{"id":4859,"date":"2014-07-22T14:09:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T14:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=4859"},"modified":"2014-07-22T14:09:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T14:09:13","slug":"catching-your-mary-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/catching-your-mary-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Your “Mary” Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw an article on R\u00daV about Quentin Tarantino’s fishing trip in Iceland, with the curious title<\/p>\n

Tarantino beit ugga af mar\u00edulaxinum<\/strong><\/a>
\nTarantino bit fin off Mary salmon<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the article,
\n“Hann beit af honum uggann og renndi ni\u00f0ur me\u00f0 skoti af brenniv\u00edni sem er gamall og g\u00f3\u00f0ur si\u00f0ur.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“He bit the fin off of it and washed it down with a shot of brennivin, which is an old and honored tradition.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So that was interesting to find out \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

At the time I had no idea what a mar\u00edulax<\/strong> was, I figured it was some species I had never heard of. Mr. Google very helpfully directed me to V\u00edsindavefurinn<\/a>, where I found an answer:<\/p>\n

Hvers vegna er fyrsti laxinn sem einhver vei\u00f0ir kalla\u00f0ur mar\u00edulax?<\/strong><\/a>
\nWhy is the first salmon someone catches called a Mary salmon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mar\u00edufiskurinn var fyrsti fiskur sem sj\u00f3ma\u00f0ur veiddi \u00e1 \u00e6vinni. Skyldi s\u00e1 sem veiddi fiskinn gefa hann f\u00e1t\u00e6kustu (sumir segja elstu) konunni \u00ed verst\u00f6\u00f0inni \u00feegar komi\u00f0 var \u00ed land. Ef mar\u00edufiskur unglings var g\u00f3\u00f0fiskur, \u00fea\u00f0 er \u00feorskur, \u00fdsa e\u00f0a l\u00fa\u00f0a, var sp\u00e1\u00f0 vel fyrir honum og framt\u00ed\u00f0 hans \u00e1 sj\u00f3num.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The “Mary” fish was the first fish a fisherman caught in his life. The person who caught the fish would give it to the poorest (some say the oldest) woman in the village after returning to land. If a youth’s Mary fish was a good fish, like a cod, haddock or halibut, it bode well for him and his future at sea.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 vei\u00f0a – catch, hunt; fish<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nvei\u00f0i<\/td>\nveiddi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nvei\u00f0ir<\/td>\nveiddir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nvei\u00f0ir<\/td>\nveiddi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nvei\u00f0um<\/td>\nveiddum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nvei\u00f0i\u00f0<\/td>\nveiddu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nvei\u00f0a<\/td>\nveiddu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
verst\u00f6\u00f0 (f) – fishing village<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\nsingular<\/th>\nplural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nom<\/th>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0<\/td>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0var<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
acc<\/th>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0<\/td>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0var<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dat<\/th>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0<\/td>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0vum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gen<\/th>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0var<\/td>\nverst\u00f6\u00f0va<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\u00deennan si\u00f0 m\u00e1 rekja aftur til ka\u00fe\u00f3lskrar tr\u00faar og var mar\u00edufiskurinn \u00fe\u00e1 eins konar heitfiskur. Heiti\u00f0 var \u00e1 Mar\u00edu mey til fiskiheilla og var henni gefinn fyrsti fiskurinn. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This custom can be traced back to Catholic beliefs, the Mary fish being a sort of offering. The offering was to the Virgin Mary for success with fishing, and she was given the first fish.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wasn’t quite sure how to translate the heit-<\/strong> words into English, I feel like there’s something better, offering<\/em> if the only thing that came to mind.<\/p>\n

So that apparently is the story behind the Mary fish; hopefully I’ll make it back to Iceland one day and catch my own. Not sure about the biting-off-the-fin part though… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\r\nuggi m                   fin\r\nlax m                    salmon\r\nvei\u00f0a v (acc)            catch, hunt; fish\r\nsj\u00f3ma\u00f0ur m               fisherman\r\n\u00e6vi f indecl             life, lifetime\r\nf\u00e1\u00b7t\u00e6kur adj             poor, needy\r\nver\u00b7st\u00f6\u00f0 f               fishing village\/station\r\n\u00feorskur m                cod\r\n\u00fdsa f                    haddock\r\nl\u00fa\u00f0a f                   halibut\r\nsp\u00e1 v (dat)              predict, forecast\r\nfram\u00b7t\u00ed\u00f0 f               future\r\nsi\u00f0ur m                  custom\r\nrekja v (acc)            follow, track, trace\r\ntr\u00fa f                    belief, faith\r\nheit n                   (solemn) promise, vow, pledge\r\nheill f                  luck, happiness, success\r\n<\/pre>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I saw an article on R\u00daV about Quentin Tarantino’s fishing trip in Iceland, with the curious title Tarantino beit ugga…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4859"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4870,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4859\/revisions\/4870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}