Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2018, Blaðsíða 6

Orri Páll Dýrason, the drummer of
Sigur Rós, announced on Facebook
earlier this week that he was quitting
the band in the wake of sexual assault
accusations brought against him. Orri
appeared to deny the accusations in
the closing of his post, but also said: “I
cannot have these serious allegations
influence the band and the important
and beautiful work that has been done
there for the last years.”
The story came to light on Paste,
which reported from Instagram posts
by artist Megan Boyd. She says that the
assault happened in 2013, after meet-
ing Orri in a club. After later falling
asleep in the same bed, Boyd alleges
she was assaulted in her sleep, twice,
waking briefly both times but not gain-
ing full consciousness on account of
being both intoxicated and very tired.
In an Instagram post that followed
after the initial post went viral, she
posted screenshots of her email corre-
spondence with Orri. This post was
deleted, on account of violating Insta-
gram community standards. Boyd
followed up with another Instagram
post, saying that she has sent the emails
to “a major broadcasting network in
Iceland.”
Shortly after the third post was
made, Boyd’s Instagram profile was
set to private. The text of her posts,
however, can still be read on Paste’s site.
In the wake of the allegations, Orri
announced that he is leaving Sigur
Rós. He has asked that people leave his
family and his wife out of the discus-
sion, heavily implying that the accu-
sations are false by closing with “out
of respect for those actually suffering
from sexual violence, I will not take that
fight public.”
Don’t you wish
sometimes that
chips were like ten
times bigger? Well,
enter the tradition-
al Icelandic deep-
fried patterned
Christmas wafer, or
‘laufabrauð.’
This heart-
stopping side
dish, known on the
streets as Icelandic
candy, idates back
to the 18th Cen-
tury. The bread
was popular
in Icelandic
households
that had
more
money than others,
especially in the
time of the trade
monopoly with Den-
mark, when people
couldn’t even
afford to eat their
own feces (fuck
you Denmark!). In
the middle of the
20th Cen-
tury,
laufabrauð was
already a tradition
in the north of Ice-
land, and it spread
slowly but surely
to all Icelandic
households.
The bread is
famous for its
intricate leaf-
like
patterns (lau-
fabrauð means
"leaf bread"). But
everything has it
price, and even this
light-as-air treat
comes with a dark
twist. (Isn’t there
always when it
comes to Icelandic
Christmas?)
Ruthless
grandmas of
Iceland have
enslaved
children
to create
these
com-
pli-
cated
patterns with their
little fingers, for
machines can’t. And
just like in George
Orwell’s 1984, those
grandmas have
brainwashed their
grandchildren
into thinking this
is some kind of a
Christmas tradition.
The ringleaders sell
their product on
a very open black
market; sometimes
they even give
them away to their
own children and
friends in their
merciless pursuit
for more power.
Demand is high
for the Icelandic
candy, with its
delicate patterns,
mostly due to the
addiction-inducing
incredibly high
levels of choles-
terol and trans fat
in every heavenly
round. There are a
few street names
for laufabrauð,
including ‘skip a
heartbeat,’ ‘the
vein clotter’ and—
perhaps the most
revealing—‘the
deep fried scream’.
VG
Sigur Rós Drummer Quits
Band In Wake Of Sexual
Assault Allegations
Orri Páll left the band after Instagram post
Words:
Andie Fontaine
Photo:
Art Bicnick
First
T EMPL A R A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
BREAKFAST FROM 7
LUNCH FROM 12
One of the first things that stands
out about the Icelandic alphabet is
the humble “ð”, or “eth.” As cool as
this letter is, there is no Icelandic
word that begins with it. Why is that?
We asked our favourite linguist, Ei-
ríkur Rögnvaldsson, to shed light on
this mystery.
“The letter ð usually stands for a
voiced alveolar or dental frica-
tive – a similar sound to "th" in the
English "this." The symbol for this
sound in the International Phonetic
Alphabet is actually [ð]. The reason
why Icelandic words do not begin
with [ð] can be traced back to Proto-
Indo-European 4000-6000 years ago.
Proto-Indo-European didn’t have
[ð]. The Proto-Indo-European sound
system has developed in different
directions in different Indo-Europe-
an language families, such as the
Germanic languages, the Romance
languages, etc. This development
was not haphazard but obeyed in
most cases strict phonological rules
– sound laws. None of the sound
changes that have occurred on the
long road from Proto-Indo-European
to Modern Icelandic have resulted in
words with [ð] in initial position.
“Actually, Proto-Indo-European
didn’t have any voiced fricatives at
all, and [ð] is not the only voiced fric-
ative that never occurs word-initial-
ly in Icelandic. The same goes for the
voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. However,
we don’t notice this because unlike
[ð], [ɣ] doesn’t have a special letter to
denote it. Its representative in writ-
ing is the letter g which also serves
a number of other purposes."
ASK A
Linguist
Q: Why Does No
Icelandic Word
Start With “Д?
6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 18— 2018
FOOD OF
ICELAND
NEWS
La
uf
ab
ra
uð
Sigur Rós: once there were four, now there are two
Words: Andie Fontaine
Photo: Art Bicnick