Iceland

Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of the Vox Chaotica Council! I've talked a lot about Norse Mythology here (read: I did a series about it, but it's not enough. It's NEVER ENOUGH!). And to try and harken back to the days when I had my ideas all sorted and put together and was posting on time, I thought I'd talk a little about the greatest of the Viking Isles:

Iceland

As I said: "IT'S SO PRETTY I'M GONNA DIE!"Okay, I was going to link you to some other really nice pictures of Iceland, but I came across this article first: Watch a live stream of the only remaining McDonald's hamburger in Iceland. This is what Iceland is. It's a place of people who have become brain-addled in the cold, AND I LOVE THEM. They completely reformed their government by just going in and replacing everyone one day. [Editor's note: this next link is probably not safe for children] Truthfully, they are really, REALLY weird; they have the freaking Icelandic Phallological Museum. So averting from that lovely topic. [Editor's face: :#/ ] It is a lovely country, full of viking remnants who speak a freaking beautiful language, and everyone loves reading!

For the lovely people like myself (read: obsessed with Norse culture, mythology, ideas), there are things like this going on. That's right—a temple to the Old Gods. No, not Cthulhu and his friends in R'lyeh—those are the Elder Gods. And no, not the Old Gods of Westeros (there is no love lost for George R. R. Martin here). Not even the Nine Divines. These are Odin and Frigg, Thor and Sif, Heimdallr, Loki, Freyr, Freyja, and many many more. I'll try and derail myself here, as I could literally talk for hours about the Norse pantheon.

Fun fact: the Auroras seen like this are actually the interaction between our Earth's upper atmosphere and cosmic radiation. Or if you want to think of it like an awesome person, it's Earth's forcefield that shields us from deadly space radiation!Did I mention how—if I may use a delightful phrase from the early aughts—bomb the scenery is? Sure you only get sunlight for a few minutes out of the year, but LOOK at the STARS! You get this view all the other five hundred thousand or so minutes of the year. In fact, just take a look at this video: literally the first thing to come up on Stumbleupon, and also my first like.

I guess I'll just leave it with a small sentiment: If all else fails in England, and I have to leave, Iceland is where I'm going next.

tl;dr Cutter really likes Iceland. There are some strange and amazing things there, and the landscape is all sorts of breathtaking.

Norse, PersonalCutter Videan30000 new books written every generation, alt-text, aurora borealis, awesome people, cutter, cutter videan, elder gods, heathen, iceland, midnight sun, nine divines, norse, norse gods, old gods of the forest, personal, second only to england, stars, stumbleupon, the most beautiful language!, the strangest museumComment