History UsefulNotes / Iceland

Also notable is the language. North Germanic languages are already known for their conservative tendencies among the Germanic languages, but Icelandic takes it UpToEleven by practically being a carbon-copy of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings when they first settled the island in the 9th century, making it a real-life example of an EternalEnglish (or should we say, Eternal Norse?). Icelanders can simply read the works of Creator/SnorriSturluson (helps that he's also an Icelandic Viking) without any prior learning of Old Norse at all; though the works might feel a bit archaic at times, it's still perfectly understandable for them than it is to, say, the Danes. Icelandic orthography also preserves many archaic letters that have been long lost in other modern Germanic languages, like the Þ (basically what would happen if ''th'' is a single letter). Faroese, the language of Iceland's closest neighbor, the Faroese Islands, is closely related to Icelandic and also famously conservative.

Suffered a large scale banking collapse and a drop in the value of its currency in 2008. This led to an odd situation where money and VendorTrash earned in ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' was worth more than their real currency (CCP Games is based in Iceland and the game's currency has the same code, ISK, as Iceland's krónur). The collapse was sufficiently bad that Iceland applied to the IMF for currency stabilization (something that rich countries haven't done on a large scale in quite some time) and applied to the EU for membership (before, Icelanders hadn't decided they needed it). However, the EU membership bid seems doomed since only one party supports it (and not whole-heartedly at that) and also because the question will have to be decided in a referendum, and polls show that as of now, about 70% of the population is against it. It doesn't help that Icelanders were left pretty [[StealthPun cold]] by what happened to some countries that received the EU's "help", like Greece. The banking collapse affected the UK, where a lot of councils had banked with Icelandic banks.

Iceland ('''Icelandic:''' ''Ísland'') is a Northern European country and island in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. It's notable for having a population more or less on par with a mid-sized European… city (330 000 inhabitants). Situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological faultline, Iceland has a lot of volcanoes and new islands pop up from time to time (e.g. see the isle of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtsey Surtsey]], a classic study in ecology). On account of its placement on the Ridge, it is therefore technically both in Europe and North America (or rather the Eurasian and North American geological plates), with the capital Reykjavik being on the North American side. One particular volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted in the summer of 2010, causing a massive ash cloud that essentially closed most of Europe's airspace.

* '''Highest point:''' Hvannadalshnúkur (2110 m/6,921 ft) (130th)

** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': The ActionPrologue in Siberia was [[CaliforniaDoubling actually filmed]] in Iceland.
** ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': [[BigBad Gustav Graves]] has built a giant ice palace in Iceland to receive guests.

* '''Highest point:''' Hvannadalshnúkur (2110 m/6,921 ft) (115th)

* '''Highest point:''' Hvannadalshnúkur (2110 m/6,921 ft) (133rd)

** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': The "Siberia" scene was [[CaliforniaDoubling actually filmed]] in Iceland.

* The main villain in ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' has built an ice palace in Iceland for his quests.

[[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge First settled]] in 874, Iceland ended up as part of Norway in the mid 13th century, then went to Denmark in the 16th century (after the dissolution of the Kalmar Union). Iceland is the home of the world's oldest parliament, the Althing, founded in 930 A.D.

Medieval Iceland was renowned for its storytelling culture, and most of the famous [[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Norse sagas]] (including Literature/{{the Eddas}}, our best source of Myth/NorseMythology) were written there in the forms we know them today.

It and Norway were the most developed nations in the world in 2007. Despite not having an army, Iceland is a member of UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, but not of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion (it has EFTA membership, the next closest thing). Iceland is also a member of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area Schengen Area]] which in practice means that if you fly from - say - Spain to Iceland you'll have to pass customs but not immigration.

It and Norway were the most developed nations in the world in 2007. Iceland is a member of UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, but not of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion (it has EFTA membership, the next closest thing).

* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' IS

Iceland ('''Icelandic:''' ''Ísland'') is a Northern European country and the westernmost country in Europe (politically, at any rate; for geography see below. If you include autonomous regions, UsefulNotes/{{Azores}} is actually the westernmost part of Europe). It's notable for having a population more or less on par with a mid-sized European… city (330 000 inhabitants). Situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological faultline, Iceland has a lot of volcanoes and new islands pop up from time to time (e.g. see the isle of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtsey Surtsey]], a classic study in ecology). On account of its placement on the Ridge, it is therefore technically both in Europe and North America (or rather the Eurasian and North American geological plates), with the capital Reykjavik being on the North American side. One particular volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted in the summer of 2010, causing a massive ash cloud that essentially closed most of Europe's airspace.

Also, Reykjavík's where Reagan and Gorbachev met in October 1986 to continue ultimately failed discussions about scaling down their European missile arsenals. You might get extra points on your UsefulNotes/ColdWar quizzes if you mention that.

* '''Area:''' 102,775 sq km (39,682 sq mi) (106th)

* '''Area:''' 102,775 km (39,682 sq mi) (106th)

** President of Supreme Court: Þorgeir Örlygsson

* ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' and ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' have a scene in which [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]] goes to a remote village in Iceland where ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} helps feeding the locals, in order to recruit him in the Justice League.

* ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' and ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' have a scene in which [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]] goes to a remote village in Iceland where ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} helps feeding the locals, in order to recruit him.

** President:Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iceland_flag_722.png

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* ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' personifies Iceland as having a SugarAndIcePersonality with white hair and a puffin. His older brother is Norway though he vehemently refuses to call him that.