"We have trees" = more than one. "We have a lot of trees" from an Icelandic person = 1 small forest "We have a lot of trees" from a Canadian = 1 000 massive forests. (idk about the rest of the world xd)
So the one about trees is at least partially true. When I first went to Iceland in the mid-2000s, my Icelandic tour guide told me that there were very few trees in the most of Iceland, but there was one place in the south which *actually* had a wood. When I travelled with the group, I found this largely to be true; the "trees" that were found in the rest of the country were really quite stunted, almost bonzai-fied to the point of being little more than shrubs. However, when I went again in 2018, I saw more trees than I remembered the first time, even though it was winter this time not summer. I wonder if there has been some tree-planting going on in that time as most of the trees I saw were quite young ones.
@@isquirtmilkfrommyeye When i studied blacksmithing, one of my teatchers told me a storry about when he went to Island to work at a museum event. During said event he spoke to one of the emplyees about taking a walk in a forest to see the difference between Swedish and Islandic forests. And since he diden´t want to get lost in a forign land he asked what he should do if he got lost. The awnser was a short laugh and "stand up".
Oddly, Iceland never had "vikings". They are descended from people called vikings. The colonies weren't vikings but they were/are.....sort of. Icelandic peoples never raided anyone to my knowledge. I'm not sure if the "killer viking" genetics ever had any basis in Iceland honestly. The US (white people perspective) was not founded by warrior culture either.
A viking might actually apologize if he thought he'd taken something without winning it appropriately first. But that's really just before he wins it, often with an axe. Because law and stuff, can't look like a thief in front of the gods. There is a story about one who did just that, he got away after being captured and stole a treasure on his way out. He felt bad, so he turned around and went back and killed the guy and his family and burnt his house down. He felt like he earned it then.
@@wiptide I'd have to FIND it again! It stuck in my my mind because it was so far removed from the common narrative concerning them. If I run across it again I'll post.
Yea, honestly.. going crazy this summer. They are murdering my left arm, which has a pretty fresh tattoo so I cannot scratch etc. I might just have to consider moving as well.
@@spencermoss5528 no, iceland was named such because hrafna-flóki saw a bunch of ice by the beaches when he came there, and greenland was named such because they needed more colonists
@@magnikristinsson Greenland was actually green when it was discovered since there where a local climate change slightly before and after the Viking age that made Greenland a few degrees warmer.
As a Canadian it's hilarious that Icelanders think that Americans are too apologetic. Canadians think they're rude and don't apologize enough 😂 edit: i made this comment as a joke 10 months ago lol so hilarous seeing all these Yanks getting triggered
I spent a semester studying ecology abroad in Iceland. There used to be almost no trees in Iceland due to deforestation. Now there are about 2% land covering of trees. Very exciting.
I'm from Costa Rica. Back in the day there wasn't too much environmental conscience in this country. That changed during the 80's. More and more areas were declared protected and we now cover around 25 percent of the surface of our land under protection. There are many national parks that are visited by tourists and I can assume every city has at least a park with trees. So yeah, it's like a recovery story.
Hrafna: I don't know a single person who rides horses for fun. Who makes up these 'horse theories'?! Me (Russian): [feeding a polar bear with penguins and vodka] So true! Stereotypes are indestructible!
@L Steiner Russia is too large to describe it with vodka, caviar and fur coats. It was a joke, of course. As for me personally I drink no alcohol and don't like caviar (besides it's rather expensive). And I hate fur coats for there are much warmer, more eco-friendly and convenient winter jackets.
Icelandic DNA testing has shown that there is an unusually high amount of mitochondrial DNA matching people in Ireland. Since mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to daughter, the female kidnapping stories likely hold some truth. There is mention, from their own tales, of the early colonists raiding Ireland and taking their women with them to Iceland. Apparently they had a shortage of Nordic women willing to go.
3:02 As a german I *can’t* relate at all😂 Everything has to be planned at least 2 weeks before the actual event. A place for everything and everything at it’s place.😊
In Germany we donʼt say “Ok, see you tomorrow”, we say „Weiß nicht, ob ich das so kurzfristig schaffe, muss morgen Abend noch meine Katze von der Loslösegruppe abholen und danach bin ich vielleicht zu müde :/“ and I think thatʼs beautiful.
Ich find das aber eher nervig, spontane Sachen sind immer viel besser! Am meisten fällt mir auf wie gern die Leute planen, wenn Reisekataloge so seltsame komplett durchgeplante All-Inclusive-Urlaube anbieten. Ich denke mir dann immer “Wer will denn sowas?!“, aber den meisten scheint's zu gefallen xD
As a finn who went to Iceland one year ago; no you do not have a lot of trees 😂 Maybe I think this way because we have a s***load of forests in Finland.
@@Dave.1211 we drove around the whole country. But that is what I loved about Iceland the most; different views than what I am used to. It was almost funny at some point to only see rocks and then a random lonely tiny tree in the middle of it all. 😍
I think Thor would take care of any aggressive Jötnar. But he would ask for some wine in exchange. And the problem is, most Icelanders are Christian now. Probably they'd have to ask Jesus for archangel Michael's protection. Hmmm.
2:26 this is called „dirty blond“ „Straßenköterblond“ here in Germany. Just not the light Barbie blond everyone thinks about when hearing „blond“. But it still is blond.
Your videos show up in my recommendation so many times, but somehow i watch it everytimes and actually enjoyed it! Never interested about icelandic whatsoever before but this is a good fun content, i hope you have a bright future, cheers
I’m Mexican and I would find that a lot of Nordic countries are not as talkative as my people, but I love how direct they are, I love Iceland would definitely love to visit. Also with the stereotypes... oh boy, I could write a book about that about my country 🙄 so I feel you
From another Icelander here, there are actually a lot of horses here and many people participate in like horse riding. But i guess that's mostly in smaller towns and not in the city, i know a LOT of people who own and ride horses for fun. // Myndi segja að hestamennskan sé mun meiri í landsbyggðinni, alveg fullt af hesthúsum td. á vestfjörðum og hef oft séð fólk í reiðtúr þar. Veit ekki hvernig það er á höfuðborgarsvæðinu samt...
Það er líka fullt af hestum í höfuðborgarsvæðinu, það er fullt af hesthúsum og svo líka stór hestaferða fyritæki td íshestar, hraunhestar og eldhestar. Það er sammt mest í hafnarfirði. 😉
I also didn’t know what people meant when they asked my if we don’t have trees, and I always used to answer of course we have trees, but now I understand what they mean. We really don’t have trees they are short, compared to the ones in warmer climates, and if you go outside the city you don’t see any trees, like if your driving on highways in other countries and there are trees everywhere.
yees..icelandic "trees" are nothing in comare to trees in other countries. for example we have forests EVERYWHERE.. when you go out of city ar village there are forests.. in iceland its lava..
Yeah when I went there I was like ‘oh, indeed there are no trees’ and the Icelandic guy said ‘yes we do, why people think we don’t, look at those’ and everyone was like ‘lmao’ ‘for elves maybe’ ‘these are plants mate’ 🤣🤣💗
Having lived in Alaska, most of the trees are scrubby little black spruce. There are areas with deciduous forest, but the tree line is low so they are mostly at low elevations. Above the tree line it’s mostly non-forested tundra. I would guess that Iceland is similar in it’s climate and terrain. I miss the long days in summer and long nights in winter. Now I live in Oakland, CA.
Tyler Stull hahaha I was thinking the same thing! It was super cute and innocent of her to be all “it’s not an app!!”, when whether or not there is an app is irrelevant lol. It’s interesting how we don’t tend to see things that everyone we know does, when we only know one way of life. Like how North Americans (if no one else) don’t consider the impact of sitting in chairs has on their health, because “everyone” sits on chairs, and so everyone has these symptoms for better or worse. Just fascinating!
That website is to look at your family tree. Has nothing to do with the dating scene. Here in Iceland, we know our family far enough back to know if we are dating a relative 😅
about icelanders not saying sorry when passing people in a shop or anything, i'm norwegian and yeah. even if people are ACTUALLY in the way, we will just wait for them to move or just stand there till they realize we wanna pass. and you are right it has nothing to do with being rude, it's just not our culture to do these things :D
In America, When I see people move to pass, I say Thank you, When people are taking up time, well...they end up moving and say sorry cuz they know others are trying to shop too. If people are just in too much of a dangg hurry, well, then they can wait a moment. When someone dies, I dont say Sorry either...like why am I sorry, I didnt do anything wrong.... I give my respects to them and Family.
I live in Florida (USA) and there are SO MANY things that could go wrong... Raptors, snakes, coyotes, dogs, alligators, sun and heat, mosquitoes, random hourly downpours of rain etc. 😆
I'm Swedish, and I would call that dark blonde. And blonde people darken by age. I was really blond as a kid, but now I'm darker then her. But still blonde.
Yes, she has dark blonde hair, like all adults with natural blonde hair. Natural platinum hair is only in children. All adult women with platinum hair are fake.
Very interesing video, though once I saw a video from Dating Beyond Borders in Iceland and at the begining of this video you appear with a guy checking out the famous app. Lol
I spent two weeks in Iceland driving the ring road and staying in as many towns as I could. Most of the people I met in shops and restaurants were polish, so my attempts at learning Icelandic were wasted... I was really hoping to make Icelandic people laugh at my pronunciation. I can say that Iceland does have trees, very short trees.
CrimsonGreaver yeah 6 months of darkness is bc in the winter we only get 2-4 hours of sun so it comes up at 11-12 and leaves 13-15. But now in the summer it never goes down
@CrimsonGreaver In 1 year, there is more daylight in Reykjavik than in Miami. There are northern lights and no night at all is also a problem without opaque curtains. The light is beautiful in the winter time because it's seems like a few hours long sunrise or sunset.
The worst is dark early when you wake up to work , I like winter in rvk, every swimming pool is outside but storms wind is too strong and is headache alot
I've taken a DNA test for genealogical purposes, and I've learnt quite a lot about DNA. According to researchers Icelanders seems to come from both Vikings and Celts. The male Vikings from Norway, Denmark and Sweden, brought women from Scotland (Celts) to Iceland. You can read more about it here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelanders#Genetics
To clarify the thing about pineapple on pizza: Our president did say that he doesn't like it, but also that he's glad he doesn't actually have the power to ban it. Thus it remains perfectly legal, which is good because I love it.
I'm not sure about the exact figure, but a very high proportion of Icelanders do have Irish genes. It goes both wsys though, most people in Ireland have Norse genes. Red hair is not a Gaelic thing, for example, it comes from Norse blood.
Wow, that's first time I hear this. Must have missed it, clearly. Could you tell me where is it found in the Bible that Jesus promised a world without sin?
@Steven Paul okay let's hear this solution Jesus supposedly gave everybody. I don't see anything out of Christianity except the same kind of violence we get out of Islam. You Christians and Islam Jews all talk a lot about not sinning but you propagate it more than anybody. You believe in your Jesus but I sincerely doubt that your Jesus believes in you because you people do not live anything of what he taught
woman he’s not wrong. In Luke 6:37 Jesus said “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” I don’t consider myself religious. That’s the only verse I can actually quote. But some of the most judgmental people I’ve met go to church every Sunday. People have been killing each other over religion for thousands of years.
@@kasperknutsen8283 Its dark blonde lol. Maybe for scandinavian standards is brown, but in most countries where people are with predominantly darker features, her hair will be considered blonde.
@@mickburton6838 then that would mean you're very dumb. how can you think that shit could be even remotely possible to be true? how can you not realize that was anti-norse propaganda? from christian priests and politicians in mainland europe to scare the population against the vikings. and contrary to what the fake version of history you heard says, vikings weren't pirates and murderers who attacked christian coasts, they were mostly traders, and the wars they participate everybody did too including christians. for territory, resources and the usual. swedish vikings [my heritage] founded cities and trading posts, including the one that would later become russia, and even served as a mercenary military force for the byzantine emperor, and by mercenary i mean that yes they were paid, but were bound by honor and oaths. if you research you will see how respected and loved they were by the population of the eastern roman empire [constantinople], defending them from muslim raids in multiple occasions. the vikings were sailors and warriors that ''myth'' is simply a joke if anything but there was a kidnapping of beautiful women in iceland indeed, except it wasn't committed by icelanders or vikings, but by moors\berbers who raided iceland in the 1600's and took icelandic women as slaves to be sold in the slave markets of north africa as sex slaves, for the muslim harems. girls in mainland europe were kidnapped too. there's a folk song in iceland about that episode called turkjaranid [Turkish Abductions]. but isn't it funny when whites\europeans are the victims nobody talks about it? just like nobody is talking about the afrikaaner genocide that is happening in south africa right now. and by nobody i mean the western media. it's much more interesting for the jewish anti-european agenda for whites to always be depicted as the villains, and for our existence as a race, culture and civilisation to be undesirable ps, i know a lot about iceland cause my mother is icelandic, she left iceland for mainland scandinavia in the late 70's when she was a teenager, to escape poverty, hunger and prolonged climate that didn't allow food to grow
@My beautiful and amazing Princess ....You have read far too much into my original post. I was merely inferring that the woman in the video is beautiful. Save your history lessons for those who both need and want them. My real last name is Nordic.
Nim Boo The reason why those you listed don’t look Scandinavian is because they are not Scandinavian. Obviously my original comment was just a throw away compliment using poetic license to carry it. It didn’t require a couple of right wing nationalists cherry picking Viking history from what could be a Wikipedia page to back up their prejudices in the modern day against Muslims and other non-Scandinavian people in general.
@@mickburton6838 ikr like no offense to them but it was pretty obvious idk why they felt like they needed to tirade, crusade and write an article tf. "Anti-Norse" ??? I gave up reading
I absolutely loved Iceland. I lived there for a year. I laughed at a lot of these. But most of the Icelanders I met were great people, as long as you treated them with respect and went there wanting to learn they took you under their wing. I would love to go back some day!
@@athen3212 Albanians of Albania seem to drink a lot of raki. though. I have been to Albania quite a lot a lot and have often been offered a glass of raki when visiting the family-in-law etc. And I received a bottle of raki as a gift to bring home for my father the first time I visited the country. But it's probably different outside Albania, like in Kosovo, for the reasons you mention.
As a Swede moving to Scotland in 2002 I noticed a slight difference compared to Sweden. One was that apparently I was rude as I never apologised enough or said "thank tou" to everything. As with Icelandic, Swedes don't do it that much. I was like, why are you apologising all the time? It was like for everything and still is...like if someone bumps in to you in a shop you apologise as you was the one standing in their way! How dare I go outside the front door! 🤣 However, you kind of get used to it Hahaha In Scotland folk talk non stop 😅. And after 17 years living here ( about 30km/ 20miles south of Glasgow), I talk more now than I ever did in Sweden, yet, I'm not talking enough small talk, another thing we're not very good at as a Swede. Great video and I really enjoyed it. Ooh, I forgot, nope, Sweden doesn't have polar bears walking the street either, but we do have brown bears. 👍
You see sorry as word is not sometimes ment as appology, more like "sorry mate, I'm coming through, move away", just letting them know you are just passing through.
we don't have a word for 'please' in finnish either! of course we are polite in situations where it's needed but never more than necessary... your "ughh" expression about someone passing by is so true, i don't understand it either why someone would have to apologize for not even touching me... in finland we'll just either be more straightforward or not say anything at all, these 'small talk' and 'overly polite' cultures don't exist here :D
In Gàidhlig it's "ma 's e bhur toil e" which translates to "if it is pleasing to you," ... but really just means "if you like it," even though it gets used wherever English uses "please."
In the US when someone in a service profession asks you "How are you today?" They are asking specifically about your shopping experience. If your coworker asks you "how are you doing today" they are probably asking about your work-related tasks or weird customers unless you are close friends. If your friend or spouse asks you "how are you doing today?" They are asking a more in depth question. Otherwise, generally, really answering the question openly and honestly is considered inappropriate disclosure or oversharing. Most Americans do not apologize unless they cut in front of you to grab an item off the grocery shelf while you are looking at the shelf of items thinking about your selection. Anything more unless they bump into you is probably to get some kind of weird attention or possibly weird flirting techniques. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Thank you for making a cultural video about Iceland. It was interesting.
Everyone I’ve met had always thought that we (Icelandic people) were Inuits (Eskimos) because of the way Björk looks. They’re always shocked when they see the blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin that my mom’s family has
Exactly, Inuits never made it as far east as Iceland. Greenland is the only place where the Norse and Inuit people coexisted (Norsemen arrived first btw). I suppose Björk is the most known Icelandic. A less famous Icelandic would be Emiliana Torrini, she got a bit of fame when she participated in the soundtrack of LOTR.
There are quite a few on RU-vid, some by linguists and whatnot, but I wouldn’t mind one from Hrafna. Icelandic is interesting because, if nothing else, it’s the only Scandinavian language still intelligible with Old Norse (due to isolation). Meaning that educated Icelanders who are competent in the language can usually read Norse sagas, without having to translate.
I was lucky enough to visit Iceland in October 2018 for 2 weeks. Beautiful country! If I had been offered a job there and had any confidence I could become fluent in Icelandic, I would still be there. I am originally from Tennessee in the United States. I have a friend (also from the South in the US) who was once asked if she rode a pig to school. I think when people know you live in a rural place, they assume you ride horses, pigs, etc. Thanks for clearing up the dating app myth; I had actually heard that one.
Ahaha reading this comment is strange because I live in TN and am really really interested in Scandinavia in general but specifically am learning Norwegian and want to visit/stay in Norway and it would be such a huge dream come true to visit Iceland someday and in the future want to try to learn some Icelandic as well. Congrats for getting to visit that's really cool!
5:22 yeah you kinda contradict yourself there, in the Dating beyond borders channel where you play an Icelander you kinda tell us there is such an app.
@@rodrigovieira3330 that explains the videos about Texan men and women. The Texan man was pretty close, the Texan woman was just a stereotype, and we don't say "Bless your heart ". We say "SHUT THE F*** UP!"🤣
I define blonde as hair that is yellow, whether it is dark, light, medium, if it is yellow it is blonde. Your hair is what I would consider dark blonde
Yes, she has dark blonde hair, like all adults with natural blonde hair. Natural platinum blonde hair is only in children. All adult women with platinum blonde are fake.
No clue. but to this day (also positive for my line of work, being a big rig driver) I tend to sleep better with the slight sound of rain and or wind and or traffic outside
Great video! I was just thinking about the ice giant thing... according to the Eddas / norse mythology there were ice giants, the world was created by / on Ymer (long story) who in fact was a giant. I'm from Sweden, and here we call them ''frostjättar'', which translates to ''frostgiants'', and that might be what the person asking about ice giants were talking about. Just a thought! :)
Alexandre Salau it was never meant to be a incest avoiding dating site. Its a site that you can check out your family tree. The fact that you can use the family tree site to see who you are related to for dating reasons doesn’t mean that we have a site made to avoid incest.
@@Macomio80 I doubt that. But even if they happen to use the word 'married' it meant something different than the modern English word, so the translation would still be wrong. Enslaved and raped is still a better translation.
Caitríona Ó hAodha Yes! Historically we have lots of Irish inhabitants, sadly because of slavery/abduction of Irish women by the Vikings so nowadays Iceland incorporates some aspects of Irish culture. We also have many ginger people because of the Irish descendant.
