Here are some useful phrases.
- Ungi maðurinn þekkir reglurnar, en gamli maðurinn þekkir undantekningarnar.
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” - Nú duga engin vettlingatök.
“No more mitten-takes.” — used for: Do it right this time. - Ég kem alveg af fjöllum.
“I come completely from mountains” — used for: I have no idea what is going on - Ég mun finna þig í fjöru
“I will find you on a beach” — used for: Don’t make me hurt you. Sort of. - Að koma einhverjum fyrir kattarnef
“To put someone before a cats nose.” — used for: Putting someone in the spotlight, but slightly more dangerous. - Ég borga bara með reiðufé
“I only pay with an angry sheep” — used for: Okay, but I don’t have to like it.
Edited to add: I put in rough ideas of how one would use these phrases
I really, really like the first one.
Quite what some of the others are trying to convey, I’m not entirely sure.
My s-i-l will be in Iceland for 6 months starting January 1. She’s doing research on a Fullbright and really looking forward to getting back into the field after 5 years as a dean. She loves Iceland.
Brian: I added rough meanings to them, instead of just translations.
Irene: Iceland is fantastic. If it weren’t this wouldn’t even be a discussion. We haven’t even been here for two months yet.
Thanks for the idiomatic translations.
I’d love to go to Iceland sometime, I must admit. To actually see places like Thingvellir and the settings for all the sagas (I have many sagas…) would be very, very cool.
Go in the off-season. You can get roundtrip fares out of NYC for $250. Of course, Iceland itself is frighteningly expensive.
You forget; I’m in the UK. Therefore Iceland is merely very expensive, rather than frighteningly expensive. It makes it a “long weekend” kind of option in late spring or early autumn. Maybe next year…
I did forget you were in the UK. In that case, getting to Iceland is cheap! There are regularly fares for 11 pounds. If you know where to look…
11 pounds is good. But who wants to paddle that far?