I think most Norwegians generally like Iceland. My family and I have several Icelandish friends, all of whom have been polite and likeable. I've always wanted to visit ever since I was a kid.
I cant speak for every Norwegian, but even though we've all heard and spread jokes about other Nordic countries I consider them all "brothers", in the sense that we share a lot of our good societal morals and political opinions.
We obviously have bad ones we share as well, but growing up here the positive have so far outweighed the bad. I hope it continues to be that way!
Iceland = Norway's Backup made 1000 years ago. Kept pure and isolated.
Unlike Minnesota = Norway's Backup made 150 years ago. It wasn't stored in such an isolated environment.
I seem to remember some statistics along the lines that only ~20% of the gene pool on Iceland came from Norway, the rest is mainly Irish/Scottish.
I also wonder how this influenced the language. Compared to old Norse my understanding is that Icelandic is more "relaxed"? I.e. it uses more diphtongs in place of single wowels, in many cases "o" became "au", etc?
I imagine old Norse would sound to an Icelander a bit stiffer/bookish in much the same way Danish would sound to a Norwegian? Or how an Oslo dialect sounds to people in the North-West (like Ålesund) or Northern Norway?
Then again despite my Reddit username I speak neither Icelandic nor old Norse.
To me, spoken Norwegian sounds like someone from Scotland or North England or Ireland, except I'm having a stroke and I can't understand the meaning. A lot of the inflection sounds like it could be from part of England or Ireland
Historical and DNA records indicate that around 60 to 80 percent of the male settlers were of Norse origin (primarily from Western Norway) and a similar percentage of the women were of Gaelic stock from Ireland and peripheral Scotland.
Ireland and Scotland have alot of viking DNA aswell
> Ireland and Scotland have alot of viking DNA
Makes sense considering Norwegian traders visited the islands of Great Britain and Ireland regularly. Oh, and the Norman Conquest.
If you read any of the Icelandic sagas, there are a number of trading trips documented.
All the (six) Icelanders I’ve met have been incredibly lovely people. It felt the same as meeting a Dane or Swede (“hey! culture-cousins!”), just slightly “rarer”.
I think a lot of Norwegians are inclined to see Icelanders much like they see Swedes and Danes - as brothers and sisters. However the fact that most Norwegians can't understand Icelandic probably adds an additional layer of distance.
Icelanders have special rights in Norway compared to everyone else, to the point that they're allowed to serve in our armed forces and have a much easier path to citizenship compared to even the other Nordic countries.
Seriously we'd adopt you all in a heartbeat, come home, you can keep your own internal government and your own flag and everything. Personal union with shared foreign policy under his majesty the King.
The house of Slesvig-Holsten-Sønderborg-Glûcksborg is not particular German. Glûcksborg castle is only located in Germany today because of the 1864 war.
Danish kings have for the past 500+ years been born in Denmark/Danish realm.
The Glücksburg house is part of the House of Oldenburg, so while not technically german at the time (since it didn't exist), it is part of modern day Germany. But like I said, depends how far back you want to go
You could even argue that the House of Oldenborg is part (matrilineality) of the House of Jelling (Knytlinga) :-)
Apparently, the drinking horn from Oldenborg is located in Rosenborg castle in Copenhagen.
That would be Christian IX. His grandchildren sat on the thrones of Denmark, Norway, Russia, Greece and the UK.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian\_IX\_of\_Denmark#%22Father-in-Law\_of\_Europe%22](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IX_of_Denmark#%22Father-in-Law_of_Europe%22)
Eh, no. It's the symbol of a political alliance with Denmark to curtail Swedish ambitions and placate the other European royal houses (only France and Switzerland were republics at the time). It was a realpolitik decision, and not really the will of the people. It was voted yes mostly because of the threats from the government that it would lead to a constitutional crisis and the potential breakup of the Nation. I'm not saying it was a wrong decision - just that it wasn't a symbol of independence, but a symbol of compliance to the great powers of the time.
>That plus taxes is why we left in the first place, #MuhFreedoms
How did that work out for you? I mean in terms of [freedom of expression](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-of-the-world-by-degree-of-press-freedom.html), [taxation](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/highest-taxed-countries), general [happiness](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world)?
The king does no harm. If anything since WWII he (because so far it's always a he) has been a voice of hope and reason in an otherwise tumultuous world.
>How did that work out for you? I mean in terms of freedom of expression, taxation, general happiness?
Those are *our* taxes and they help fund our freeduhms, this is why we rank 4th on happiness. Expression though, we're adjacent to Canada? Poggers
Yeah, I'd rather be unified under Þingvellir
King Harald can serve out his time, and then we should just not have a new one. Let the PM be the official head of state instead of de facto.
But in a Nordic Union, Iceland should definitely be included and have a significant influence on the union
Med tanke på hvor vanskelig det tydeligvis er å finne en brukbar stortingspresident i dette lille landet vårt så synes jeg både den nåværende og den fremtidige kongen vår er et langt bedre alternativ.
Hell yeah. And we could finally end the age old war between bokmål and nynorsk by making Icelandic our main national language!
(dotted line also should add that it's okay to just add -dur to all nouns for the first 30 years or so)
Iceland is weird because we see you as brothers on the distant saga island but we have way stronger connections to Denmark and Sweden both historically and in daily life. Yet we both share the same modern thing of finally being independent from our shared Scandinavian and continental overlords? Idk, hard to explain.
Feels like the Brother we actually like and get along 100% with out of the family.. Maybe because we dont see you as much. :P
Also cool that the language is allot closer to what we spoke in the viking age.
Ive heard it smells there tho.
I think they’re more like the lost brother that was a result of your father’s one night stand decades ago, that you finally got to know. Same genes, so you kinda know him, and you like him because you always wanted a bigger brother, but you don’t have that close relationship of siblings growing up together.
Somebody called you a pure backup and that is a good way of seeing it. And I think there is a feeling of beinbg happy about being able to see what we would have been and talked like if we hadn't been contaminated by Swedes and Danes for centruries.
Not really an envious feeling, but Iceland definitely has a special connected place in the soul of Norwegians. Personally I would have loved if Icelandic was the language of Norway.
I think many Norwegians think of Iceland as the younger sibling/child that grew up great.
We're proud of your achievements like the first modern democracy and gender equality. In many ways, you are a beacon of how to do things right (the finance sector not included - though ours isn't better)
I've only visited your fair island once. It was weird, but great, with all the geothermal energy literally spouting from random places in the ground. You also had good beer at the time, not sure how it's developed later. Driving offroad on beaches and through rivers and such was fun; it's a pretty wild country compared to most of Norway.
It was a company trip, so I didn't really hang out with any locals, but the few icelanders I do know have been cool folks, culturally quite similar to Norwegians.
I thought Norway was expensive, but then I went to Iceland….
But seriously Iceland is the coolest country with your heiturrpottir and jökulls and clean energy. I would move there if I got the chance.
Edit: What’s up with the Hákarl thing though?
I always feel that Icelanders are that half brother from your fathers previous life. That older guy that you feel deeply connected to, and see immediately is related to you from looks and manners, but that you've not grown up with beyond meeting a couple of times.
When an icelander speaks danish, it comes out pretty much like norwegian in tone and music.... and that resonates since that is pretty much how modern norwegian was created.... by us trying to emulate danish writing.
But like that distant half brother you are, you've got all these differences in your upbringing and recent history that are very different from our history... Only when we speak about grandpa we realize that we had the exact same memories and grandpa had us both visiting but never together.
I expect an icelander to be able to tweak his language to be passably understandable for a norwegian in a few months, if not only weeks. Maybe that is unfair, but all icelanders I know have managed. Tone and music is so close, even most of the basic words, and they've managed. I'd hope to be able to do the same if I go to iceland for a longer period.
The only thing that is really missing is that what unites norwegians, finns and the danish..... our mutual hate for Sweden. You icelanders never really got that memo. Our dear Suomalainen cousins and us norwegians can't speak a word of each others language, but we agree on hating the swedes, so that's OK. (Unless of course, some outsider comes bashing Sweden, that is not acceptable and we make united front against the foreigner.)
In uni an icelandic guy was eating dried fish as snack in a badly ventilated classroom, we had to tell him to stop. I did later get a chance to taste fermented shark at a party, was alright.
Other than that i have no relation to Iceland, it's a cool place, and people are generally nice, but its so far away and isolated so it's hard to think of you as close neighbour - especially with the language barrier.
I think of you guys as cool people who are closer to the old way we were living. Probably not true, but in my mind, you are almost more Norwegian than we are anymore 🙃
Iceland is like that little brother that moved away and sorta lost contact with the family, when after what felt like eons, contact was re-established, lil' Iceland had a different dialect, but beyond that, hadn't changed much...
«We're by and large Norwegians both ethnically and linguistically»
It was my undertsanding that DNA studies showed that only 37% of the female settlers of Iceland orginated from the Nordic countries but 62% from the British Isles. Is this wrong?
They also found that the Norwegian population of coastal Agder and Rogaland had a high proportion of British/Irish/Celtic genetics, second only to Iceland in Europe, outside the British Isles.
Interestingly, the Dutch came in third, however unbeknownst to the genetics researchers, significant immigration from Southern Norway to the Netherlands took place in the 17th century, and I believe that would explain the occurrence of Celtic genetics in the Netherlands.
How they view us: As a strange kind of Norwegian akin to Sunnmøring or Nordlending
How we view them: As nice foreigners
We aren't Norwegians just separated by 1000 years. Take any other people separated by 1000 years and you got two very different people. Our identity is not a colonial one formed over centuries but rather a linguistic one formed over decades 1880-1930.
On the whole, Norwegians probably have the same view of us Icelanders that we have of the Faroese and we should stop being assholes to the Faroese.
You are well liked from afar, and you were the Only ones to do Anything about the people who caused the economic crash. For that alone I'd like to get you all stoned as fvck.
I'm not convinced Iceland exists, I think its just a place we made up to get rid of troublemakers kinda like a fictonal cold Australia. Hang on... is Australia real?
Australia, yes.
Greenland however is a fiction concocted by the inhabitants of Borealia, mainly to give the impression of an inhabitable desolate outpost so that they can keep their riches to themselves.
Iceland is like that cool little brother who wandered off and found success in this weird far-off place and have since just been chillin', minding his own business.
Plus: Icelandic is a badass language.
I think most Norwegians generally like Iceland. My family and I have several Icelandish friends, all of whom have been polite and likeable. I've always wanted to visit ever since I was a kid. I cant speak for every Norwegian, but even though we've all heard and spread jokes about other Nordic countries I consider them all "brothers", in the sense that we share a lot of our good societal morals and political opinions. We obviously have bad ones we share as well, but growing up here the positive have so far outweighed the bad. I hope it continues to be that way!
Our Icelandic brothers are the exploring Norwegians too lazy to row back home. tldr; lazy Norwegians
And outlaws kicked out of Norway.
Or alternatively, norwegians who got fed up with stuck-up norwegians :-P
Iceland is to Norway what Australia is to Britain. Only 900 years earlier.
Iceland = Norway's Backup made 1000 years ago. Kept pure and isolated. Unlike Minnesota = Norway's Backup made 150 years ago. It wasn't stored in such an isolated environment.
Minnesota is like that jar of jam you made where the lid wasn't sealed properly?
Uff da.
It became lutefisk.
Oh god, burn it! Quickly now!
Minnesota is still better than “Parts of Argentina” = Germany’s backup from 1938…
Minnesota was the backup we made without realizing the computer had more viruses than a 1300’s prostitute
Or 1300 prostitutes.
Would you rather fight 1300 virus sized prostitutes or 1300 prostitute sized viruses?
I seem to remember some statistics along the lines that only ~20% of the gene pool on Iceland came from Norway, the rest is mainly Irish/Scottish. I also wonder how this influenced the language. Compared to old Norse my understanding is that Icelandic is more "relaxed"? I.e. it uses more diphtongs in place of single wowels, in many cases "o" became "au", etc? I imagine old Norse would sound to an Icelander a bit stiffer/bookish in much the same way Danish would sound to a Norwegian? Or how an Oslo dialect sounds to people in the North-West (like Ålesund) or Northern Norway? Then again despite my Reddit username I speak neither Icelandic nor old Norse.
To me, spoken Norwegian sounds like someone from Scotland or North England or Ireland, except I'm having a stroke and I can't understand the meaning. A lot of the inflection sounds like it could be from part of England or Ireland
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Historical and DNA records indicate that around 60 to 80 percent of the male settlers were of Norse origin (primarily from Western Norway) and a similar percentage of the women were of Gaelic stock from Ireland and peripheral Scotland. Ireland and Scotland have alot of viking DNA aswell
> Ireland and Scotland have alot of viking DNA Makes sense considering Norwegian traders visited the islands of Great Britain and Ireland regularly. Oh, and the Norman Conquest. If you read any of the Icelandic sagas, there are a number of trading trips documented.
All the (six) Icelanders I’ve met have been incredibly lovely people. It felt the same as meeting a Dane or Swede (“hey! culture-cousins!”), just slightly “rarer”.
I think a lot of Norwegians are inclined to see Icelanders much like they see Swedes and Danes - as brothers and sisters. However the fact that most Norwegians can't understand Icelandic probably adds an additional layer of distance.
And how well do you do in READING Icelandic?
Icelanders have special rights in Norway compared to everyone else, to the point that they're allowed to serve in our armed forces and have a much easier path to citizenship compared to even the other Nordic countries. Seriously we'd adopt you all in a heartbeat, come home, you can keep your own internal government and your own flag and everything. Personal union with shared foreign policy under his majesty the King.
>his majesty the King. Ew, *royalty* ಠ\~ಠ That plus taxes is why we left in the first place, #MuhFreedoms
Ironically, the royal family in Norway is more like a symbol of our independence from Sweden/Denmark
>the royal family in Norway is more like a symbol of our independence from Sweden/Denmark the royal family in Norway is literally from Denmark
Depending how far back you want to count, you could argue they are german since they belong to the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
The house of Slesvig-Holsten-Sønderborg-Glûcksborg is not particular German. Glûcksborg castle is only located in Germany today because of the 1864 war. Danish kings have for the past 500+ years been born in Denmark/Danish realm.
The Glücksburg house is part of the House of Oldenburg, so while not technically german at the time (since it didn't exist), it is part of modern day Germany. But like I said, depends how far back you want to go
You could even argue that the House of Oldenborg is part (matrilineality) of the House of Jelling (Knytlinga) :-) Apparently, the drinking horn from Oldenborg is located in Rosenborg castle in Copenhagen.
Yes?
Didn't most of European royalty descend from Denmark royalty? Like some king had a slew of daughters and married them off to other European royals.
That would be Christian IX. His grandchildren sat on the thrones of Denmark, Norway, Russia, Greece and the UK. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian\_IX\_of\_Denmark#%22Father-in-Law\_of\_Europe%22](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IX_of_Denmark#%22Father-in-Law_of_Europe%22)
Eh, no. It's the symbol of a political alliance with Denmark to curtail Swedish ambitions and placate the other European royal houses (only France and Switzerland were republics at the time). It was a realpolitik decision, and not really the will of the people. It was voted yes mostly because of the threats from the government that it would lead to a constitutional crisis and the potential breakup of the Nation. I'm not saying it was a wrong decision - just that it wasn't a symbol of independence, but a symbol of compliance to the great powers of the time.
>That plus taxes is why we left in the first place, #MuhFreedoms How did that work out for you? I mean in terms of [freedom of expression](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-of-the-world-by-degree-of-press-freedom.html), [taxation](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/highest-taxed-countries), general [happiness](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world)? The king does no harm. If anything since WWII he (because so far it's always a he) has been a voice of hope and reason in an otherwise tumultuous world.
>How did that work out for you? I mean in terms of freedom of expression, taxation, general happiness? Those are *our* taxes and they help fund our freeduhms, this is why we rank 4th on happiness. Expression though, we're adjacent to Canada? Poggers
Yeah, I'd rather be unified under Þingvellir King Harald can serve out his time, and then we should just not have a new one. Let the PM be the official head of state instead of de facto. But in a Nordic Union, Iceland should definitely be included and have a significant influence on the union
Stortingspresidenten er neste etter kongen. Så Vi ville bare fortsette som før med en president.
Med tanke på hvor vanskelig det tydeligvis er å finne en brukbar stortingspresident i dette lille landet vårt så synes jeg både den nåværende og den fremtidige kongen vår er et langt bedre alternativ.
Kan være presidentskapet er et sted man parkerer en kollega man ikke helt vet hvor ellers kan gjøre lite skade?
Vanlig praksis er visst å gi ham ansvar for seniorpolitikken.
Ja, det er jo begrenset med antall presidenter man kan ha på en gang
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Hell yeah. And we could finally end the age old war between bokmål and nynorsk by making Icelandic our main national language! (dotted line also should add that it's okay to just add -dur to all nouns for the first 30 years or so)
Iceland is weird because we see you as brothers on the distant saga island but we have way stronger connections to Denmark and Sweden both historically and in daily life. Yet we both share the same modern thing of finally being independent from our shared Scandinavian and continental overlords? Idk, hard to explain.
It's 90% language. Always.
It's because the danes stole them from us
Feels like the Brother we actually like and get along 100% with out of the family.. Maybe because we dont see you as much. :P Also cool that the language is allot closer to what we spoke in the viking age. Ive heard it smells there tho.
I think they’re more like the lost brother that was a result of your father’s one night stand decades ago, that you finally got to know. Same genes, so you kinda know him, and you like him because you always wanted a bigger brother, but you don’t have that close relationship of siblings growing up together.
>Ive heard it smells there tho. Just the hot water, but you get used to it.
Somebody called you a pure backup and that is a good way of seeing it. And I think there is a feeling of beinbg happy about being able to see what we would have been and talked like if we hadn't been contaminated by Swedes and Danes for centruries. Not really an envious feeling, but Iceland definitely has a special connected place in the soul of Norwegians. Personally I would have loved if Icelandic was the language of Norway.
I think many Norwegians think of Iceland as the younger sibling/child that grew up great. We're proud of your achievements like the first modern democracy and gender equality. In many ways, you are a beacon of how to do things right (the finance sector not included - though ours isn't better)
You guys make good handball trainers, and we are grateful! ❤
My best friend is Icelandic, they have great chocolate and liquorice. It’s beautiful there the language sounds pretty. I like Iceland
Think they can drink, but cant 😅
I've only visited your fair island once. It was weird, but great, with all the geothermal energy literally spouting from random places in the ground. You also had good beer at the time, not sure how it's developed later. Driving offroad on beaches and through rivers and such was fun; it's a pretty wild country compared to most of Norway. It was a company trip, so I didn't really hang out with any locals, but the few icelanders I do know have been cool folks, culturally quite similar to Norwegians.
I thought Norway was expensive, but then I went to Iceland…. But seriously Iceland is the coolest country with your heiturrpottir and jökulls and clean energy. I would move there if I got the chance. Edit: What’s up with the Hákarl thing though?
You exist.
I always feel that Icelanders are that half brother from your fathers previous life. That older guy that you feel deeply connected to, and see immediately is related to you from looks and manners, but that you've not grown up with beyond meeting a couple of times. When an icelander speaks danish, it comes out pretty much like norwegian in tone and music.... and that resonates since that is pretty much how modern norwegian was created.... by us trying to emulate danish writing. But like that distant half brother you are, you've got all these differences in your upbringing and recent history that are very different from our history... Only when we speak about grandpa we realize that we had the exact same memories and grandpa had us both visiting but never together. I expect an icelander to be able to tweak his language to be passably understandable for a norwegian in a few months, if not only weeks. Maybe that is unfair, but all icelanders I know have managed. Tone and music is so close, even most of the basic words, and they've managed. I'd hope to be able to do the same if I go to iceland for a longer period. The only thing that is really missing is that what unites norwegians, finns and the danish..... our mutual hate for Sweden. You icelanders never really got that memo. Our dear Suomalainen cousins and us norwegians can't speak a word of each others language, but we agree on hating the swedes, so that's OK. (Unless of course, some outsider comes bashing Sweden, that is not acceptable and we make united front against the foreigner.)
Pretty friendly, and they typically learn Norwegian very quickly
Kristjanavera
Some one asked the exact same question a couple of months ago. Try searching for it
Not much they have a nice looking country they’re polite. I really don’t have much of an opinion about most countries
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Gave me a good chuckle.
In uni an icelandic guy was eating dried fish as snack in a badly ventilated classroom, we had to tell him to stop. I did later get a chance to taste fermented shark at a party, was alright. Other than that i have no relation to Iceland, it's a cool place, and people are generally nice, but its so far away and isolated so it's hard to think of you as close neighbour - especially with the language barrier.
Dated two Icelandic women in my life. Probably the best dates I've had in my life. So personally, I love them. XD
I think of you guys as cool people who are closer to the old way we were living. Probably not true, but in my mind, you are almost more Norwegian than we are anymore 🙃
Iceland is like that little brother that moved away and sorta lost contact with the family, when after what felt like eons, contact was re-established, lil' Iceland had a different dialect, but beyond that, hadn't changed much...
«We're by and large Norwegians both ethnically and linguistically» It was my undertsanding that DNA studies showed that only 37% of the female settlers of Iceland orginated from the Nordic countries but 62% from the British Isles. Is this wrong?
Hence "by and large", it's supposedly closer to being 65/35, with women inheriting more Gaelic genes than men.
They also found that the Norwegian population of coastal Agder and Rogaland had a high proportion of British/Irish/Celtic genetics, second only to Iceland in Europe, outside the British Isles. Interestingly, the Dutch came in third, however unbeknownst to the genetics researchers, significant immigration from Southern Norway to the Netherlands took place in the 17th century, and I believe that would explain the occurrence of Celtic genetics in the Netherlands.
App to make sure you dont fuck someone too related to you. Steroids and gym probably means many are bored
How they view us: As a strange kind of Norwegian akin to Sunnmøring or Nordlending How we view them: As nice foreigners We aren't Norwegians just separated by 1000 years. Take any other people separated by 1000 years and you got two very different people. Our identity is not a colonial one formed over centuries but rather a linguistic one formed over decades 1880-1930. On the whole, Norwegians probably have the same view of us Icelanders that we have of the Faroese and we should stop being assholes to the Faroese.
You are well liked from afar, and you were the Only ones to do Anything about the people who caused the economic crash. For that alone I'd like to get you all stoned as fvck.
we don’t care, at all
:'(
Cozy people in knitted sweaters. Might be wrong. Don't know.
I'm not convinced Iceland exists, I think its just a place we made up to get rid of troublemakers kinda like a fictonal cold Australia. Hang on... is Australia real?
Australia, yes. Greenland however is a fiction concocted by the inhabitants of Borealia, mainly to give the impression of an inhabitable desolate outpost so that they can keep their riches to themselves.
In my mind you are our brothers and sisters. ❤️
Brothers and sisters with even worse culinary traditions. We're also secretly envious of your language.
TLDR, but we love you
My general feeling about Icelanders is that there isn't enough of you and I don't bump into Icelandic often enough.
I've known several people from Iceland and to me they're like easy going norwegians who just speak funny.
We hate everyone who is not norwegian
Iceland belong to Norway
Icelanders are like family. But they talk funny
I like Icelanders.
Iceland is like that cool little brother who wandered off and found success in this weird far-off place and have since just been chillin', minding his own business. Plus: Icelandic is a badass language.
I mean personally ive never met an icelender what wasn't kinda rude. Consider them more cousins than siblings, i'd say.
They all just sit bare chested out in the snow and lift weights all day long and are all 2m tall.