The National Theatre, Iceland, Reykjavík.

The culture of Iceland is rich and varied as well as being known for its literary heritage which stems from authors from the 12th to 14th centuries. Other Icelandic traditional arts include weaving, silver crafting, and wood carving. The Reykjavík area has several professional theatres, a symphony orchestra, an opera, and a large amount of art galleries, bookstores, cinemas, and museums. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1704 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1704 pixel, file size: 1. ... Location in Iceland Coordinates: Constituency Reykjavík North Reykjavík South Area  - City 274. ... Cosette Dwyer is an amazing author. ... Tweed loom, Harris, 2004 Woven sheet Weaving is an ancient textile art and craft that involves placing two sets of threads or yarn made of fiber called the warp and weft of the loom and turning them into cloth. ... Carved wooden cranes Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool held in the hand (this may be a power tool), resulting in a wooden figure or figurine (this may be abstract in nature) or in the ornamentation of a wooden object. ... Location in Iceland Coordinates: Constituency Reykjavík North Reykjavík South Area  - City 274. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Orchestra at City Hall (Edmonton). ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... The Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. ...

Social customs and daily life

The inhabitants of Iceland take care to preserve their traditions and language. For example, the word for computer (an introduced object) is tölva which combines the ancient terms for number and seer. Women occupy an important place in society, prominently in the government. A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ...

Local and national festivals include the annual National Day, celebrating the country's independence in 1944, Sumardagurinn fyrsti which celebrates the first day of summer, and Sjómannadagurinn which is held every June to pay tribute to the country's seafaring past. Icelandic National Day. ... Summer is a season of the year that is defined as beginning on June 21st, and ending in September in the Northern Hemisphere. ... June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with a length of 30 days. ...

Much of the cuisine centres around Iceland's fishing industry. Traditional dishes include Hákarl (putrefied shark), graflax (salmon marinated in salt and dill), hangikjöt (smoked lamb), hrútspungar (pickled ram's testicles), and slátur (sausages made from sheep entrails). A popular food is skyr made of cultured skim milk, in the summer time it may be served with bilberries as a dessert. Brennivin is an Icelandic liqour made from potatoes and caraway. Cuisine (from French cuisine, cooking; culinary art; kitchen; ultimately from Latin coquere, to cook) is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. ... Salmon for sale at a marketplace The Fishing industry is the commercial activity of fishing and producing fish and other seafood products. ... Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Symmoriida(extinct) Shark (superorder Selachimorpha) are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton[1] and a streamlined body. ... Illustration of a male Coho Salmon The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow to 1. ... A magnified crystal of a salt (halite/sodium chloride) Salt covering the floor of Bad Water in Death Valley, CA, the lowest point in the US. A salt, in chemistry, is defined as the product formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and bases. ... Binomial name Anethum graveolens L. Dried Dill-umbel Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a short-lived annual herb, native to southwest and central Asia. ... It has been suggested that Lambing be merged into this article or section. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic sheep (Ovis aries), the most common species of the sheep genus (Ovis), is a woolly ruminant quadruped which probably descends from the wild mouflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ... Species See text. ... Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. ... Skyr with strawberry taste from the Icelandic dairy product company Norðurmjólk Skyr is an Icelandic soured dairy product, thicker than yoghurt. ... A glass of milk Milk most often means the nutrient fluid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. ... Binomial name Vaccinium myrtillus L. Bilberry is a name given to several species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium (family Ericaceae) that bear tasty fruits. ... Alcoholic beverages are drinks containing ethanol, popularly called alcohol. ... Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. ... Categories: | | | | ...

Leisure

Though changing in the past years, Icelanders remain a very healthy nation. Children and teenagers participate in various types of leisure activities. Popular sports today are mainly soccer, athletics and basketball. Sports such as golf, tennis, swimming, chess and horseback riding on Icelandic horses are also popular. Football is a ball game played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more goals than their opponent. ... A womens 400m hurdles race on a typical outdoor red rubber track. ... Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005. ... Golf is a sport in which individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and also is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ... This article concentrates on human swimming. ... Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... The Icelandic horse is a breed of pony that has lived in Iceland since the mid-800s, having been brought to the island by Viking settlers. ...

Chess is a popular type of recreation favored by the Icelanders Viking ancestors. The country's chess clubs have created many chess grandmasters including Friðrik Ólafsson, Jóhann Hjartarson, Margeir Pétursson, and Jón Arnason. Glíma is a form of wrestling that is still played in Iceland, thought to have originated with the Vikings. Swimming and horseback riding are popular as well as leisure activities without competition. Golf is an especially common sport, with about 1/8 of the nation playing it [1]. Team handball is often referred to as a national sport, Iceland's team is one of the top ranked teams in the world, and Icelandic women are surprisingly good at football compared to the size of the country, the national team ranked the eighteenth best by FIFA. Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ... The term Viking commonly denotes the ship-borne warriors and traders of Norsemen (literally, men from the north) who originated in Scandinavia and raided the coasts of the British Isles and mainland Europe as far east as the Volga River in Russia from the late 8th–11th century. ... Friðrik Ólafsson (born January 26, 1935) is a chess Grandmaster. ... Glíma is the Icelandic national style of amateur Folk wrestling. ... This article concentrates on human swimming. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Golf is a sport in which individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and also is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. ... Handball player leaps towards the goal prior to throwing the ball, while the goalkeeper extends himself trying to stop it. ... World Handball Championship Appearances 10 (First in 1961) Best result Quarter final, 1997 European Championship Appearances 4 (First in 2000) Best result Semifinal, 2002 The Iceland national handball team is the national handball team of Iceland and is controlled by the Icelandic Handball Association. ... Football (soccer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The International Federation of Association Football (French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), commonly known by its acroymn, FIFA, is the international governing body of association football. ...

Ice and rock climbing are a favorite among many Icelanders, for example to climb the top of the 4,167-foot (1,270 metre) Þumall peak in Skaftafell National Park is a challenge for many adventurous climbers, but mountain climbing is considered to be more suitable for the general public and is a very common type of leisure activity. Hvítá, among many other of the Icelandic glacial rivers, attracts kayakers and river rafterers worldwide. Morning sunlight on Skaftafellsjökull The Svartifoss The Svartifoss in the Winter Skaftafell National Park is situated between Kirkjubæjarklaustur, typically referred to as Klaustur, and Höfn in the south of Iceland. ... There is more than one river called Hvítá in Iceland. ...

Arts

Svefn, a sculpture by Einar Jónsson.

The people of Iceland are famous for their prose and poetry and have produced many great authors including Halldór Laxness, Guðmundur Kamban, Tómas Guðmundsson, Davíð Stefánsson, Jón Thoroddsen, Guðmundur G. Hagalín, Þórbergur Þórðarson and Jóhannes úr Kötlum. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2448 × 3264 pixel, file size: 3. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2448 × 3264 pixel, file size: 3. ... Einar Jónsson (May 11, 1874 – October 18, 1954) was an Icelandic sculptor, born in Galtafell, a farm in southern Iceland. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday [[speech. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (born Halldór Guðjónsson) (April 23, 1902 – February 8, 1998) was a 20th century Icelandic author of such novels as Independent People, The Atom Station, Paradise Reclaimed, Icelands Bell, The Fish Can Sing and World Light. ... Guðmundur Kamban (June 8, 1888 – May 5, 1945) was an Icelandic playwright. ... Tómas Guðmundsson (6 January 1901 – November 14, 1983) was an Icelandic author. ... Davíð Stefánsson from Fagriskógur was an Icelandic author. ... Jón Thoroddsen may refer to: Jón Thoroddsen junior Jón Thoroddsen elder This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Guðmundur G. Hagalín (1898-???) came from the sea-girt Western Fiords, where he was a fisherman before attending secondary school. ... Þórbergur Þórðarson (in transliteration, Thorbergur Thordarson) (1889–1974) was an Icelandic author. ... Jóhannes Jónasson úr Kötlum (1899-1972) was an Icelandic author. ...

Iceland's best-known classical works of literature are the Icelanders' sagas, prose epics set in Iceland's age of settlement. The most famous of these include Njáls saga, about an epic blood feud, and Grænlendinga saga and Eiríks saga, describing the discovery and settlement of Greenland and Vinland (modern Newfoundland). Egils saga, Laxdæla saga, Grettis saga, Gísla saga and Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu are also notable and popular Icelanders' sagas. The Icelanders sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur) or family sagas are prose histories describing mostly events that took place in Iceland during the Age of Settlement (870-930) and the following century. ... Njáls saga (also known as The Story of Burnt Njál) is an epic of Icelandic literature from the 13th century that describes the progress of a 50-year blood feud. ... GrÅ“nlendinga saga or the Saga of the Greenlanders is an Icelandic saga. ... Eiríks saga rauða or the Saga of Eric the Red is a saga on the Norse exploration of North-America. ... Vinland was the name given to a part of North America by the Icelandic norseman Leif Eiríksson, about the year (AD) 1000. ... For other uses, see Newfoundland (disambiguation). ... Egill Skallagrímsson in a 17th century manuscript of Egils Saga Egils saga is an epic Icelandic saga possibly by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241 A.D.), who may have written the account between the years 1220 and 1240 A.D. It is an important representative of the sagas and has... Laxdæla saga is the saga of the clan/family of Laxdal. ... Grettis saga or Grettla is an Icelandic saga detailing the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, an Icelandic viking who became an outlaw. ... Gísla saga is a Norse saga, an epic of Icelandic literature. ... Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu or the Saga of Gunnlaugr Serpent-Tongue[1] is one of the Icelanders sagas. ... The Icelanders sagas (Icelandic: Íslendingasögur) or family sagas are prose histories describing mostly events that took place in Iceland during the Age of Settlement (870-930) and the following century. ...

W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice wrote Letters From Iceland (1937) to describe their travels through that country. Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) (IPA: ; first syllable of Auden rhymes with law), who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. ... Frederick Louis MacNeice (September 12, 1907 – September 3, 1963) was a British and Irish poet and playwright. ...

The first professional secular painters appeared in Iceland in the 19th century. This group of artists included Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval who was famous for his paintings potraying village life in Iceland. Ásmundur Sveinsson, a 20th century sculptor, was also from Iceland. Silver working and its old traditions have been preserved. Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval (15 October 1885 - 13 April 1972) was an Icelandic painter. ... The Icelandic sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson (1893 - 1982) had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sweden. ...

See also

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