Word: icelander
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When he departed for Iceland last Thursday, Reagan seemed determined to minimize expectations. "We have serious problems with the Soviet Union on a great many issues," he told a crowd on the South Lawn of the White House. After flight of more than five hours, he was greeted at Keflavik airport by President Vigdis Finnbogadottir and Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson, then driven to the American ambassador's residence, where he was staying...
...President was lunching on baked halibut in the residence on Friday, discussing arms control with top advisers, when Gorbachev's Ilyushin-62 jet arrived from Moscow--at the same time as the ceremonial opening of Iceland's parliament. It was bad advance work by Moscow, for it meant that neither Iceland's President nor Prime Minister could be there to greet the Soviet leader. He and his wife Raisa were met instead by Foreign Minister Matthias Matthiesen. "We told Moscow about the opening of the parliament," lamented a Soviet embassy vice-consul, "but they decided it was too late...
Driving through rain east of Reykjavík to look at Thingvellir, site of the first Icelandic parliament (established 930), the oldest such assembly in the world. I'm not feeling so young myself, the imagination blank except for memories of a book called Letters from Iceland by W.H. Auden and memories of the Icelandic sagas, populated by heroes with unpronounceable names who made elegant speeches and went at one another with axes. More recent memories: news analyses assuring the public that Reagan and Gorbachev definitely are and definitely are not going to accomplish anything substantive at this presummit summit. Most...
...field, two mountains rise into a white mist pulled across them by a wind like the hem of a woman's slip. Rain-shagged sheep, mops with four legs, pursue their ridiculous business of all-day eating. On this field over a thousand years ago, an assembly of all Iceland sat down to keep the peace. The obvious parallel pops up: many chieftains then, two chieftains now, striving for balance and order so the world does not run to ruin. It is a tradition in Iceland, this striving for equilibrium. The sagas, crazy as they got, almost always wound...
Those clever Icelanders. Who knew that they secretly craved glamour and attention, the thrill of camera lights and sound bites? And what better way to capture the limelight than to play host to a meeting of the two most powerful men in the world? There were times last week when it seemed as if publicity-savvy Icelanders, not Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, had initiated the summit that was not a summit strictly to promote their little island: Iceland the beautiful; Iceland the restful; Iceland, home of friendly blond-haired people with unpronounceable names who believe in elves...