The lecture explores the significance of weather and the understanding of its progression for Icelanders throughout the centuries. It examines various traditional methods of weather prediction, how this skill has evolved over generations, and the impact of climate change on such folkloric knowledge.
Paper long abstract
Icelanders live in a land where the weather can be extreme, dramatic, and breathtaking—sometimes all at once. In earlier centuries, people had to find ways to understand their surroundings and combine the appearance of the sky with experience, tradition, folklore, and instinct. This gave rise to a body of weather knowledge that ordinary people needed to navigate daily life.
The presentation explores traditional Icelandic weather forecasting, its various categories, and how folk beliefs and environmental knowledge intertwine. Through the speacker´s qualitative research on popular weather folklore, diverse forms of weather knowledge emerged—surviving the technological advances of the 20th century that largely replaced folk methods. The talk aims to examine these insights and highlight the role of weather folk knowledge in contemporary life, including how recent climate change has impacted traditional Icelandic weather wisdom.