Talk:Iceland

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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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	Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on June 17, 2004, June 17, 2005, and June 17, 2006.
Current status: Former good article nominee

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Change "although it is closest to Greenland (290 kilometres; 155 nautical miles), an island of North America" to "although it is closest to Greenland (290 kilometres; 155 nautical miles), an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark".

As per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland Lexicon211 (talk) 03:59, 17 June 2025 (UTC)Reply

 Not done: As the sentence in question relates to the physical geography of Iceland, it is more appropriate to mention Greenland's physical location in North America than to reference its political status. Day Creature (talk) 05:26, 17 June 2025 (UTC)Reply

what is more political than claiming that Greenland is an island of North America?

Physical geography would claim it to be part of the North American tectonic plate

Why make an implied political connection when none is needed?

Just delete the ", an island of North America" in total or correctly and unbiasedly say "part of the North American tectonic plate". ~2026-35955-3 (talk) 06:52, 17 January 2026 (UTC)Reply

Iceland is closer to continental Europe than to mainland North America, although it is closest to Greenland (290 kilometres; 155 nautical miles), an island of North America ~2026-35955-3 (talk) 06:39, 17 January 2026 (UTC)Reply

? Greenland is part of the North American Plate and Iceland sits between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate Wilk10 (talk) 13:58, 17 January 2026 (UTC)Reply

i would like a part where it talks about Iceland being the only Country to not have flies. ~2026-24673-50 (talk) 20:32, 22 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

That is an incorrect statement. The most common flies are nematocera, Tipulidae, house fly, bees and wasps. Out of those nematocera's are the most agressive and they have a lake named after them in North-East Iceland, named Mývatn, which translates to lake of nematocera's. Snævar (talk) 12:32, 7 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

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The first five sentences in the fifth paragraph in the "Demographics" section discuss modern-day populations in some of Iceland's regions and cities. The sixth sentence, however, abruptly changes the subject to the Icelandic colonization of Greenland nine hundred years ago, a subject to which the rest of the paragraph is devoted. Rather than leaving those two jarringly disparate subjects butted against one another like that, I propose a paragraph-break. (I leave it to someone more authoritative than I to decide whether the discussion of Greenland's colonization and the ensuing high jinks in Vinland belongs in the "Demographics" section at all.) ~2026-37855-08 (talk) 21:04, 5 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

 Done I've added a paragraph break for now. I likewise question why the material on the settlement of Greenland is in the Demographics section, and may just remove it if no one raises an objection. Day Creature (talk) 02:36, 6 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

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The penultimate sentence reads, "As of 2008, there have been nine Icelandic chess grandmasters, a considerable number related to the small size of the population of the country."

"Have been" should be changed to "were," the passage of time having made the once-correct verb-tense anachronistic.

"Related" should be changed to "relative." Or, perhaps better, "related to" might be changed to "in light of." Or, maybe better still, "a considerable number related to the small size" might be changed to "a large number, considering the small size." Pray take your choice!

By the bye, the number of Icelandic grandmasters is higher today (2026). Of the players listed [[1]], at least twelve of the men and at least one of the women are or were grandmasters. I do not know, however, where to find a citeable source to that effect. ~2026-40291-13 (talk) 12:59, 26 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

I meant to say "...of the players listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_Icelandic_chess_players...." Sorry! ~2026-40291-13 (talk) 13:02, 26 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

My last reply gave the wrong link. Here's the right one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Icelandic_chess_players ~2026-40291-13 (talk) 13:08, 26 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Partly done: I've changed 'related' to 'relative'. With regards to the 'as of', it's a phrase to make sure it doesn't refer 2008 as 'currently', and since we don't have a reliable source for a new number (Wikipedia is not a reliable source), we can leave it as it is. Alpha Beta Delta Lambda (talk) 16:46, 26 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

Thanks! ~2026-40291-13 (talk) 21:38, 26 July 2026 (UTC)Reply