Fjóla
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fjolagud.bsky.social
Fjóla
@fjolagud.bsky.social
1.3K followers 180 following 390 posts
Icelandic, folklorist, journalist. Lumpfish enthusiast and admirer of medieval manuscripts.
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fjolagud.bsky.social
Currently obsessed with a little creature called a 'sea angel' after interviewing the diver (Erlendur Bogason) who took this photo. The sea angel is only a few cm long and looks absurdly cute while swimming with its tiny 'wings'.
A translucent, blue creature with a yellow core, red tail, little wings, and what almost looks like little horns. Looks vaguely humanoid, but with no legs. Background is dark and it looks like it's snowing (which is not the case, since it's underwater).
December 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
But now this bar in the basement of a publishing house is competing for the favourite spot.
Vintage sofa and table surrounded by infustrial shelves full of books and boxes.
December 2, 2025 at 10:08 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
This is an Icelandic Advent calendar from 1950. Because nothing says Christmas like a hedgehog made out of a potato and matchsticks that you pull out every day until the holidays.
A black-and-white newspaper cutting with an image of a creepy creature that could be a hedgehog or a possessed sheep. Above the image is the Icelandic word for advent calendar, 'jóladagatal'. Below, in old-fashioned Icelandic, it says, translated: Here is a fun adventure calendar made from a potato, two thumbtacks, four sticks for legs, and as many matchsticks as there are days until Christmas. Let the children remove one of the hedgehog's spines each day.
December 1, 2025 at 7:22 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
There is a cat in my house BUT NO OPEN WINDOWS.

This is a horror story by @hildur.bsky.social and here I am, completely uprepared with no handy plans for how to get rid of a body.
A yellow cat standing on my floor and staring up at me.
November 26, 2025 at 6:05 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
I was going to agree with you, but then I walked outside to discover the armour of ice I'd have to scrape off my car windows..
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
My favourite bar to walk out of in Reykjavík. At least when there's a giant ship on the doorstep.
November 23, 2025 at 3:03 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
I'm named after the flower wild pansy/heartsease, but in Icelandic we just call it a violet.

This name comes with the curse of constantly being gifted violet-flavoured everything and the burden of convincing guests to eat/drink it.
A bag of sweets that says 'violetas' and a small tin of violet-flavoured black tea.
November 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
This is my favourite weather and that mentality helps if you live here.
Looking over a pond, in the distance is a row of houses and trees. They are reflected in the water. In the foreground to the left there are two people. It is very foggy and still.
November 18, 2025 at 12:02 AM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Ok, wait! Apparently, they are considering scrapping the current grading system for a new one. I'm sure that this time they'll go for a simple, straightforw..
Text in Danish. A row of numbers has been underlined: 00, 01, 02, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12.
November 17, 2025 at 10:07 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Did not take many photos on my recent vacation to beautiful Brighton, but at least this crooked phone in Gatwick Airport was fascinating.

#travelphotography
A phone hangs crookedly on a wall. Above it is a green sign that informs you the emergency number is 222. The wall is white.
November 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Hello England. Your weather is very on-brand and I like it.
Airplane window. Outside is a lot of rain.
October 29, 2025 at 11:42 AM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Also, my hair, after one minute outside today.
A woman, frowning. She has long-ish heir that's white with snow.
October 28, 2025 at 9:13 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Winter came overnight.
A white fence and a few trees, further back, a little red shed and behind it, taller houses. Everything is c0vered in snow.
October 28, 2025 at 8:18 AM
fjolagud.bsky.social
I live close to a hotel in downtown Reykjavík and I get a northern lights alarm when they're very bright because tourists will start screaming outside my window. This time, it was a group of Chinese people.
Bright green Northern lights over rooftops. Bright green Northern lights over rooftops.
October 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Every Icelandic child knows that you NEVER write the letter Ð/ð at the start of a sentence, but medieval scribes got to play fast and loose with the rules. Today, we can't do that because bad grammar means death or outlawry.
The top of an old manuscript page with a few holes in it. A big red letter on the left side of the page looks like a D for non-Icelandic speakers, but is the Icelandic letter Ð.
October 8, 2025 at 9:57 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
I'm sure I had a reason for visiting a Danish website devoted to the wood and furniture industry to read about old wood beams being reused in a Faroese bar but it was one in the morning and I was revenge sleep procrastinating. I did scratch my head when I opened the browser on my phone this morning.
A screenshot from a website called Wood Supply. The title of the article is "Bolværk fra Gammel Strand er blevet til færøsk bar". Below is an image of bar stools in front of a bar built of distressed wood.
September 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Actually, the recipe deserves a special mention because look at this German magnificence.
It's a cake, though it pobably doesn't qualify as such. One wedge has been cut away. The cake is like a round tower sandwich, but it is entirely covered in a thick layer of raw meat. Sources say it's pork, but it's anyone's guess, really. The cake has been decorated with onion circles and other stuff, I don't know exactly what. There is also a recipe. The title is Männer-Törtchen. Below the photo are the instructions in German, and I'm really sorry if anyone needs the alt-text to experiment with this delicatessen, but I'm not typing all of that for you. You can try Googling Mett-Torte.
September 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
This is the sort of sleuthing I like to see in Reddit threads.

#typography
Screenshot shows a Reddit reply: "The recipe pictured in OP's screenshot uses the Myriad typeface, which was first released in 1992, so the recipe was most likely printed much later than that.
September 21, 2025 at 9:55 AM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Sorry @hildur.bsky.social. I can offer you whales from the 1300's with varying degrees of sadness on their faces, but no orcas, I'm afraid.
Illumination from a medieval manuscript. Inside the letter H, people wield knives and one of them cuts into a big fish-like creature that could just as well be a seal or a dugong (but is actually a whale). The creature seems sad about this state of affairs. Illumination from a medieval manuscript. Inside the letter H, two adults and two children are happily cutting into a very big fish that is probably a whale. This whale does not have quite the same long-suffering look of the other two whales. Illumination from a medieval manuscript. Inside the letter H, people wield knives and one of them cuts into a big fish-like creature that could just as well be a seal or a dugong (but is actually a whale). The creature seems sad about the state of affairs.
September 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Sifting grass from berries at my summer cabin and, as always, trying not to be my neurotic self who thinks about the fact that of the last six polar bear visits to Iceland, four of them were in this area.
In foreground, two containers with black crowberries. In the background, a grassy area and, further back, a small bay, a mountain, and in the distance, some islands.
August 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Just made meringue for the second time in my life. Poured myself a glass of Spanish vermut on ice before starting, and the meringue came out beautifully on the first try. I've got this now.
Dark haired man (actor Steve Carell) winks while pointing with a drink in his hand.
August 11, 2025 at 7:43 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
My last evening in Sweden strikes a golden note.
Looking from a veranda out onto a golden wheat field. The sky is blue and trees cast long shadows in the evening sun. On the railing is a bottle and a glass of hazy, golden beer.
July 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
It is a little known fact that the Swedish woman mastered the Smokey Eye as early as the Middle Ages.
Two images in one. The top one shows mannequins in medieval clothing. Three are headless, and one has a woman's head. The bottom image shows a closeup of the woman's eyes, smokey with makeup.
July 17, 2025 at 12:39 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Lidl, but a minimalist Scandi one.

Spotted in the wild in Gotland, Sweden.
The entrance to a Lidl, but a wooden, brown, and bleached white, Scandinavian style Lidl.
July 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
fjolagud.bsky.social
Just finished my book at the same time as the woman next to me on the plane finished hers, which prompted a discussion about our books, which resulted in us switching books. Now I have a new, unread book, and mine will travel on to Boulder, Colorado. And to think I almost took my Kindle instead.
Two books, one with a mostly yellow cover, the title is Kúnstpása. The other has a mostly purple cover and the title is Morð og messufall. Above the books is a raised airplane table.
July 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM