The Icelandic Roots Writing Group has recently had a story prompt to write about “Something That is Very Icelandic”. The following is the story from Bryndís Víglundsdóttir and a unique word.
By Bryndís Víglundsdóttir
No, I haven´t lost it, my input this time will be on gluggaveður, or window weather. We were asked to talk about something “very Icelandic” today and I have it on the most reliable authority, the scholars of the Icelandic language at Árnastofnun in Edda that a word corresponding to Gluggaveður – window weather- is simply not found in languages other than Icelandic.
What is so special or unique about this word?
Let me begin by telling you a bit about our attitude towards weather. Weather, the wind in particular, was most important, often a matter of life or death to the people of this country. It is still an important part of our daily life. Our National Weather Bureau reads us daily information about the wind and issues warnings when the predictions are for high winds. The people living on this island would go fishing on their small boats, men and often women, too. It was crucial to be able to read the clouds and the color of the sky, understand the behavior of the animals and smell the air correctly when trying to predict the weather. When all of these signs were correctly interpreted, they helped the foreperson on the boat to decide if they should row out for fishing or not.
Weatherwise people would go outside in the morning to gaze at the clouds and the sky and observe it before making their decision. There is a saying in modern Icelandic referring to this situation. When people now-a-days are pondering what might be the right decision, the following saying is sometimes heard: “I wonder if my boats will be rowing today”.
The wind rushing full force down the mountains and through the passes always was and is a power to be dealt with seriously. There is a list of words in Icelandic referring to the wind, different types of wind, wind of all imaginable velocity and character.
We were taught not to talk about bad weather. Somehow it insulted mother Nature. Instead, people would say: aftakaveður, bálhvasst, fárviðri, gjörningaveður, - all referring to very difficult weather, or as we would say now: bad weather.
We could talk about good weather and there are many beautiful words for good weather which always refer to the wind or absence of wind, such as: andblær, dúnalogn, gola, blær.
All in all, I found 184 words referring to the movement of the air, that is wind of any kind.
So how does “window weather” fit into this scene? During last week (June 2nd-8th) the days were sunny and the skies at their bluest. The young leaves were torn off the branches by the wind. We heard that many nests had blown into the blue with the birds sitting still. Yet, I was looking through my window, smiling a big smile saying to myself: Oh, what a beautiful day to be outside in all that sunshine, take a walk and exercise the old legs, go to the playground with my great-grandkids; just a fun day. A voice talks to me: Have you forgotten all the days through your long life when day after day there was window weather, the sky beautiful, no shelter from the wind and the temperature just around freezing? I guess you just want to remember the sun!
In a winter jacket, with a woolen hat and mittens I go out into the window weather, the sun shining but not managing to warm the ground where the wind is blowing with tremendous force, piercing my bones and marrow.
I am back inside and have decided to enjoy the gluggaveður- window weather- through my window and wait for the sweet summer breeze from the south.