Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland

Eyjafjallajokull- this is the name of the volcano shutting down the air traffic over most of Europe.

How do you pronounce this? The disruption of our trip needs to have a culprit that I can pronounce. It is hard to get mad at a name that resembles the letters produced by someone punching their keyboard.

More about the name. One of the funniest things to me is the name Iceland. Its closest neighbor is Greenland. By the name alone, you’d think all the Icelanders would want to take their vacations on the inviting lands of Greenland. I found this map and it helps me understand things better. Greenland is in the Arctic Circle and Iceland is not. All the Ice is on Greenland. All the Green is on Iceland. .

I guess that explains it. The Icelanders sat down to name their little Island years ago, only to find out the name Greenland was already taken. Maybe, wanting to be more like their smarter neighbors to the northwest, they misnamed their Island in honor of them. Next they needed to name the rivers and towns. This must have exhausted the rest of the local creativity.

When it came time to name this volcano, it must have really been a struggle for them. The name must have finally been achieved by randomly pulling letters out of a hat. This helps me understand the origin of the name, Eyjafjallajokull, for this volcano. In protest, I now choose to not lean how to pronounce this silly name.

I propose we call it MT SIV. Stupid Iceland Volcano. I also propose we take away all naming privileges from these people in Iceland. If they ever need help naming something else, they can respond to my blog.

Here is the most ironic part of the situation. Basically it is safe to fly to Iceland for first hand look at the Volcano. There are no flight cancellations into Iceland from North America.

Hope Mt SIV takes a break soon.