Cartoon History of Iceland

December 3, 2004 7:06 PM

Cartoon History of Iceland, chapter 1, for those of us who need a quick and painless (except for some of the puns) introduction to the history of one of the claimants to the title of Oldest Democracy. (other chapters inside).
posted by QIbHom (12 comments total)

Chapter 2, where we get to Iceland.

Chapter 3, where we learn about the settlement.

Chapter 4, where we learn about the gods.

Chapter 5, where we go on to discover and explore other lands.

I apologise for having to list each chapter, but the index page has disappeared.
posted by QIbHom at 7:12 PM on December 3, 2004

Heh, nice stuff.
posted by bonaldi at 8:42 PM on December 3, 2004

this is cute

(and speaking of cute/Icelandic, i'm digging LazyTown--a worthy successor to the Krofft/PeeWee school of insane children's shows)
posted by amberglow at 8:49 PM on December 3, 2004

They didn't look lazy at all in that video. In fact they were pretty active.
posted by joelf at 9:32 PM on December 3, 2004

Thanks. Laughing learning is always good. :-)
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 10:33 PM on December 3, 2004

Why nothing about the adoption of Chrsitianity in 1000 CE?
posted by euphorb at 1:12 AM on December 4, 2004

Why nothing about the adoption of Chrsitianity in 1000 CE?

That was in Chapter 4, euphorb. Where the kid asks why the Baby Jesus has a hammer.
posted by QIbHom at 4:03 AM on December 4, 2004

this is awesome. I was blown away by Iceland when I stopped over.
There's definately something to be said about garnering all your energy from natural, non-fossil fuel consuming sources.
posted by Busithoth at 5:15 AM on December 4, 2004

Thanks QIbHom, that was fun. :)
posted by dabitch at 5:53 AM on December 4, 2004

Great post! And this is a nice way to get an overall view of the Norse image of the cosmos.
posted by languagehat at 7:14 AM on December 4, 2004

Nice post QIbHom. I used to live there and I've never gotten the country out of my system.
posted by Smedleyman at 8:21 AM on December 4, 2004

My brother and I l have been listening to JM Roberts' History of the World book-on-tape on our various excursions recently, (highly recommended!) and when discussing the Viking settlement of iceland, he mentions that European parliament historians trace the body's history back to Iceland's council of elders, called a "thing." No believing our ears, we played the tape back a few times, then checked with the original text back at his house, and it turns out that the assembly was indeed called a 'thing'.

A quick check with the OED reveals that the word thing does, in fact, trace back to norse origins for a public political gathering.

Ain't english cool?
posted by allan at 9:12 AM on December 4, 2004