Hi, Barb – those are extraordinarily interesting pictures you took.
I have a nodding familiarity with Iceland thanks to my brother, who has been there at least three times. On his first visit he was a fish gutter. On his second, he landed a job as a trawler’s cook – apparently the fishermen are very fussy about their food, and are quick to sack a substandard cook. He kept his job.
And my son also will be most interested in the pictures, as he is a geologist.
My brother has also given me some idea of Icelandic pronunciation, but your note that ll represents a dl-sound is new information to me.
I was interested to read that the first human inhabitants of Iceland were Celtic monks who had arrived there in coracles.
You may also be familiar with the legend of St Brandan, who travelled to the New World by coracle.
The next group to arrive were people of mixed Viking and Scottish Gaelic stock, who knew of the monks’ route that went by way of Orkney, Shetland and the Faeroes. Only after several families from the Western Isles had settled in Iceland did pureblooded Vikings arrive from Norway.
Regards,
Mike