond, with his license to kill. In his capacity as ‘goodwill ambassador’ of the US National Resources Defense Coun
Who Are Our Übermenschen?
It wasn’t until two weeks ago when we decided to print a walking tour of some of Einar Jónsson’s statues that I started to pay attention to the various statues […]
In Consideration of the Icelandic Vegetable
Reminiscing with Fungi I recall once, while living in Zurich—where every Friday morning behind the Hauptbahnhof, vegetable vendors and their allies, cheese makers, sauce stirrers
Hjartatorgið
Tómas Magnússon and his wife Tanya Pollock saw an area calling for help one day when walking their child through the Hjartatorgið park. “I brought my kid over there and [&hell
Oodles Of Fun At The Park
Looking for something exciting to do on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday afternoon? If games like Kubb, Frisbee, Frisbee Golf or Twister strike your fancy, you may want to head [&hell
A Lesson In Radicalism
The Radical Summer University, organised by a group of leftists from academia and activist groups, will take place in August with a wide variety of work-shops on different topics,
Back To Elves, Then
In a recent issue of Time Magazine, columnist Joel Stein talks about how he helped Iceland rewrite its constitution by logging on to the Constitutional Committee’s webpage and of
Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Black Swan?
Following the financial crash of 2008 one of the most common comments made was that “nobody saw it coming,” and that really, nobody could have seen the crash coming. The [&hell