History
June 17: Iceland Celebrates Independence
All across Iceland, the island nation’s citizens celebrate their independence with a nationwide party. A parade in Reykjavík kicks off a day of festivities in the capital city which includes street fairs, carnival rides, brass bands and even an accordion dance party. The rest of the country celebrates national independence with a Viking festival in…
Read MoreUpcoming INLUS Webinar – The Making of the Long Friday
The Making of The Long Friday. On October 24, 1975, the women of Iceland went on strike – they refused to work, cook, and look after children for a day. It was a moment that changed the way women were seen in the country and helped put Iceland at the forefront of the fight for equality.…
Read MoreVikings: Their History and Legacy
Upcoming INLUS Author’s Corner: Men of Terror | About one thousand years ago, a man named Fraði died in Sweden. His kinsmen raised a granite runestone to his memory in Denmark. The inscription tells us that Fraði was the “first among all Vikings” and that he was a “terror of men.” What did Fraði do…
Read MoreThorláksmessa, the Feast of Saint Thorlák Thorhallsson
| By Aimee O’Connell | December 23 is a national holiday in Iceland: Thorláksmessa, the Feast of Saint Thorlák Thorhallsson, the sixth bishop of Skálholt and Iceland’s patron saint who died on this date in 1193. With its proximity to Christmas, the holiday is usually the day when preparation finally turns to celebration, with friends…
Read MoreINLUS Author’s Corner – Nancy Marie Brown
Join us on September 1st. Please join us on September 1 for another INLUS Author’s Corner presentation with Nancy Marie Brown on her new book The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, which will be available on August 31st, published by St. Martin’s Press! In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock…
Read MoreThe Summer Feast of Saint Thorlák
By Aimee O’Connell | Most of us are familiar with Thorláksmessa, the Feast of Saint Thorlák, which Icelanders mark on December 23 as both a salute to the Patron Saint of Iceland and a joyful day of preparation for the Christmas holidays. But few are aware that there is a corresponding Feast of Saint Thorlák…
Read MoreJune 17th – A Day to Celebrate
Happy June 17th! Today we celebrate Iceland’s National Day and the second birthday of the Icelandic National League of the United States! (INLUS) Take a look at our just-released INLUS newsletter here: Newsletters – Icelandic National League (inlus.org). In this issue, you can find out why we celebrate Iceland’s National Day on June 17th and meet…
Read MoreUpcoming INLUS Webinars
Please join us in later in March and April for two new webinars. First, on March 21st we will speak with Jonathan Wood, Polar Law student at the University of Akureyri. He will talk about what brought him to Iceland, the Polar Law program, his work with the Arctic indigenous communities and the challenges they are…
Read MorePreserving Our Icelandic Heritage
Now scheduled for April 14 – When we think of Icelandic Heritage, many of us whose descendants came to North America generations ago think about the traditions. But what about those things such as books, diaries, letters, and other documents that came with the immigrants that provided reading enjoyment, or were written by them that documents…
Read MoreThe “Icelandic” in the Fiske Icelandic Collection
Webinar: October 22, 2020, 4:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM CDT/2:00 PM MDT/1:00 PM PDT Daniel Willard Fiske was a young man when he ventured to Iceland in 1850. He was so enamored by the country, the people, and their books, that he began his own collection, focusing on Iceland, anything relating to the Viking Forays, and…
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