Every Single Word in Icelandic

Eyja-fjalla-jökull.

This is a famous word that many people have heard with their ears. Some of them have even tried to say it with their mouths, even though they do not understand what it means.

But don’t worry, I will explain it now so this does not happen to you.

“Eyjafjallajökull” looks like one word, and it is, but it also has three moving parts in it — eyja, fjalla and jökull.

“Fjall” means “mountain” and “eyja” means “island”. But if you put them together they mean “Eyjafjöll”, which means “Island Mountains”. (My people gave them this name because they could see my Vestmannaeyjar from them.)

And if you put “jökull” at the end it means “The glacier on top of the mountains you can see the islands from”.

Because Eyjafjallajökull is very famous (it has been on your television) you know that it is a volcano. But even if it is a volcano, it doesn’t have the word “volcano” in it.

Many humans find this confusing, but if you think about it with your brain, it is really very clever.

Bless bless,
- Iceland

P.S. This word was suggested by ibreakfortutles who said “coolest word ever”. (The picture comes from Boncherry, via Emma.)