Encountered at the bend of a forest path last November near Borgarnes, this grinning ice spectre seems to taunt us as much as to threaten us, at the turn of a new year which promises to be rather unhappy.
But, I quote Alda Sigmundsdóttir , author of excellent, well-documented and funny books on Icelandic culture, past and present:
"If there is one sentence that sums up and illustrates better than any other the innate sense of optimism of the Icelanders, it is this one:
Þetta Reddast
These two words should be engraved across the nation's coat of arms, for this little phrase alone captures the essence of the Icelandic people perhaps better than any other - their optimism, their irreverence, their faith, their tenacity. (...)
Þetta reddast basically means: "it will work out, one way or another."
Did you just lose your job? Þetta reddast. No more money in the bank? Þetta reddast. The economy just collapsed? Þetta reddast. A volcano just spewed ash all over your farmland? Þetta reddast líka. This will be okay too. I like that line, Þetta reddast. For me, it carries a deep philosophy. Like the beginning of a solution. Because when things are completely dark and you really can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, often the best thing you can do is let go and trust that somehow, somewhere, things will work out for the better. And the amazing thing is, that's almost always what they do.
It's safe to assume that things don't work out that well spontaneously, but may this winter Casper prove us wrong in the coming months.