Reykjavík Grapevine - aug 2020, Qupperneq 6

Some nine months after several news
outlets—including Kveikur, Al-Jazeera,
Stundin and The Namibian—broke
The Fishrot Files, which detailed how
the Icelandic fishing giant Samherji
engaged in bribes to secure fish-
ing quotas in Namibia and funneled
millions of dollars into tax havens,
Samherji has launched a web series
that aims to showcase their side of the
story—not about the Namibian scan-
dal, but a case from 2012.
Accusing journalists of
falsehoods
The web series, called “Sk"rslan sem
aldrei var# ger#” (“The report that was
never made”), levels strong accusations
against journalist Helgi Seljan, who
works for public broadcasting service
RÚV, of which Kveikur is a part. In the
first episode of the series, which has
just been released, Samherji contends
that Helgi had falsified a report from
the Exchange Rate Bureau.
Kveikur’s reporting had in part
stated that a report from the Bureau
showed that Samherji had sold fish
way under market value to its own
sister company, but the news show
was aired in 2012. Samherji contends
that the Bureau confirmed for them
last April that this report was never
made. To back up this claim, Samherji
includes an audio clip of a conversation
between Helgi and a former detective,
wherein Helgi says that while he had
had difficulty confirming the report,
he believed its information was “legit.”
Smoking gun?
Much of the rest of the first episode
is testimony either from Samherji or
its allies, wherein they accuse every-
one from journalists to the Icelandic
government itself of having stretched
the truth in order to smear the good
name of Samherji.
The most striking thing about this
case is that a major Icelandic corpora-
tion has singled out an individual jour-
nalist, and is putting a lot of effort into
smearing his name. This is virtually
unheard of in Iceland, and both Helgi
and his colleagues have responded
well, categorically demonstrating the
holes in Samherji’s smear campaign.
Also, interestingly enough, Samherji
has poured tremendous effort into this
case from eight years ago, yet remains
entirely silent on the Fishrot scandal.
No doubt the embattled fishing
company is trying hard to clear its
name. Whether their efforts will be
successful or not is as yet to be deter-
mined.
Icelandic is a notoriously di"cult
language that even native speakers
o#en struggle with. But what exactly
do they find di"cult? We reached out
to Jóhannes B. Sigtryggsson, assis-
tant research professor at the Árni
Magnússon Institute for Icelandic
Studies, for answers.
Native speakers don‘t usually have
problems speaking and using their
mother tongue. What Icelanders
probably have the most di&culties
with is the more formal aspect of
the language, the spelling. This has
its origins in the archaic nature of
the language. The golden age of
literature was in the 13th and 14th
centuries and when the spelling of
Modern Icelandic was standardised
in the 19th century, this older stage
of the language was seen as a model.
The normalised spelling in the Sagas
is thus similar to modern spelling,
which makes it easier for modern
Icelanders to read them. The problem
is that the pronunciation of Icelandic
has changed a lot in the intervening
centuries and therefore grown apart
from the spelling. There were some
e$orts to simplify the spelling in the
19th century and make it more pho-
netic, but they weren‘t successful.
The modern pronunciation of words
is therefore not as helpful in this re-
gard as in some other languages.
An example is the letter ‘y’, which mor-
phed with ‘i’ in the 15th century but
still survives in the spelling as a sepa-
rate letter. The pronunciation thus
doesn‘t help to di$erentiate between
words like “il” (“sole”) and “yl” (de-
clension of “ylur” or “warmth”) and
“tína” (“gather”) and “t'na” (“lose”),
which have the same pronunciation.
The current version of the spelling
rules are from 2016 and 2018 but
the standard orthography hasn‘t
changed perceptibly since the latter
part of the 19th century. The biggest
change happened in 1974 when the
letter z was abolished.
ASK A
Linguist
Q: What do Iceland-
ers have problems
with concerning the
Icelandic language?

Want a quintessen-
tially Icelandic way
to achieve a rapidly
diminishing bank
balance and an
even more rapidly
growing waistline?
Look no further
than the humble
snú"ur—literally
"twist"—our native
species of cinna-
mon roll.
Ok, so we grudg-
ingly acknowledge
that this may not
be an uniquely Ice-
landic delicacy—
rumour has it that
it’s kind of a Scan-
dinavian thing—but
the Icelandic take
is nevertheless a
distinctive breed,
easily spotted
by its thick icing,
preferably of the
chocolate variety,
and by its impres-
sive girth. Look, if
your snú"ur isn’t
the size of your
head, it’s just not
big enough.
No one is quite sure
of the circum-
stances surround-
ing the cinnamon
bun’s birth, but we
haven’t got any
proof it wasn’t an
Icelander’s idea
(no matter what
the Swedes say). At
any rate, cinnamon
has been knocking
around the island
since European
merchants brought
it back from Sri
Lanka some time in
the Middle Ages.
Pretty much any
café, bakery or
supermarket will
sell you a snú"ur,
but finding a good
one is a di$erent
story. Guidebooks
will direct you to
the poster-boy for
Reykjavík bakery
culture, Brau" & Co.
If we’re being picky,
their pastries have
more of a pan-
Nordic aesthetic,
although we have
to commend their
blackberry and
liquorice snú"ur,
an impressive
attempt to elevate
the medium. For
the classic doughy,
chocolate-covered
Icelandic a$air,
your best bet is
Sandholt. This bou-
gie bakery may not
be the cheapest on
the block, but boy
is it worth every
króna. Be sure to
grab an accompa-
nying kókómjólk if
you really want to
blend in with the
locals.
Right, we’re o$ to
enjoy a snú"ur and
partake in all our
other eye-rollingly-
stereotypical
Nordic pastimes…I
dunno beers and
beards or some-
thing? PA Sn
ú"
ur
Samherji Strikes Back
The fishin! !iant releases their own “documentary”
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine

Photo:
YouTube
First 6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 06— 2020
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