Iceland? Oh, hell yeah!

Seems to be my first-time visitor from Iceland, so it is time to give those folks the treatment.

I have a brother-in-law who has visited Iceland a lot and calls it the world's largest trailer park, but he is a disreputable individual and so we will go with some info from Wikipedia, which probably is only slightly more reliable than my brother-in-law (who is scum):

The Republic of Iceland . . . is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe.[7] The capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate.

Monks might have been the first to settle Iceland, and Vikings or some other Scandinavians apparently followed.  The first settlers apparently arrived before 800 AD,

The period of these early settlements coincided with the Medieval Warm Period, when temperatures were similar to those of the early 20th century.[23] At this time, about 25% of Iceland was covered with forest, compared to 1% in the present day.[24] 

Those motherfucking SUV's were heating up the climate even then.

Anyway, the island was Danish for a long time, then became independent in 1944, which seems like a weird time to go rogue, what with World War II going on and all, but what the fuck do I know. I invite my European correspondent to chime in on this.

Because Iceland is a patronymic society, which last names based on the gender of the individual combined with the name of the father of that individual -- for instance, a man named August could father a son and a daughter, and the son's last name would be Augustson, while the daughter's last name would be Augustdottir -- it is impossible to tell whether a child is a product of a marriage or not.

Hence, the society really never has had any stigma attached to illegitimate birth, meaning they fuck like bunnies, hence the "world's largest trailer park" appellation. Hope I'm not offending any Icelanders, but hey, y'all are the ones fucking like bunnies.

Anyway, welcome to Eff You nation, and come back soon. Bring your friends!

Elves?

I guess this is at least as legitimate as whatever it is that drives policy decisions by Democrats. Still, elves?:

Reykjavik (AFP) - Iceland has been forced to bow to pressure from elves and uncover a supposedly enchanted elfin rock after highway workers accidentally buried it -- infuriating the mythical creatures, reports said Tuesday.
The angry elves were suspected of causing a series of mishaps after the rock was covered over when workers cleared away the debris from a landslide, the Morgunbladid daily reported.

OK, so now we're afraid of elves? I went to high school in Hawaii, and I knew people who thought that menehunes -- the Hawaiian equivalent of elves -- would mess things up if you didn't give them the proper respect. But I don't remember anything like this:

Sveinn Zophoniasson, who works for the Bass road construction company, told the paper that his woes began in August 2015 in Siglufjordur, close to the site of the so-called "elfin lady stone" that was covered with earth following efforts to cleat a mudslide from a highway.
After the landslide was cleared, the road was subsequently flooded and a colleague of Zophoniasson who came to clear the route was injured. Then industrial machinery began to fail and a journalist who came to cover the growing chaos fell into a mud pool and had to be pulled to safety.
"Nobody even thought of the rock," even though the area is regarded as a sacred place in local folklore, said Zophoniasson.
The decision was made that the Iceland Road Administration would unearth the rock -- an artefact according to a 2012 law to protect Iceland's elfin heritage -- and it was subsequently cleaned with a pressure washer last week.

Just, wow. Don't fuck with elves, right?