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WikiProject Iceland Discussion Archive: February–December 2007 Return to current talk page

This article greatly overestemates the "military" of Iceland. The Icelandic Crisis Response Unit is not recognised as a military force. "The Special Opertaions Task Force" is not an counter-terrorism team but is the only police force in Iceland that carries firearms. It was established as a response to the increasing number of violent crimes and armed criminals. There for being most compareible to american SWAT forces. The NATO base on Miðnesheiði was until September 30 2006, US soil, meaning that there never were any active armed forces in Iceland. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.220.94.230 (talk • contribs) 22:28, 28 February 2007

The ICRU is a military unit. The Special Operations Unit of the National Commissioner is a National internal anti and counter terrorism team. The rest of the Icelandic Police do not carry guns regularly but are regularly trained in the use of handguns and rifles and have more than enough weapons (of various ages) to arm every single commissioned policeman with a firearm. The Special Operations Unit is certainly not compareable with the average SWAT in america, though the SWAT teams in some places, such as Los Angeles are probably trained to similar levels of competency. The NATO base on Miðnesheiði was never considered US soil, neither de facto nor de jure. This may have been the case with some US bases in foreign countries, but did not apply to Iceland which simply designated areas for defence installations and maintaned and excercised its right to arrest and punish foreign servicemen whereever they comitted a crime against Iceland or Icelanders, inside the defence areas or outside. This also held true if Icelanders comitted crime inside the defence areas against Icelanders or foreign country or troops. The only special grants allowed to the US and NATO forces was to stay out of their own internal justice, if the crime didn't involve Iceland in any way except the fact of it happening inside Icelandic territory. In addition to that, the military forces of NATO and US often excercised outside designated military areas and flew within Icelandic airspace and sailed within Icelandic territorial waters, and still do. The fact however remains, that Iceland itself has no standing army. That does not mean that Iceland, which is an independent country, has no "military" forces. -Kjallakr 14:15, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

OK: I have expanded the Icelandic language article over the last week or so. In the process, I have spawned an Icelandic grammar article and created a template (pictured right) to link to together the Icelandic language articles, which are in need of review and refinement. Can we add this template to the WikiProject’s template list? I have now requested reviews for both the Icelandic language and Icelandic grammar articles. Max Naylor 11:00, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

The main Iceland page states that Icelandic is related to Old Norse and Old English. The former - yes, very closely. The latter - absolutely not. Old English is probably closer to Middle High German than to modern Icelandic. They come from completely different branches of the Germanic language family. I will go edit this now, but wanted to point this out in case anyone queries the change. Have a look at any grammar of Old Norse - there should be an intro that describes the different Germanic language families there.

I would like to invite you all to participate in a discussion at this thread regarding bilateral relations between two countries. All articles related to foreign relations between countries are now under the scope of WikiProject Foreign relations, a newly created project. We hope that the discussion will result in a more clean and organized way of explaining such relationships. Thank you. Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 18:39, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Howdy folks, we put the spotlight on the stub Icelanders. Its now a fully fledged article. We started off with this. You guys can check out our changes at this link. If you want to join our efforts, just hop into #wikipedia-spotlight on the irc.freenode.net network. If you need any help with this just ask me. —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 06:58, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

When {{WikiProject Iceland}} is used in the talk pages, it does not display in the box the importance of the article (the correct syntax is being used), but it just adds the -right- category. I do not know enough about the wikipedia code to fix this myself. --Michkalas 15:15, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Category:Iceland-related lists, Category:Buildings and structures in Iceland, Category:Politics of Iceland, Category:Communications in Iceland, Category:Education in Iceland, Category:Icelandic society, Category:Transport in Iceland and all their respective subcategories have been tagged with the projects banner. --Michkalas 23:55, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

I did the same for Category:Icelandic culture, Category:Icelandic media, Category:Religion in Iceland, Category:Icelandic culture, Category:Economy of Iceland too. --Michkalas 16:14, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

The same for Category:Environment of Iceland, Category:Geography of Iceland, Category:Icelandic law, Category:History of Iceland, Category:Images of Iceland, Category:Military of Iceland, Category:Icelandic people, Category:Sport in Iceland, Category:Subdivisions of Iceland, Category:Tourism in Iceland, Category:Science and technology in Iceland and Category:Iceland stubs. So now all the articles in Category:Iceland and its subcategories are not tagged with the project's banner and a number of them is also assessed.--Michkalas 00:44, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

A new project has been started for people interested in ancient and medieval Norse history and culture. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 15:00, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Would it be OK if I updated the project page to a layout like that of Wikipedia:WikiProject_Olympics? Of course, I will keep all of the original content and adapt it as necessary. Max Naylor 12:10, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It is OK by me. Go ahead! --Michkalas 12:41, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Cheers dude! The page’ll be out of action for around an hour then. Max Naylor 13:05, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

OK, I have restructured the project page and talk page. I have created a members page and template directory, all accessible from the main page. If I have omitted any content from the old layout leave me a message. Please review the members list and leave a comment next to your name if you would like. Max Naylor 14:12, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It is much better now. Nice work. --Michkalas 15:53, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Max Naylor 16:58, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Should we use the US rule where we refer to people with their first name or the Icelandic rule where they are referred to with their first name. I've been changing a few into the Icelandic rule, but now I'm not sure if that's right. --Steinninn 16:21, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe we should follow the Icelandic way. This should be the first guideline adopted by the Project in a special subsection called "Style issues" in the projects main page. See also WikiProject_Greece#Style_issues for relevant ideas. --Michkalas 16:41, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Then please adjust this accordingly. Without such an explanation, the casual reader may think that an article edited like this refers to "Ragnar" in the same adoring way that younger American editors like to refer to "Paris", "Britney", etc. -- Hoary 06:00, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Which is or which should be the relation of this project with Icelandic Wikipedians' notice board? --Michkalas 18:33, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure. What about other country's notice boards and WikiProjects? Max Naylor 19:19, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

In WP:GREECE, the notice board has been reduced to "to-do" list and the list is incorporated in the WikiProject's page (see the relevant discussion). In fact, in WP:GREECE the notice board is now obsolete, though not deleted. Of course, there may be other cases and other ideas. --Michkalas 09:01, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I have requested an improvement drive for the Icelandic language article. Please help improve this article if you can, let's get it up to FA! I’ve left a to do list on its talk page. Max Naylor 19:35, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

== Volunteers for "New articles" watch ==

Any volunteer for watching out all Iceland-related new articles and adding them to the projects main page section? It is a necessary task to keep the project up to date. I would do it happily myself, but I do the same thing for all language-related articles in the Greek Wikipedia and one catalogue checking is enough. --Michkalas 18:03, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I have come across this bot whose work is "to patrol New Articles and put relevant articles into the New Articles lists of Portals and Projects." If you can create an new feed there for the WP Iceland and maybe include it in Icelandic Wikipedians' notice board/New articles, which then will be to "new articles" page for the portal will be really nice. Check the example of Swedish Wikipedians' notice board/New articles. I have come across this, but I do not have the time. --Michkalas 12:24, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I've added the pronunciation of Garðar Thór Cortes's name to the article using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) based on the way I think Cortes says it, but as I don't speak Icelandic, I would be grateful if someone who does (and who is familiar with IPA) has a look at it and confirms if it is accurate. Cheers, Jacklee 18:41, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Haukurth, for helping to update the pronunciation. Cheers, Jacklee 12:36, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I have now created an outreach department with a newsletter and a welcome template for new users. Max Naylor 20:35, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I have some misgivings about this series. Comments? Haukur 14:14, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Since it is not a official state post, I believe there should not be any particular box for this "series" nor any special article. Because in, say, the US, the "first lady" is of such high profile, this does not imply that this is happening too around the world. Probably, many would also claim that if there is nothing more to say about someone than s/he is the wife/husband of a president, there is no need to have a separate article and s/he can be just mentioned in the article of the president.--Michkalas 14:28, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Unnecessary, superfluous and of no interest. Let someone remove it. Cheers Io 17:04, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

I have created a new logo for WikiProject Iceland, to kind of reinforce the ‘branding’ if you will, anyway it’s pictured to the right. Please tell me what you think and whether or not we should use it. I’ve noticed that lots of other WikiProjects have logos, and since ours is only the Icelandic flag at the minute I thought I’d spice it up a little. Max Naylor 10:53, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I’ve implemented it for a trial so we can see what it looks like. Max Naylor 11:19, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I like it. so if it's up to me i'd say: keep. Eric Bronder 19:18, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I've created a navigational box for icelandic topics and implemented an example for waterfalls of iceland, based on general navigation boxes and added the icelandic flag and the possibility to add images to the body of the box above, below, to the right or to the left of the body text. How about using it? See example below. Eric Bronder 19:24, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

This is good, but will we be able to adapt templates such as Template:Icelandic language and Template:Iceland topics to work with this? Also, does it respect the autocollapse feature of other navboxes. If this is the case, I wholeheartedly support its usage and implementation, I support your standardisation efforts. Thanks! Max Naylor 19:28, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

No problem concerning the autocollapse, because i've created the template using standard navigational classes like NavFrame, NavHead, etc. So it will autocollapse with more then a certain amount of boxes on a page. I designed it to still show the icelandic flag in its collapsed state though. I've added the mini-style v-d-e for easier access to the templates.

Now for the templates you referred to, I noticed them also, but I'm not sure if it is possible to come up with a generic form that includes both style templates. So either try it in a later stage or use the suggested template for the straightforward lists (like the Category:Waterfalls of Iceland) and use the other style for complex, hybrid and more elaborate lists? Eric Bronder 20:15, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

OK, I’ve no objection to that, go ahead. Please remember to add your templates to the template directory when you have finished. Thanks for the hard work! Max Naylor 08:23, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Just to let everyone know, I have nominated renewable energy in Iceland for feature article status. Max Naylor 10:33, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

An Italian-English translator is required to translate it:Lingua islandese (storia) to History of the Icelandic language. Max Naylor 17:24, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The Politics of Iceland series of articles maybe still needs update after the recent parliamentary elections and the new coalition government. So check articles on politicians, institutions, parties etc. for possible changes. Also, based on their ministries websites (government site, left column) a new article can be created for each cabinet minister - half of them do not have one. --Michkalas 14:29, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

The Icelandic Commonwealth article is quite poor -- the political organization of independent medieval Iceland has been of great interest to scholars and is a topic which deserves a much better article. I'm going to start working on a drastic revision and improvement, and would welcome any help I could get. -- Palthrow 19:38, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

I have added a former country infobox to this article. I think it is quite decent, but a second opinion would be nice. -- Nidator ^{T / C} 19:00, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Kingdom of Iceland Konungsríkið Ísland Kongeriget Island
1918–1944
Flag
Status	Personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark
Capital	Reykjavík
Common languages	Icelandic¹, Danish¹
Government	Constitutional monarchy
King
• 1918-1944	Kristján X
Prime Minister (last five)
• 1927-1932	Tryggvi Þórhallsson
• 1932-1934	Ásgeir Ásgeirsson
• 1934-1942	Hermann Jónasson
• 1942	Ólafur Thors
• 1942-1944	Björn Þórðarson
Legislature	Parliament
Historical era	Interwar period
• Kingdom established	December 1 1918
• Republic	June 7 1944
ISO 3166 code	IS
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Denmark Republic of Iceland
¹ Both were de facto official languages.

I have been thinking about making an article on the Kingdom of Iceland and have gotten as far as to have made a former country infobox. The language situation is so far only a qualified guess. What do you think of it? Also, are there any users here who would like to contribute to the article? -- Nidator 18:10, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

This looks very good. Although I can’t say much about the content of the article, I would like to see it come to fruition. Max Naylor 13:22, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I’ve created a stub of this article, perhaps someone could fill it out. Max Naylor 14:04, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Personally I think this article is superfluous. The titles of the kings went around the lines of "King of Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Goths, the Wends, Ditmarschen ..." and the list goes on, almost forever. But Iceland itself can hardly be called a Kingdom. It was just an administrative unit with more or less autonomy. The degree of autonomy depended on the period. During the Norwegian rule, it was close to autonomous. In the Danish period, its autonomy gradually reduced until absolute monarchy was accepted by the Alþingi (under heavy duress) in 1662. Then there followed a period of absolute government until the Enlightenment, when Icelanders gradually got more of a say in their affairs. One milepost would be the introctucion of free trade. But it is telling, that when Icelanders, under the leadership og the daughter of Jón Arason went south to avenge him (spring 1551), killing a number of people in the process, the Danes actually sent a warship to bring justice to the offenders, but then decided, that retaliations were not practial, and sailed away. I, for my part, would like to see the stub removed. Cheers Io 17:04, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Well this stub isn't about that, it's about the sovereign Kingdom of Iceland between 1918 and 1944. I'm not sure however that this can ever expand from its current stub status. We could make it an overview article of the history of Iceland in that period but I don't think that is the most natural way to divide Icelandic history into chapters. Although the founding of the republic was a big constitutional event, it didn't have so much of an impact on the politics or economy of Iceland. --Bjarki 02:34, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this is an article about Iceland between 1918 and 1944. As I alluded to in Talk:Iceland there is a precedence for such articles; Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kingdom of Finland (1918), Kingdom of Portugal, etc., and I think they have a place on Wikipedia. When it comes to the contents it can be about the political structure and practices, the relationship between Iceland and Denmark, any big political or international cases involving Iceland, how the economy and society was, etc.. It doesn't have to affect the Iceland and History of Iceland articles at all. -- Nidator 11:49, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Yet another example of an old man's limited understanding, i.e. mine. :-) But even so, I don't think this should be an article. It could and should be adequately covered in History of Iceland. The examples given by Nidator are very good examples of what I think belongs there, say, in the section 1918-1944. So I stick with believing that the article is superfluous. Cheers Io 13:08, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi there, as far as I know, Icelandic first names are more important than the "last names". So, for example, if one was discussing politics with a friend, would you refer to the president as simply President Ólafur, and not President Grímsson or something like that? Takk! Jón 21:21, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

In Icelandic you never refer to an Icelandic person with their last name only except as some sort of joke. The only exception I can think of is Sigurður Nordal, who I sometimes hear referred to as Nordal. The president, as it happens, is usually referred to as "Ólafur Ragnar". In a very formal style he is referred to as "herra Ólafur Ragnar". The previous president was simply "Vigdís" or "frú Vigdís". Haukur 21:46, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Benedikt Gröndal is also an exception. He's usually introduced in whichever context as Benedikt Gröndal and thereafter just called Gröndal. Cheers Io 19:55, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Ah, true! Sigurður Breiðfjörð is also sometimes referred to with his family name. Haukur 20:10, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Check out Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/First Lady of Iceland. --Bjarki 02:42, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

What do we want to do with this article? As can be seen on its talk page, there have been calls for deleting it as redundant. Is there any brave soul out there willing to nominate the thing for deletion? --Bjarki 23:05, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Considering how the First Lady discussion is trending I'm not very optimistic... And a decent article on Icelandic nationalism could theoretically be written, even if this one isn't it. Haukur 00:48, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

I like to suggest some changes to the user box for our WikiProject, to match it more closely to other user boxes, specially dimensions. Should we change it or just leave it the way it is. Take a look here. ErickAgain 18:14, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Could some of you in Iceland snap some street scenes from towns other than Reykjavik and some airports other then KEF? And upload them to Commons? It would be nice to have a picture of Husavik or Vopnafjordur, for example, or Hofn. This would go a long way towards illustrating articles that need pictures. Even Reykjavik's domestic airport would be nice to have; presently there's just a picture of a plane taken in relative dark. Aerial pictures of Icelandic airports and towns would be great, but that's wishful thinking, I suppose. Takk. --Mareklug ^talk 13:33, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I just uploaded this one: Image:Reykjavik Airport.jpg but it doesn't really show much more. A photograph from the air would be better. Haukur 01:09, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps we should create an article on this medal? I have found an article (in Norwegian Bokmål), with images, about the first recipient at the official website of the Norwegian Defence Forces ([1]). Does anyone know the official name of the medal in English and Icelandic? -- Nidator 16:53, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

No idea, I'll contact the State Department. --Stalfur 13:22, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Excellent! I will be looking forward to the answer. -- Nidator 19:56, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

This page has some info: [2] Haukur 16:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, then we have the Icelandic name. -- Nidator 17:43, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, this is the only Google hit for "Heiðursmerki Íslensku friðargæslunnar" (which just means "The ICRU medal") so something more official would be nice. Haukur 18:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, so that is the generic term for medal in Icelandic? I understood what it meant from heidersmerke in Modern Norwegian, but medalje is more common here. -- Nidator 18:31, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

There are also orða and, colloquially, medalía. Haukur 18:46, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I assume that the first one is the same as order in English? We will have to wait and see what Stalfur finds out before we start the article. -- Nidator 19:18, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I have sent an e-mail to the proper authorities. Let's see what happens. Peak of vacation time currently so it might take some time, but in my mail I requested as much detail as I could. --Stalfur 23:57, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

ICRU have responded to inform me that they are working on my query and will give information once they have finished. --Stalfur 15:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Excellent! -- Nidator 13:34, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Have just received a reply from Anna Jóhannsdóttir, Head of Iceland Crisis Response Unit. First the Icelandic text and then I'll translate it:

Með vísan til fyrirspurnar þinnar fyrir skömmu vegna heiðursmerkja íslensku

friðargæslunnar. Heiti þessarar viðurkenningar var Heiðursmerki íslensku friðargæslunnar, á ensku Iceland Crisis Response Medal. Heiðursmerkið var veitt um fimmtíu manns á tímabilinu frá ágúst 2004 fram í júní 2005, þeim sem starfað höfðu að friðargæsluverkefnum á þeim tíma, en jafnframt tveimur erlendum samstarfsfulltrúum. Einnig fengu tveir lögreglumenn sem voru þeir fyrstu sem fóru til starfa um 1950 í Palestínu heiðursmerkið.

Hætt var að veita heiðursmerkið af hálfu íslensku friðargæslunnar í júní 2005 og friðargæsluliðar fá almennt viðurkenningar og heiðursmerki einungis frá yfirstjórn síns verkefnis nú, m.a. á Sri Lanka, Afganistan og í fleiri

samstarfsverkefnum.

Translation

In regard to your recent query about the medals of the Icelandic peace-keeping force. The name of the medal was Heiðursmerki íslensku friðargæslunnar, in english Iceland Crisis Response Medal. The medal was awarded to about fifty people from august 2004 until june 2005 to those who had worked in peacekeeping during that time, but also to two foreign colleagues. Also awarded to two police officers who went to Palestine in the 1950s.

The medal was discontinued by the Icelandic Peace-Keeping force (Crisis Response Unit) in june 2005 and the peace-keepers now generally get reccomendations and medals from the head of each project, inc. Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and other projects.

So it looks like it has been discontinued, I might try to get a list of all those who received it if you deem that to be of any importance. --Stalfur 19:34, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I had thought that we could perhaps make an article about the medal, but as it has been discontinued I'm not sure it warrants one. -- Nidator 21:44, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I bought Ragnar Axelsson's book Faces of the North some months ago, and had been intending to write an article about him at some point. Yesterday I discovered that the article already exists. It was pretty awful, and I started to tinker with it. User:Dicklyon thereupon bombarded it with heavy template artillery.

In English, Axelsson has created a buzz in, hmm, perhaps not the blogosphere but anyway the messageforumosphere. This of course is worth nothing in WP terms. His work is also written up in citable sources but in various languages in which I have infinitesimal reading ability, e.g. Icelandic, from which I can barely manage to pick out the occasional (conveniently capitalized) proper name. Still, the history tab of the article will show that, in my pathetically monoglot way, I've put a bit of work into improving the article since User:Dicklyon shook his stick at it.

Axelsson is a superb photographer and easily merits an article. (Yes, WP:ILIKEIT. But don't take my word for it; click to his website.) User:Dicklyon's lovely template reads in part: If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion. If you have some book that deals with him, or can confidently cite what is in Icelandic and on the web, please help rescue this article. -- Hoary 00:25, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I notice the template is there no longer and that details on his work appearing in LIFE and other magazines is listed, which I would consider ample evidence of notability. --Stalfur 13:37, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Haukurth kindly removed the last of the irritating templates. But the article blandly says that Axelsson has had photographs and picture essays published in Life, National Geographic, Le Figaro, Stern, La Vanguardia, Time, and elsewhere without giving a single example. It's a respectable stub, but only a stub. I'm sure that informative articles about his work have appeared in Icelandic and other magazines, but I don't have any such magazines or even access to them; help here would be most welcome. -- Hoary 13:57, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I bought an oil painting of a snow covered mountain with a large body of water in the foreground. I think the name of the mountain is Hekla and the artist name is K Hjorvar. I bought this painting at the international airport around 1963. Does any one know of this artist? Is he still alive? What is the history of his paintings?

199.4.143.83 16:06, 26 July 2007 (UTC)Allen West

No idea, but he would be named "Hjörvar". Something in this style? Lupo 12:08, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

This article is up for deletion [3] and comments on notability would be appreciated there. DGG (talk) 17:15, 10 August 2007 (UTC) i have a painting by the same artist same time period , my father was in the navy and bought it when we were in iceland.

My brother inlaw has one also, he bought it in Iceland back in the 60's I can't seem to find any information on the artist but there is another painting at www.waterandoil.com p-1149. Enjoy

Hildur Gudnadóttir is a new article. Totnesmartin 16:47, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I wonder if you could help me. Does anyone here have access to the University Library in Reykjavík? If so, could you please get Islandica XIX (1929, entitled "Icelandic manuscripts", edited by Halldór Hermansson (1878 - 1958))? According to Google's book search, there should be a portrait of Björn Gunnlaugsson "facing page 70".[4] If it is there, could you scan it in and place it in the article, please? (And if there's any mention of who the painter/photographer was, or when and where the image was taken or published, I'd also like to know.)

Alternatively, someone with access to the Cornell University Library could do the same. None of the libraries I have access to can get me Islandica XIX, not even through inter-library loan, and I've already asked the people at the Fiske Collection at Cornell whether they'd be so kind, but they haven't replied. I guess they've got better things to do than fulfill such bold requests by random Internauts, even if they're from Wikipedia.

Who can help me get that portrait? Lupo 11:07, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. I just checked the book but I couldn't find Björn. Let me try again when I have more time. Haukur 11:24, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I think it's more likely the 1931 issue we want. It has an article titled "The cartography of Iceland" by the same author.[5] My guess is that Cornell/Google digitized a book which consisted of several issues of the magazine, the first one being from 1929. Haukur 11:37, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Possibly. It's not the first time Google's indications of the volume turned out to be wrong. :-( But thanks a lot for looking! Lupo 11:53, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Yup, it's there - on page 70 of the 1931 issue. You can see it (or, at any rate, a close cousin) here: [6] I didn't see information on authorship but I didn't really do a search for it. Haukur 12:23, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

A bigger version: [7] Haukur 12:29, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

(de-indent) Great. But that raises some questions.

• These newspapers are from 1988 and 1993, respectively. Shall we take a version cropped from these DJVU files despite the Icelandic "simple photography" rules? :-) I guess we both know the answer to that one... A scan of the Islandica XXI might be better.
• Assuming we have a digital version, shall we tag it boldly as {{PD-Art}} even though we don't know anything about the painter? It'd be really good if we could find out who painted this.
• What are the decorations he's wearing? When did he get these orders of merit or whatever?
• Do these two articles add anything worth mentioning to our article? (The 1993 one is on Njóla...) If so, could you please add the info, as I cannot read Icelandic.
• Why does the 1993 article call the poem Njólu, whereas Benedikz gives it as Njóla? Lupo 13:25, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

  Njólu is the accusative case, Njóla is the nominative case. Haukur 13:32, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

  I suspected so, but since I'm really on thin ice here, I thought I'd better just ask. The 1988 paper says "fæddist á Tannstöðum við Hrútafjörð", which I have from my sources as Tannstaðir in Hútnavatnssýsla. I guess the Hrútafjörð may also be in Hútnavatnssýsla, but someone should really check that I got all these Icelandic words correct in the article. And none of the three have articles, neither here nor at is-WP. Nor does is:Björn Gunnlaugsson exist. Hint, hint... :-) For someone with too much time on his hands :-) Lupo 13:42, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

  Yes, de:Hrútafjörður is in is:Húnavatnssýsla. Let me get back to you on the rest. Haukur 13:55, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

  I checked that Islandica issue again and it referred to an 1883 issue of Andvari for the picture. I checked that and indeed, there it was. I'll try to scan it in in the next few days. Haukur 18:33, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

  This is getting better and better. I hadn't thought that you might have access to Andvari, too. That would be the Melsteð/Jensson biography (vol 9, pp. 3–16). Maybe they have some more life data on Gunnlaugsson. So while you have it, please do check and improve the article, if you find additional significant info. Lupo 19:05, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

"As a recognition of the great feat entailed in the surveying of Iceland Björn was elected an honorary member of the Literature Society and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog as well as the highest award of the French Legion of Honour."[8] These are presumably the two medals. Haukur 19:24, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Yep, the one on the right in the reproduction in the 1993 newspaper looks indeed like a Knight's cross of the Légion d'honneur of that period. (But not the highest award, which would be worn with a sash.) See also [9]. The medal is to be worn on the left chest, so we also know that the image in the 1988 newspaper has been flipped horizontally. Is this text translated from Andvari? Lupo 20:01, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Andvari says that he was a knight of the order. This is consistent with the information at Légion d'honneur on how the knight degree should look. Haukur 10:22, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

From what I can glean about the Dannbrog order he also had the knight class there. Haukur 10:26, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Oh, sorry, no - I got the text from here: [10] Apparently I had the wrong thing in the clipboard. Haukur 22:55, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

The Andvari article does contain information on this, though. It says he got the French medal "many years before 1875" and the Danish medal in 1846. Haukur 23:07, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

This article says that he got the French medal before the Danish one (which seems somewhat surprising) so it must have been the Louis-Philippe version. The article also confirms that Sigurður málari made the portrait (which is still called 'mynd'). [11] Haukur 10:51, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, here it is: Image:Bjorn Gunnlaugsson.jpg Haukur 23:00, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! On his right sleeve (i.e., left in the picture), the engraver signed his name as "H.C. Olsen", as far as I can make it out. And since the painting dates to 1859, we know that he received the French medal earlier. Lupo 06:46, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

WP:MOS-ICELAND, for your editing pleasure. I hope it will be useful. Please look at its talk page, and conduct relevant arguments there.

If, however, you think it's crap, here's where to go! -- Hoary 05:09, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

One Pmanderson has scrawled on its talk page: This misguided page was [...] created without consensus. It is contrary both to the MOS as a whole and to WP:NAME; it is consensus to spell names as English spells them. Much affronted dignity and all that. Might we see another Cod War? -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hoary (talk • contribs) 14:31, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I heard Icelandic soprano Diddú (Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir) sing at a Garðar Thór Cortes concert in London on 26 September 2007 and thought she had a wonderful voice. I therefore decided to start a biographical article on her. Do help to improve the following aspects of the article:

• Providing an IPA pronunciation for "Diddú" and "Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir".
• Updating the information in the article: biographical data, discography, etc. (there seem to be very few English sources).
• Providing English translations for the titles of albums released by Diddú.
• Checking that diacriticals have not been left out of Icelandic words and names.

Thanks! Cheers, Jacklee 21:06, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I write to inform users here that Russavia has nominated Þingeyri to be renamed as Thingeyri. I note that this would be at odds with WP:MOS-ICELAND, and the consistent naming patterns for almost all Icelanding place name articles. Please weight in on your comments at Talk:Þingeyri if you wish. Thanks!--Huaiwei 12:05, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello All - This thought may be silly if there are a lot of contributors in Iceland working for this project, but I will be going to Iceland for 6 days in November, and traveling Route 1. I have a nice 8Mpx digital SLR camera, and would like to know if any of you have photo requests for this project. Cheers. de Bivort 22:46, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Great. See my #request for Iceland airport/town photos - preferably uploaded to Commons above. Any very good picture of a town or an airport would likely find use. Nicer pix of the Ring Road itself would improve that article. --Mareklug ^talk 03:17, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah yay - I plan to take lots and lots of shots - so there may be quite a bit that's useful then. de Bivort 03:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Just wondering since this movie is a big hit in Iceland doesn't it deserve an own article? 82.148.70.2 15:02, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, while categorizing the article "Paul Oscar" that I created, I realized there are two very similar categories, "Category:Icelandic singers" and "Category:Icelandic vocalists". I think these categories should be merged. Perhaps a member from this WikiProject would like to handle the matter? — Cheers, JackLee ^{–talk • contribs • count–} 03:37, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Can someone please go to the Icelandic Wikipedia and translate the page from there? Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.148.70.2 (talk) 10:47, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I just found [12] while doing a Google search. Honestly, I do not know how to get the SCOTDIC colors mentioned there, but could anyone email the PM's office to see what other color codes are possible? If so, I will us the codes to draw the flag accurately. Thanks. User:Zscout370 ^{(Return Fire)} 08:03, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello All - I have uploaded ~260 high res photos from a November trip around the ringroad (here). I have others that I haven't cleaned up yet, that include photos of just about every town on Route 1.

I'll be adding them to articles eventually, but if you want to dive in and add them, please do! de Bivort 06:19, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

why is the article about him using a poorly anglicized version of the name?--Marhawkman (talk) 07:58, 4 January 2009 (UTC)