Kári Tulinius
Interviewee: Kári Tulinius
Interviewer: Johanna Bringhurst
Description: In this episode, our guest is Kári Tulinius, an Icelandic poet and novelist. Join Johanna to learn about the unique literary culture of Iceland that culminates in a book flood every year at Christmas time.
Date: 2023-12-21
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Johanna Bringhurst: Hello everyone, and welcome to context. This program is brought to you by the Idaho Humanities Council with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views expressed here today do not necessarily represent those of the IHC or the NEH. My name is Johanna Bringhurst. And joining us today is Kári Tulinius. Kári is an Icelandic poet and novelist.
He and his family moved back and forth between Iceland and Finland. Like a flock of my flock of migratory birds, confused about the whole warmer climes business. He has published two novels, two poetry books, and has been a journalist, publisher and a magazine and book editor. His poetry and short fiction have been translated into English and have appeared here and there.
So if you Google his name and poem or story, you should find some of his work. Kári, thank you for joining me today to talk about the literary culture in Iceland and how it manifests during the Christmas holidays.
Kári Tulinius: Thank you for having me on.
Johanna Bringhurst: Iceland has a very unique literary culture. Can you tell us more about how storytelling, reading and writing have for generations been literally lifesaving and life giving for your people?
Kári Tulinius: Oh yeah, I suppose I should start, with some context, if you will, and, go back to the very beginning of the of Icelandic settlement, which was in the ninth and 10th centuries, of the common era. And so Iceland was just a, is still pretty far away from everywhere and, especially anywhere that, the people of generally want to live, where it is warm and, pleasant.
And so Iceland was initially discovered by people from Scandinavia who probably were originally kind of blown off course. These sort of earliest stories are about people being blown off course and finding Iceland and from archeological discoveries and the recent sort of decade or two decades, it's become apparent that the first people to live in Iceland were there, there seasonally and were just there to, just sort of, gather bird meat and fish and seals and walrus tusks and other other valuable things that they would then take back at the end of the summer, back to, to Scandinavia.
And then, the slowly sort of, it seems firstly, and then all of a sudden, the, people started to settle there and, and so the people who settled there are maybe sort of divided into and that there was the, the sort of, upper echelon of society which was mainly, well-to-do farmers or farmer sons, I suppose, from Scandinavia, especially from the, the region that's now Norway, who moved there with livestock.
And, there's still workers who. And then they would sort of give their workers their sort of their own farms. That would be kind of their almost like subsidiary farms. But then on a sort of the lower echelon was, was a people who were, who were either slaves or kind of low position workers from the British Isles. seemingly especially from the kind of Celtic part of the, of the British Isles.
So the, the Hebrides in, in of Scotland and Ireland and Scotland and this was sort of the mix of people that that settles in, in Iceland in the, the ninth and 10th century and then and sort of, you know, slowly the sort of society is formed and the way it's sort of is, is organized is that there are these the whole country is divided into these sort of chief chieftaincies.
Is, where, where there's like a chieftain who kind of rules this sort of district, and then all of the chieftains in the sort of like, say, let's say the east of Iceland will sort of gather together and have this, this, Parliament. And then the same happens in the north and the west, in the south. And then once the summer, they will gather together for the whole country.
And that was kind of the, the organization. And you get the sort of stable society that becomes pretty wealthy, seemingly, largely from the sale of wool and, and but then in the, the 11th and 12th, 13th centuries, it becomes kind of important to them to have a sort of a self-image and the way that you create a self-image that is kind of separate from just the wider, sort of Nordic, sort of Norse communities that you start telling stories.
And so they would start, they probably just started orally, but it's not really, you know, it's was lost to history, essentially how it begins. But they seemingly start by telling stories of local sort of holy, you know, bishops and, and sort of figures like that. And, telling stories of their ancestors and quickly it becomes this kind of whole storytelling tradition which are known today as the sagas.
And this, is pretty unique in, in, at least in, in Europe, where there's a, a strong vernacular or writing culture that's very focused on just the secular society. And so they start telling, writing these stories about their, their ancestors, who, who. And at this point, Iceland is, has become Christian. But then remember, it's been you know, it's it's only happened like two centuries before.
So they know that, you know, the settlers who came here, their ancestors who, who sort of built the society. They were pagans. So they start telling these sort of stories about their pagan ancestors. you know, doing, doing all kinds of, of bad things because they were often Vikings and they would be getting into sort of blood feuds and there and this sort of sense that when you're reading them and they're very, they're very I should say they're very entertaining because this is essentially, stories about strong personalities clashing, and sort of trying to get kids sort of, you know, trying to, to either to get one over on the other or try to,
to sort of settle things. So you have these, it's, you know, sort of anything from like a sword fight to, like, you know, poetry, poetry battles almost, or to, to people sort of playing tricks on each other and, and, just to just sort of, you know, like, like to give an example, there's one of the sagas called The Saga of Gregor the Strong, or there's a scene where these, a whale washes up on the the shore near these two farms, and the people on the farms really want to just sort of get, get the the sort of whale carcass for themselves because that's so much meat.
That's like. That's meat enough for, on one whale there's meat enough for an entire winter, which in Iceland is no is no small thing. And also you can use the blubber for it for to burn it for, light. And so, so they have this so there's this scene where these two, two rival farms sort of come together and, and have this fight over the, the and it's, and it's and it's kind of it's both kind of slightly, you know, horrible because they're like, you know, trying to kill each other.
But it's also kind of ridiculous because they're like flinging like whale blubber at each other and, and like trying to trying to sort of get, get their their, sort of get, get, you know, sort of control of this, of this, this, you know, big pile of whale meat and, but the and so you get these, you get that and you also get these, you know, like say like a in another saga, there's a we're actually in the same saga.
There's like a, there's a famous scene where where the hero Gregor the Strong has to is basically accepts, staying in a farm where there's a ghost that comes in and kills, kills people that he will, like, fight the ghost. So you can have this sort of both these very realistic scenes. And then there's also this sort of supernatural because of course, at the time, you know, this is the the Middle Ages people, you know, people considered ghosts just, you know, part of nature was just a normal thing.
And, and so you, you and so over the course of mostly the, the, the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, you get this huge. Well, you know, by medieval standards, a huge body of work. I think the, I think they were probably, the around like something like a hundred hundred different sagas, which are, you know, can be about, you know, the can be about many things.
It can be about the, the Icelanders themselves and can be about the contemporary people of Iceland. They can be about like, you know, adventures in foreign lands and, you know, there's one about, you know, the Alexander the Great, you know, it's a kind of, but then and then you have this, this and this stays within the culture, like, as a, as a kind of very important thing.
And then, you know, people start as change, pace, change. Then people will will change it. Like, for instance, the you get in the, the later the sort of early modern era when you get into the 16th century, in the 17th century and 18th century, you start to get these, long, long poems that are based on the sagas and also based on other things, because that was, that was, was entertaining to people at the time.
And so that that whole so that, that the early flowering of literature becomes, from the very beginning, a very important part of Icelandic culture. And so when you get to the 19th century and the 20th century, when, when Iceland starts to want to become, sort of independent, you get that, that becomes the kind of the whole basis for the national self-image as like we, you know, we Icelanders, we told these stories.
We are a real nation among nations because we, you know, contributed this to the world. And and so that's, that's how, that's kind of how this, this aspect of our culture has been an incredibly important.
Johanna Bringhurst: You also, in Iceland, have a really high literacy rate, one of the highest in the world. How does that connect to your history?
Kári Tulinius: That is actually sort of one when another thing about about Iceland is that from about the middle of the 18th century, the law, a law was passed by they actually by the king of Denmark, who was the who was, the colonial sort of, overlord of Iceland at the time. that that all the children in Iceland, the became confirmed, would have to, learn how to read from the local priest.
And, this was, and this became, and it's sort of in its and it's kind of interesting because at the same time, there's lots of horrible stories of natural catastrophes happening in Iceland, like there's a, there are these eruptions in, in a volcano called Laki, which just devastate the countryside. So, so so it's, so this, you know, you have a the so at the same time, it's, it's a sort of literacy spreading and has become not universal, but like, incredibly common by about the 18th century.
But at the same time, the population of Iceland has gone through like very serious decline. And so you end up in this sort of slightly sort of, strange situation at the beginning of the 19th century where you have a sort of a oh, well, a very highly literate but very poor and devastated, society.
Johanna Bringhurst: So it seems like there's also been a real emphasis on having literature available in Iceland, in Icelandic, in your own language. can you explain how the publishing industry in Iceland was able to thrive during that time?
Kári Tulinius: Well, there was really the publishing industry in Iceland before before the 20th century are essentially just, you know, there are people who have printing presses and in, in before, before, like let's say before about 1800, that meant the church, the there were two Bishop Ricks in Iceland, and they had, printing presses. And of course, what they mostly published was, was, you know, all kinds of, they would publish these, these homily books or, or Bibles in Icelandic or, or things of that nature.
So for a long time, the, the more important, part of the literary culture or publishing culture was the manuscript culture where people would write up old manuscripts, either to copy them or to write them up before they were if they were starting to get damaged and those would be, would be either, you know, spread around and or given to other people.
Like, it seems possible that the that the reason why we have so many, sagas from the middle Ages is that those were the only, essentially the only thing that Icelanders had to give to each other, because Iceland doesn't really have much in the way of, of, precious things basically like that, you know, that you can sort of get present to someone, but but a book is a is a is a nice gift.
And and so then, so you have these manuscripts where people are writing down poems and, and these all kinds of different things where they can be like, you know, what? You know, sort of natural history or sort of things like that, and that it's spread around quite a bit. And then around 1800 you start to get the, the, basic sort of officials of the state, the sort of head of the bureaucracy at Iceland, starts publishing books.
And they they can be books that are for like teaching kids to read, you know, like better farming techniques, you know, these, these sort of, these kind of things that are, that are there and then not law. Well, I mean, you know, a few decades after that, you start, you start to get, you start to see newspapers and things like that, and the magazine.
But a lot of that is also published in Denmark, because that was the in Copenhagen was the, the, the center of the of of, of the Danish state. And Iceland was at that point part of the Danish state. So you get these like usually young, young men who get sent to, to the university to educate themselves in law or, or to become priests or something like that, or doctors.
And they would, they would also publish, you know, they would, you know, as, as students do to this day, they would they would get get up to all kinds of other projects and, they would publish magazines and, and sometimes even books.
Johanna Bringhurst: I am I'm curious why in Iceland, if Denmark colonized for a time, why you have a different language than Denmark, how were you able to keep your language, intact even though you were under colonial rule?
Kári Tulinius: Well, the the main reason, I think, is we were just very far away is that Iceland is is really far away from, from from Denmark. And so, for instance, there's never there were never any real attempts to get, to sort of levy troops from Iceland by the Danish state, because if you, if you went to Iceland, if you sailed from Denmark to Iceland, to get troops and then bring them back to Denmark, the, you know, the war would probably be over, but then there was like, really no point.
And so so you have so you also have these, you know, so everything that that all, all communication, there's such a huge lag between communication between Iceland and Denmark. So you just don't have any kind of, you know, the, the pressures that like, say for instance, that, that are with like Ireland and, and England or England, you know, where people could just move to Ireland.
very easily. That was never really the case. And with Iceland and Denmark.
Johanna Bringhurst: Iceland has become famous for they use the book afloat, which is the Christmas book flood. And I understand that really came about, because of World War Two. Can you tell us about that history?
Kári Tulinius: Yeah. So by the beginning of the of the 20th century, you start to get publishers in Iceland and bookstores like the, the biggest bookstore, chain in Iceland is a was is, you know, goes back to like, the late, late 19th century, though, of course, for the longest time, it was just, what, one bookstore? but they,
And then you start to get these books, and those are first one of the first, actually the first major publishing phenomenon in Iceland were these cheap, paperback versions or, you know, something like paperbacks, of the Icelandic sagas, where, where for the first time, it was like the whole corpus was available to people. so that's sort of the beginning of the, the sort of the popular Icelandic publishing industry.
And then you start to get novels written in Icelandic and, of course, poetry and other things like that. And then, so you start to have these publishers who are who's who, whose main job is being publishers. And then, by the the Second World War, what happens, what gives the publishing industry a real sort of leg up?
Is that one of the few things that aren't, rationed or very lightly rationed, due to the war is paper was like, so the, you know, the war was going on, so you couldn't, like, order, you know, fancy giftware for, from, from the continent or really anywhere. and so but you could, you know, there was plenty of paper was imported and so, it was possible to do print books.
And so this was the main thing that was available. And because, you know, the sort of nice thing about, about books is that, you know, there there's so many different ones. So it was possible to, to have like a wide array of gifts for different kinds of people that were just books, so that in, during the, the, the Second World War, that's sort of the sort of material reason why why there's such as, wide selection of books to give to people.
But, the other important thing is that this is sort of the height, sort of the peak of Icelandic sort of civic nationalism, because that's this is when Iceland becomes independent, which is in 1944, and because Iceland had, Icelanders had built their national identity on books and storytelling and literature, it was also kind of the a very, sort of appropriate thing, sort of for the mood of the time to be giving new Icelandic books because, you know, to, to show that modern, independent Iceland was also, you know, linked to the sort of, you know, storytelling literary past.
And so then you had so, so that is one kind of the you get, you start to get this flowering of, Icelandic publishing and that pretty much becomes a sort of a very, a regular thing that the whole cycle of Icelandic publishing is built around. Christmas is a you have to, you know, you have to produce a bunch of books that people want to give.
And so it's another because there are other, culture which have these sort of seasonal, seasonal literary cultures. Probably the most famous is the is, the French publishing, Oh, I think it's the autumn where they have the, the, the hunt for literature, I think, I should have, I should have looked this up before I, before I said it out loud, but, the, the, but the, you know, so, the but what, what is sort of even it's in some ways even more extreme in Iceland because from the, in the sort of three, four month period before Christmas.
So from, let's say, September through December.
Half or even more than half of all the books that are published for the year are published during that time. And so that's and they they're almost like, like a lot of them are published like in hardcover. And then you start to get this, this where people try to kind of figure out, okay, what what books are good because it all happened so quickly that no one really ever has time to read a book that's sort of giving it so, so people, you know, some enterprising, you know, people will go and, you know, just sit in book cafes and then just with a pile of books and like, sort of looking at them.
But, you know, other people just trust the, okay, trust that, they've liked a book by this author before, the person that they're giving it to, liked, liked the book by this author before. So by another, the book by, by the by the same author or some, you know, they've heard from someone who heard from someone that that book is good or the critics like it, or, you know. Like they just go into a book, like, I used to work in bookstores in Iceland, and you'd sometimes get people who are just, I'm looking for a book for a, 58 year old woman.
like what, what does she like? Oh, I don't really know. She's like my my wife's aunt. I have to find a book for her, it's like, okay, well, and then you just have to have to show them, okay, do you think that, you know, they'll like this novel and they're like, oh, I don't know.
Sure. And then they'll just sort of take it and then, you know. But of course you'll get also people with like very specific, specific things like, oh, you know, I ever have a I've, a nephew who like, really loves tractors, do you have a children's book about tractors? And I was like, well, see what it's like.
Johanna Bringhurst: So what is the scale of this? Because the way it seems from the outside looking in is that everyone is buying and giving books in Iceland as Christmas gifts. Is that what it is really like for Icelandic families?
Kári Tulinius: It's rare. it's rare that someone doesn't get at least one book, and it is not as like, now, you know, people will also give people, you know, like gadgets and, and, and, you know, cooking courses and sort of all that thing or, you know, tickets to the, take us to the theater that, that sort of thing, of course.
But it's it's rare that someone will not get, like at least one book, and most people will get like 2 or 3, and I it and so it's I'd say. Yeah. More I'd say most people there, I know people who, for one reason or another, haven't wanted to get books, like for instance, that if there is the you know, to to give two examples, like one person I know who's, who's dyslexic and prefers to listen to audiobooks, just told people not to give, you know, not to give her, physical, physical books for Christmas.
And then another, another friend who, is a copy editor just was like.
Johanna Bringhurst: I'm all set on my books. Thank you very much.
Kári Tulinius: Yeah. And, so would would, also requested not, no books for Christmas, but but it's it's pretty common. It's like, it's like very. And people will, will sort of will be sort of excited about it. Like there's a, there's a the publishing association every I think in November will publish this sort of catalog of, of all the books.
Well, not all the books, but basically all the books that people are willing to, to pay money to advertise themselves, book that goes to, almost like every home in, in Iceland, like, and, and so people will, will read through them and trying to figure out what they, what they want and you know, or what, what their friends and relatives will want.
Johanna Bringhurst: I have this cozy image of all Icelanders up on Christmas Eve, reading new books and drinking hot cocoa. Is that accurate or no.
Kári Tulinius: It's it's I, I wouldn't say it's like everyone, but it's a it's a lot of people. It's I'd say just I would say that about at least half half of Iceland will at the end of Christmas Eve because you give gifts on Christmas Eve, will go to bed with a book. And, and, you know, many people would have it as their sort of goal to, to finish one book on Christmas night.
Usually that one of the shorter, one of the shorter ones. and I used to do that, but that was before I had, had children, so.
Johanna Bringhurst: And your, love of sleep changed?
Kári Tulinius: Well, my my, my love of sleep and, sort of involuntarily involuntary, need to be to to sleep, you know, at least by one, one in the morning. But no, it was when I was, when I was younger, I would often like, stay up until like five in the morning just finishing and finishing a book.
And because in, in Christmas Day in Iceland is not really a, a sort of a is the, Christmas Eve is the big, big holiday. And Christmas Day is generally the you will go and like say, go and visit your grandparents in the afternoon and then, you know, meet your cousins and, and things like that. So that's, that's so you, you you'd always be able to, to sleep in on Christmas Day also because on Christmas Day you would just eat leftovers from Christmas Eve.
So that's that was so people sort of, you know, would take advantage of that.
Johanna Bringhurst: When I was in elementary school, we would sometimes get a reward for being good students or reaching a certain milestone with a readathon. Have you heard of a readathon?
Kári Tulinius: Yeah, we we there was a I remember during Covid there was like a national readathon in in Iceland and so so those do happen. They also, I think they have every spring in Iceland, they will have these these readathons to the elementary schools. And then whoever I think either is which class, I think it's per class like whatever class like in in Iceland reads the most books will get like an award or something.
Johanna Bringhurst: I just love this idea of a Christmas Eve readathon, and I think it's a something about Iceland and the people there and what you value. What do you think that says about you?
Kári Tulinius: Well, if who doesn't like a good story and, you know, a plateful of chocolates, and
Johanna Bringhurst: No one, no one doesn't like that.
Kári Tulinius: So it's, Yeah.
Johanna Bringhurst: Go ahead.
Kári Tulinius: Oh, and I was just going to say that it's very often that that sort of, you know, in during because they're on the, on Christmas Day and then the, on, Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, you'll have these family gatherings and, and having read or, you know, a book or most of a book or something like that will give you then something that you're able to talk to with people.
So that's also kind of and you know, also you can talk to people that isn't, you know, I don't know, politics or sports or, or things that people get very emotional about. So that's also nice.
Johanna Bringhurst: That sounds like something we could adopt here. I think other things to talk about. I'm really curious because it's almost Christmas. which books are popular this year? Which books did you did you buy to gift this year?
Kári Tulinius: the, actually, I was just there's actually a slightly funny story, like, I don't know what books are popular and as far as I can tell, no one does because the main bookstore chain in Iceland, they had a ransomware attack on their their, on their computer system. Yeah. So the they haven't like a, like their website is just down.
So that's like there's no way to know like what was the most popular books in Iceland right now and oh my goodness. Yeah. But there are there are some, books that are coming out that I'm, excited about, like, there's a new book by a writer called, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir that has actually been published in English.
her latest book has it kind of a funny name is called the DJ Bambi. and,
Johanna Bringhurst: DJ Bambi.
Kári Tulinius: Yeah, I have no idea what that what what the why it is called that or what it means, what it means, but, yeah, she has, several books, the one called The Greenhouse and another book called Hotel Hotel Silence that have been published in, in, English or are very good. I'm very I'm very, very excited about that book.
And I'm, I'm, hoping to get that for, for, Christmas and, that, other, and, so yeah, but other sort of there's also like crime novels for like the last couple of decades have been very popular in Iceland and, and there is always there always these, these new new books every year and, will buy and you can there's they've also been translated into English.
Probably the best known ones are, another writer called Yrsa Sigurdardottir. and it's Yrsa, Y R S A, and then another Arnaldur Indriðason. And they, they're both they're both, both fairly, you know, they're good at good at their thing. So, but and I'm trying to think and sort of, trying to think what would be other writers that are, coming up this year that are the books that have been translated into English.
Oh, one one writer who's, who back to remember she is she's a historian and a poet and one I think she has a book this year in Icelandic, but a book that was just published in the US, it's called Herostories. Her name is Kristín Svava and, and what it is, it's these poems she wrote based on stories by Icelandic midwives as they were traveling around Iceland, you know, to like very rural farms, often in the depths of winter.
So they would be going, you know, going through deep snow or over, like, frozen or, frozen lakes and so on. And so it's, you know, which is I think probably is fits with the, the sort of, landscape and history of Idaho as, as I imagine it.
Johanna Bringhurst: You're in probably not too far out. I always when I, I guess when I think of Iceland, I sometimes think of, of Wallander, Wallander. Have you. Yeah.
Kári Tulinius: Yeah, yeah, I read that. Yeah. That's a those are, those are very I think I read all, all of the Wallander series. So those are, those are take place in, in Sweden though I think the probably the best known Wallander actor is, is Kenneth Branagh was very much not Swedish.
Johanna Bringhurst: No, no, but,
Kári Tulinius: You know, you so he can brood convincingly. So that's the main, the main.
Johanna Bringhurst: He's an excellent brooder. That's street. You also, Kári, have two young children. Which books will you be getting for your children this year?
Kári Tulinius: Well,
Johanna Bringhurst: Are you allowed to say it?
Kári Tulinius: I think well, neither of them speak English, so I think I'm trying to think of how to phrase it so that I don't, I don't, say, well, there's, there's a, there are a couple of, of, of children's book that I was going to get them, the one that's kind of, that's from the sort of long running series of children's book that my daughter likes reading.
And then another, which is, kind of a new kind of fantasy ish, story. and then I also a book that because my, my son likes, kind of enjoys these, these, you know, kind of funny sayings and phrases. There just been a book published called The Dictionary of Phrases, essentially where you can get like it's like well-known phrases, and then you can there's like a QR code, and then you can look the QR code and it will like play you like a video, like, say, if it's like from a, from a TV show, then it will play you the, the phrase in that you had.
So that's those are those were the three ones that I, I thought of them. They're also getting Finnish books because my, you know, my, my, their, their mother is, is Finnish and, and that's their other other language. So that's, that's kind of, but yeah. No, it's, it's, it's something that I think about.
I will also, I haven't quite completely decided on the book for my son because, well, like, it's, it's sort of part one of the part of, the sort of book buying culture is to go to bookstores on, on the day before Christmas Eve and, and just sort of because then, then you'll have, like, they'll be completely slammed with people and there's just sort of you're just let yourself be sort of carried by the current sort of past these sort of book stands, sort of looking for things.
And and so that's I'm, I'm hoping then that I'll, I'll be able to, to do that. you know, if it's a, if the, the weather and the, allows it.
Johanna Bringhurst: Well, since you're talking about books for your son, I have loved this series of books, how to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell for my boys. And they do take place in, a fantasy version of Iceland and Scandinavia. So if you're looking for something enchanting, I always, and listeners, I always recommend How to Train Your Dragon. The audio books are especially fun and it is one of those series that with each book, the character's age and the maturity of the reading level ages.
the actor David Tennant voices the audiobooks and he's wonderful.
Kári Tulinius: So yeah, those books have been.
Johanna Bringhurst: Dragons and adventures and pirates and shenanigans, you're going to like these books.
Kári Tulinius: I think everybody, everybody loves love the Love the Dragon. I think yeah, they have been translated into Icelandic, so that's not a bad, sort of a bad thing. There is also there's also a book that came out, this year, I think, an Icelandic book about, not not exactly fire breathing, but speaking of fires, like about about volcanoes and like, how to it's it's sort of both a book about, you know, just like a, you know, funny children's book, but also a book about what do you do when you're, you know, near, you know, because that's that's something you have to learn to hear when you're a child in Iceland
is like how to behave around volcanoes.
Johanna Bringhurst: So speaking of volcanoes, I know you are not in Iceland right now, but in the news were hearing a lot about volcanic activity and earthquakes in Iceland. And I hope your family and, your community is doing well.
Kári Tulinius: Thank you. Yeah. The, the, the there were, not not very close to Reykjavik, but like, you know, pretty near, I think within like, say 50 miles of Reykjavik, the city limits. There was a, it was a, these, these, magma movements underground and they, they devastated this, community of a town called Grindavík, which is on the south coast.
And, the people there still haven't been able to return home. And it looks like they won't be able to do that before Christmas. though that's of course, the hope. But the activity has has lessened a lot. But there's still the the, there's still some displacement underground, so it's not not safe. It's, and so it's it's,
Yeah. Icelandic nature has, has always been dangerous to, to humans. I mean, you know, we we get a lot from it as well, but it's, it's it's never it's there's it's never, it isn't hard to, be find yourself in a very dangerous situation in Iceland. And which I suppose also is why people have wanted to stay inside with a book.
Johanna Bringhurst: Right now, it's all coming together. Yeah. The focus on cozy and inside, it's like, how do you. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's been such a treat to learn more about, this beautiful part of your culture. I appreciate you sharing your book recommendations with us, and we wish all of our friends in Iceland well, and I hope that everyone can be home soon and safe.
Kári Tulinius: Thank you.