Konudagurinn 2025

Icelandic Women's Day

The Old Icelandic calendar only knows two seasons - winter and summer. Winter begins at the end of October and lasts until the end of March. The fifth winter month, the month of Góa, begins in the 18th week of winter.

And just as the first day of the fourth winter month is "Men's Day" (bóndadagur), the first day of the fifth winter month is Women's Day (konudagur).

There are traditions that both bóndagur and konudagur were celebrated in Iceland at least in the mid-19th century. Today, Icelandic women often receive flowers, chocolate or other delicious food for Women's Day. I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers today!

I feel like spring is slowly approaching. The days are noticeably longer and there is more light again. I'm looking forward to!

In this sense:

Gleðilegan konudag!

Happy Women's Day!

[Translated from here.]

Lummur með jarðarberjum

Icelandic pancakes with strawberries

In Iceland there are two types of pancakes: the larger, very thin pancakes (pönnukökur) and then smaller, thick pancakes (lummur). What is typical for Icelandic pancakes is that the fat is added directly to the dough, but the pancakes are then baked in the pan without fat.

Icelanders like to eat pancakes with coffee, but they are also perfect for a leisurely, late breakfast - especially with cream and fresh fruit.

Ingredients

140 g wholemeal flour

150 g wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 pinch of salt

400 ml soured milk

1 egg

3 Tbsp rapeseed oil

Preparation

Put the wholemeal flour with the wheat flour in a large bowl, add baking powder, sugar and salt.

Pour 400 ml of soured milk over it and stir into a smooth dough.

Add egg and oil and mix thoroughly.

Add a little more milk if necessary if the consistency of the dough is still too thick.

Fry the Lummur in a hot pan without additional oil until they are golden brown on both sides.

The Lummur is best served fresh with fruit or jam and cream.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Bless bless, Þorri!

Goodbye, Thorri!

The Old Icelandic calendar only knew two seasons, winter and summer. Winter lasted from mid-October to mid-March, summer was from mid-March to mid-October. However, summers in Iceland were always short and often not particularly warm, while winters were long, cold and full of hardship.

Accordingly, back in Iceland, a person's age was measured by the number of winters they had already survived. We have just been practicing this in Icelandic class, where we are currently reading a children's version of the Egils saga, when the great Viking killed his first man at the tender age of 7: "Egill var á sjöunda vetri", Egill was in his 7th winter when he committed his first murder.

The fourth winter month of Þorri

The Old Icelandic winter month of Þorri begins on Friday between January 19th and 26th, with the 13th week of winter. This “drought month” was the month in which all supplies were finally used up and there was still nothing new and fresh to eat.

This month used to celebrate a great pagan sacrificial festival, the Þorrablót, the sacrificial festival in the month of Þorri. Or for the month of Þorri, with which an attempt was made to make this cold winter month a little milder, so that it wasn't too grim. People decorated their houses, similar to Christmas or Easter. There were also special customs. So on bóndadagur, the first day of the month of Þorri, the farmers skipped around the house barefoot in only their shirts and one trouser leg, dragging the other trouser leg behind them and thus marking their farm and their property, and afterwards their wives gave them particularly delicious food such as pickled mutton testicles or singed sheep's head. And freshly baked Flatbrauð.

Flatbrauð in the Viking kitchen in Haitabu (May 2024)

In addition, there were celebrations again on the farms, with all the traditional dishes that had a long shelf life in winter - foods such as black pudding and liver sausage, pork testicles, whale meat or seal fins, which were marinated in acidic whey and thus preserved for a long time. The “guest of honor” at Þorrablót was always the winter month of Þorri itself, which was intended to be merciful with this sacrificial festival.

Vikings in Haitabu (May 2024)

These traditional Icelandic customs surrounding the sacrificial festival of Þorrablót were apparently largely suppressed in the course of Christianization.

The first recorded Þorrablót of modern times only took place in 1873, organized by a group of Icelandic students. From around 1880 onwards, the Icelandic Society for Classical Studies celebrated a festive Þorrablót every year. In the 1950s, local heritage associations also held festive Þorrablóts to mark the occasion. From 1958 onwards, the Naustið restaurant in Reykjavík, on the initiative of one of the owners, Halldór S. Gröndal (1927 - 2009), offered Þorramatur in order to give city residents the opportunity to get to know these traditional dishes.

Today, local associations hold their Þorrablót festivals all over the country. But you can now easily get almost everything you need for a hearty Þorrablót at home with friends or relatives in the supermarket:

You can buy various súrmatur, i.e. meat products marinated in sour whey, in a 2 liter bucket. And if you don't dare buy the 2 liter bucket, you can also buy smaller quantities, for example a Þorrabakki, i.e. a tasting tablet with various traditional Þorramatur dishes.

Typical Þorramatur dishes include lamb smoked over sheep dung (hangikjöt), salt meat (saltkjöt), brawn such as sheep's head brawn (sviðasulta), pickled ram testicles (súrsaðirhrútsprungar), various blood sausage and liver sausage dishes (blóðmör og lifrapylsa),

and rolled meat (lundabaggar), but also fish dishes such as dried fish (harðfiskur) and rotten shark (hákarl).

Traditional side dishes for Þorrablót are often mashed turnips (rófustappe) and mashed potatoes (kartöflumús), as well as the typical Icelandic sweet rye bread (rúgbrauð) and thin flatbread (flatbrauð).

In addition, people used to drink plenty of high-proof alcohol, such as Brennivín.

I found a recipe for a typical Þorrablót dish in an old cookbook, but for various reasons I didn't actually try it myself:

For the pickled ram's testicles in brawn (here on the right on the plate), the testicles of the freshly slaughtered sheep are placed in boiling salted water in autumn and allowed to cook for about an hour. The cooked testicles are then removed from the broth with a ladle. The jelly is then prepared from a little broth with salt and aspic. The cooked testicles are then placed in a large container (e.g. used 2 liter bucket from súrmatur), poured with the jelly and placed something heavy on top for pressing. When the jelly has set, cut the brawn into thick slices and pour plenty of whey over them. The whey is then changed regularly, first after about 2 weeks, then after about 6 to 8 weeks, and in January the pickled hrútsprungar are ready to enjoy. Or for consumption, however you take it.

Honestly, to a taste of a Central European, many of these traditional meat dishes aren't even that tasty. But of course we tried it anyway!

And on February 23, 2025, the next, fifth winter month begins, the month of Góa. This month starts on Sunday in the 18th week of winter, i.e. today between February 18th and 24th. On the first day of this month, Iceland celebrates konudagur, or “Women’s Day”.

By the way, there is a weather rule in Iceland, it is said that if Women's Day was stormy and the weather was bad in the first days of this month, it should be a good summer. Let's see what the weather will be like on Sunday - and what summer 2025 will be like.

[Translated from here.]

Norðurljós um helgina

We had good weather at the weekend and the last few days we had the Northern Lights four nights in a row. The northern lights were particularly beautiful on Saturday evening.

My husband took this photo of me on Saturday evening. We were actually tired and wanted to go to bed, but just to be on the safe side, my husband took one last look at the terrace and saw how wonderfully the northern lights were dancing above us. So let's get out for a moment...

Here in the picture I'm just standing there, looking at the moving images in the sky above me and staring and marveling. And I'm happy. Like Bolle. And I think that's exactly what this picture expresses. I love this photo of myself!

What are Northern Lights?

Northern lights (Aurora borealis) occur when solar winds penetrate the atmosphere, i.e. electrically charged particles from the sun hit the earth's atmosphere above the earth's poles, creating this very special glow in the sky.

With the human eye, weak northern lights can often only be seen whitish-gray, but as the intensity increases the color actually increases and I, like many other people, see the northern lights in green and sometimes even in magenta tones.

I once tried to visually show how a camera perceives the northern lights and how I see them with the naked eye, here using the northern lights, which are not so strong. I took the photo on Sunday evening. I saw the Northern Lights clearly with the naked eye, but more as a white-greyish veil with a very slight green cast. On the camera, however, the bright green was much more impressive.

The Kp index

The Kp index is a planetary indicator and also serves as an indicator of possible northern light phenomena. The numbers refer to geomagnetic activity. The lower the Kp index, the weaker the activity is likely to be. The higher the Kp index, the more intense the auroral activity (movement and formation) and also the further south the northern lights are likely to be. The Kp index is represented in whole numbers and ranges from 0 to 9.

To see the Northern Lights, it must not be too cloudy. In addition, the environment should be as dark as possible. Full moon nights are therefore not ideal if you are hoping for the Northern Lights.

However, a high Kp index is no guarantee that you will actually see the northern lights. Even with a Kp index of 6 (i.e. relatively high) and a starry sky, I didn't see any northern lights. However, with a Kp index of 2 (pretty low), I have seen beautiful northern lights.

Saturday evening, Kp index at 3

On Saturday evening the Kp index was only 3, so it wasn't actually particularly high - but the Northern Lights were very intense, bright and dancing quickly and in wild formations across the sky.

Here seen from our terrace...

...and the view of the neighboring house...

...as well as straight into the sky.

Our kids thought there was something “Harry Potter-esque” about it and “Wow, the Dark Mark has been spotted over Iceland!” Yes, I know what you mean, I can understand the comparison with the scene in the film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" when the dark mark of the evil wizard Voldemort is summoned in shades of green in the night sky over the wizarding world...

But even without a magician, the northern lights are often simply magical!

It was beautiful and I enjoyed it so much!

On Sunday morning the Northern Lights were no longer visible. Thanks to the moonlight (there was a full moon on February 12th) it was already pretty light at half past five. After taking the photo I went back to bed...

[Translated from here.]

Smáterta í afmælisgjöf

Small cake as a birthday present

Last week it was a special friend's birthday and we celebrated here at the Island House. The birthday child took over all of the culinary care, but as a little surprise I baked this little cake.

I had already baked this birthday cake (afmæliskaka) "in large" for my husband's birthday in 2023. Now I spontaneously baked it again “in small size”. I had previously bought a mini springform pan with a diameter of 5 inches (12 cm). The result...? Small, tasty and really makes a nice visual impression!

And if you don't have a birthday coming up in the near future - next Sunday on February 23rd this year is konudagurinn, Icelandic Women's Day. Maybe that would be a nice opportunity...?

Ingredients

Ingredients for the floors

110 g soft butter

120 g sugar

2 eggs

180 g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of ground vanilla

80 ml milk

2 Tbsp chopped almonds

Ingredients for the buttercream

130 g soft butter

250 g powdered sugar

1 Tbsp whipping cream

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of ground vanilla

Ingredients for the brittle

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp chopped almonds

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and eggs until fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and milk and stir. Fold the chopped almonds into the dough and stir in.

Then pour the dough evenly into three small springform pans (diameter 12 cm) lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for approx. 20 - 25 minutes (toothpick test!).

While the layers are in the oven, prepare the buttercream:

In a bowl, mix butter, powdered sugar, whipping cream, salt and ground vanilla until you have a nice, uniform cream. If necessary, let the cream firm up a little in the refrigerator if the butter was very soft while the baked cake bases cool down.

Prepare the brittle:

Melt butter and sugar in a pan and toast the chopped almonds in it. Then remove the pan from the heat and let the brittle cool completely.

Place the first base on a flat plate, spread some buttercream in the middle and cover with approx. 1/4 of the brittle. Pour more buttercream into a piping nozzle and pipe small "mounds" of the cream all around the cake base. (Simply spreading it with cream works too, of course, but the sprayed heaps look much more impressive!)

Place the second cake layer on top and do the same as with the first.

Place the third cake layer on top, spread it with some buttercream and spread the remaining brittle on top. Then pipe the remaining buttercream all over with a cake piping as decoratively as possible.

Let the cake firm up a bit in the fridge and serve from the fridge.

The little cake was really well received here as a birthday surprise and we were able to celebrate a wonderful birthday, even with the northern lights in the evening!

[Translated from here.]

Salat með jarðarberjum og fræjum

Salad with strawberries and seeds

Friday is Valentine's Day (February 14th). And for many, strawberries are very romantic fruits. The intense color red alone makes you want more. Strawberries are also considered “natural aphrodisiacs” because of their high vitamin C and zinc content.

I don't know whether this can be measurably proven, but strawberries are definitely healthy, support the immune system and protect against cardiovascular diseases with their secondary plant substances and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Although they taste so sweet, strawberries are very low in fructose and calories (around 33 kcal per 100 g) and contain more vitamin C than oranges or lemons. Just around 200 g of strawberries cover an adult's average daily vitamin C requirement.

Plus, strawberries taste and smell so good!

Ingredients

200 g fresh spinach

150 g fresh strawberries

2 - 3 Tbsp lettuce seeds

1 organic lemon

1 cm fresh ginger

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

Preparation

Wash, dry and tear the spinach.

Wash, clean and cut the strawberries into pieces.

Place the spinach and strawberries in a large bowl.

To make the dressing, place the olive oil and honey in a small bowl.

Grate some lemon peel, then halve the lemon, squeeze it and add the juice of half a lemon to the small bowl.

Peel the ginger and grate it into the small bowl for the dressing.

Mix the dressing thoroughly and pour over the salad.

Roast the lettuce seeds in a pan.

Arrange the salad on the plates and garnish with the freshly roasted lettuce seeds.

PS:

Here in Iceland, these sweet fruits grow in geothermal greenhouses, so you can enjoy fresh, locally grown strawberries practically all year round and don't have to wait for the strawberry season from May to July.

[Translated from here.]

Visiting Iceland in winter

Iceland in winter

In Iceland there used to be only two seasons: half the year was winter (from the end of October to the end of March) and the other half of the year was summer (from the end of March to the end of October).

Today meteorologists refer to the 4 months of December to March as winter in Iceland, then 2 months of spring (April and May), 4 months of summer (June to September) and 2 months of autumn (October and November).

And winter in Iceland can be pretty much anything - from bright sunshine and northern lights in the dark to less than 10 meters of visibility, from a lot of snow to a lot of snow to a little snow and no snow at all, from temperatures above zero to temperatures down to -20° for days, from cloudburst to dry and from a little wind and a lot of wind to extreme storms and weather warnings with road closures for days, during which you should not even leave the house. (And hope the storm and precipitation don't do too much damage.)

So it's not possible to have fixed plans in winter, you always have to check at short notice what the weather is like (vedur.is) and the road conditions (umferdin.is) and then decide spontaneously.

When we meet up with friends in winter, we always add: "...we still have to make it dependent on the weather. We'll get in touch!"

Visiting Iceland in winter

When we have lovely visitors here in our Iceland house in the winter, they have always been people who had already visited us in the summer. So you already had a certain impression and wanted to experience “Iceland in winter” again.

But that also means that we were able to take it easy, didn't show as much as possible, but rather went on short excursions and rested comfortably at home. And of course swimming in the hot

This year we had child no. 2 and his girlfriend visiting after New Year's Eve.

Their vacation wishes were to experience lots of snow and the Northern Lights, and even though they knew neither was guaranteed, even in winter in Iceland, they were lucky. On the drive home from the airport the northern lights danced over Hveragerði and here we were able to trudge through the deep snow to the house; We left the car at the front of the path, at the beginning of our driveway - there was just too much snow to be able to drive to the house. So your holiday wishes were fulfilled in the first few hours!

Well, maybe it wasn't exactly one of their vacation wishes that our water pipe was frozen when we got home - it was -19° that day and somehow our water connection took a toll on that. But we already have a bit of a routine and we have several large water bottles with bottled tap water here as a precaution, so that at least the toilet and hand washing are guaranteed for some time. And by the next morning we had thawed the water pipe again.

I found it particularly nice that child no. 2 and his girlfriend were here over January 6th and we were able to enjoy Þrettándi celebrations together in Selfoss, the farewell to Christmas with the celebratory torchlight procession of the Yule Lads through the town, the big Brenna and the fireworks display next to the sports field.

Otherwise we only went on a few smaller trips in the area:

Golden Circle - Geyser and Gullfoss

The first day we went to Geysir , Gullfoss and petted the horses .

I always find the Strokkur geyser a worthwhile visit anyway; I could stand in front of it for hours every time and wait for the big blue bubble and the next eruption. I won't get bored of this!

And the large waterfall Gullfoss is also worth seeing, and when frozen over in winter it looks completely different than in summer.

We also made a short stop on road 35 from Geysir to Gullfoss - there is a farm called Brú on the left side. There is a parking lot and a fenced-in pasture right next to the road, and there are some Icelandic horses here especially for visitors. They are particularly friendly and patient and can be petted (if they want to and come to the fence). You can also get “horse candy” from the vending machine and feed it to the animals. This means visitors can experience the Icelandic horses up close without endangering themselves, other road users or the horses themselves.

From Brúarfoss to Laugarvatn

Another day we were at Brúarfoss, in Laugarvatn and had ice cream on a dairy farm along the way.

The Brúarfoss waterfall, the "bridge waterfall", with its bright turquoise-blue color is for me simply one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Iceland. And since summer 2023, you no longer have to park on road 37 (Laugarvatnsvegur) and hike the 3.5 km long and sometimes difficult/muddy route to the waterfall, but can easily drive almost to the waterfall by car. Both the new road to the parking lot and the footpath from the parking lot to the waterfall were very well cleared when we were there. You get really good value for your parking fees!

We then drove over Laugarvatn and made a short stop there and admired the hot springs next to the Fontana swimming pool and the small mounds of earth on the shore of the lake in which the delicious rye bread is baked here.

We also made a stop along the way and enjoyed homemade ice cream on a farm with a view of the cowshed.

Trip to Reykjavík

We spent one day in Reykjavík, just walking around, shopping and enjoying the city atmosphere.

Kerið crater

On the last day we only went on a trip to the Kerið crater and, wrapped up nice and warm, walked around the top of the crater rim.

All in all a nice quiet and cozy visit, with lots of snow and northern lights. And I think we enjoyed our visit too and had a lot to talk about afterwards - including the frozen water pipe and the burst tire on the way back to the airport. But everything went well and we had a very nice time here!

[Translated from here.]