I am grateful to Morgunblaðið, Talnakönnun (formerly Nesútgáfan), DV and Tímarit Reykjavík for permission to use various extracts and articles, to Ferðaskrifstofan Nonni to use their advertisement, to Jón Gíslason and Sigríður þorvaldsdóttir to use excerpts from their book Landsteinar, to Gerður Kristný and Elísabet Þorgeirsdóttir to use excerpts from their articles, to Hótel Borg for permission to print their menu. Warmest thanks are extended to my generous and patient Icelandic friends Árni þór Eymundsson, Katrín Eymundsdóttir and Antonía Sveinsdóttir, who were kind enough to read and correct the manuscript during its various stages, fielded my many questions and contributed valuable insights. Thanks also go to the friendly and helpful staff at Routledge, especially to Gary King whose encouragement and assistance during the early writing stages were important. Final thanks to Wil Neijmann, who passed on to me his love of languages and the joy of language learning, and, as always, to Mark, for his patience and love. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyright material. If any proper acknowledgement has not been made, or permission not received, we would invite copyright holders to inform us of the oversight.