ASK ICELAND REVIEW

Photography by Golli Words by Erik Pomrenke

Q1 I want to find information on Icelandic eiderdown duvets.

The term eiderdown is a rather interesting one, as it’s a good example of a loanword from Old Norse. The original Old Norse dunna referred to a wild duck, with other terms like dúnn, dúnbeðr, and dúnkoddi referring to down blankets, beds, and pillows. Presumably, settlers and traders brought these over to medieval England, who realised how nice they were and adopted the name.

Eiderdown is produced by common eiders, a large species of duck that lives in Northern Europe (including Iceland), North America, and Eastern Siberia. Female eider ducks will use their down, a special kind of soft feather, to line their nests. Historically, eiderdown harvesting could harm duck populations, but sustainable down harvesting can also be practised after the ducklings leave the nest.

Most of the down sold in jackets, sleeping bags, and pillows you may come across in stores is not from wild eider ducks but instead from farm-raised geese and other duck species. Because genuine eiderdown is harvested by hand, it is costly to produce. Nevertheless, there are several producers of pure Icelandic eiderdown sængur (duvets) in Iceland, but if you’d like to buy one, expect to pay a premium price for it.

Q2 Has Iceland Review written about the Icelandic passenger ship that was sunk in 1944 by a U-boat?

On November 10, 1944, a German U-boat sank Goðafoss, an Icelandic passenger ship, just outside Reykjavík harbour, leading to the deaths of 24 people. We haven’t written about the event itself, but we have, however, covered an interesting book about the event, called Útkall: Árás á Goðafoss, or SOS: Attack on the Goðafoss.

Published in 2003 by Óttar Sveinsson, it attracted international attention and has been translated into multiple languages. Notably, when it was translated into German, a special press conference was held at the Frankfurt book fair, in which an Icelandic survivor from the attack and a former U-Boat crew member met and reconciled. After the German translation attracted some attention, a documentary was even made in Germany about the event.

While the Goðafoss may certainly be the most notorious U-boat attack from an Icelandic perspective, it was certainly not the only one to affect Icelanders. Because of Iceland’s important position between Europe and North America, many wartime convoys passed through Iceland. Icelandic vessels were very careful to fly the Icelandic flag to signal their neutrality, but eight Icelandic vessels were nevertheless attacked and sunk by U-boats during the war.