What the Icelandic language sounds like

When looking for information on a language you are considering learning it can be surprisingly difficult to find a video or sound file that gives the prospective student an idea of how the language sounds, as videos online are usually inappropriate in some way - too much yelling (hard to hear), too much slang, too slow, people talking over each other, etc., and there's almost never a script either. Because of this I often post when I find a video perfectly suitable for someone interested in a language, and I found one for Icelandic today. It's a folk song called Krummavísur, which is apparently about a hungry crow looking for food. It's short (1:30), easy to hear, and has the lyrics as well.



Lyrics:

Krummi svaf í kletta gjá, -
kaldri vetrar nóttu á,
verður margt að meini;
fyrr en dagur fagur rann
freðið nefið dregur hann
undan stórum steini.

Allt er frosið úti gor,
ekkert fæst við ströndu mor,
svengd er metti mína;
ef að húsum heim ég fer,
heimafrakkur bannar mér
seppi´ úr sorpi´ að tína.

Öll er þakin ísi jörð,
ekki séð á holta börð
fleygir fuglar geta;
en þó leiti út um mó,
auða hvergi lítur tó;
hvað á hrafn að éta?

Sálaður á síðu lá
sauður feitur garði hjá,
fyrrum frár á velli.
Krúnk, krúnk! nafnar, komið hér!
krúnk, krúnk! því oss búin er
krás á köldu svelli?

There's also a heavy metal version.



Finally, you might also like this song by Seth Sharp called Móðir mín í kví kví:



Lyrics:

Móðir mín í kví, kví, kvíddu ekki því, því; ég skal ljá þér duluna mína duluna mína að dansa í, ég skal ljá þér duluna mína duluna mína að dansa í.

Oh, and one more note: there's been a fair bit of news recently about Icelanders immigrating to Manitoba, specifically to Gimli, and I found a blog here in Icelandic that I think is by someone originally from Reykjavik who has moved to Canada...and I think her friends and/or family are going to move there too. Thanks to Norwegian I can make out Icelandic to a certain extent, but a lot of it still goes over my head.