Saunders: How did you come to settle on Icelandic and Old Norse as an area of study?

Crawford: Well, I could tell that in a pretty long story, and I’m not sure how long of a story you want. I’ll try to keep it short. I was a dinosaur kid, interested especially in how dinosaurs evolved. When it came time to decide what language to study in middle school, I picked Latin, because all the dinosaur names were in Latin. Then I learned from studying Latin that languages evolved too. From there I wanted to learn the ancestor of English, so I started teaching myself Old English in high school. And when I got more and more interested in the entire family of Indo-European languages, I started e-mailing experts on the subject and asking them what other languages I might teach myself. A professor at UCLA said that Old Norse would be pretty easy, since I had studied Old English, and I sort of “fell in love” with the language.

Saunders: Does your family history play into your direction at all?

Crawford: No. I don’t know of any Scandinavian family.

Saunders: I’m interested to know what kind of opportunities you’ve had to put your language abilities to use. In terms of visiting Scandinavia and Iceland.

Crawford: I’ve only been to Iceland once, for six weeks in the summer of 2007. I spent two weeks traveling the Ring Road by bus, staying on farms and just talking to farmers, insisting on using Icelandic. Then I took the 4-week Sigurður Nordal Institute Icelandic course at Háskóli Íslands.

Saunders: And how did it feel being out there and being able to communicate in Icelandic?

Crawford: It felt really good. Naturally one gets frustrated sometimes with one’s inability to say something. I also often surprised Icelanders by speaking in Icelandic… I think that sometimes people didn’t know what language I was speaking. I was told by some that they had never heard Icelandic with a foreign accent.

Saunders: Were there any particular highlights from the trip you found memorable?

Crawford: Definitely; the people that I stayed with were all wonderful. Hospitable, patient, and helpful to a fault.

Saunders: So for someone thinking about learning Icelandic, what kind of advice would you give them?

Crawford: That depends on how much time you have. If you have a while, it really helped me to know Old English first. To see that English comes out of a language with a grammar and lexicon very similar to Icelandic, makes the “why” of Icelandic much more understandable.

Saunders: Okay, but if you’re not able to go that route. Top three things?

Crawford: 1. Use self-help materials that include audio, like the online course at http://icelandic.hi.is/ or Hildur Jónsdóttir’s book-and-CD set Teach Yourself Icelandic. 2. Find something that you really want to read in the language, something that will feel like a fun diversion rather than a chore. 3. Practice every day. Large amounts of time spent on it now and then are nowhere near as good as even half an hour every day.

Saunders: With your language study and abilities, what do you see yourself doing career-wise?

Crawford: Ideally I’d like to work in academia. But I know that that may not happen. For me, the PhD is a goal in itself, irrespective of what may come after. I have not had to pay for graduate school (I have taught and had fellowships). Aristotle says that flute-players can’t pay attention to anything else when they hear a flute playing. My flute-playing is Old Norse – so as long as I have an opportunity to let that distract me from other things, I’m going to do it.

That was Jackson Crawford, author of Star Wars as an Icelandic saga, talking to Jim Saunders of Iceland News.

Saunders: Can you tell me a little bit more about how you came to write the post?

Crawford: It actually started with a really brief Facebook exchange with a colleague, Ben Frey. When I first joined Facebook 2 or so years ago, I wasn’t really sure what to do with my status updates, so I just started quoting Star Wars, using a different quote every week. Finally on 22 February, Ben commented on one of these status updates by writing, “What is it with Germanic linguists and the holy trilogy? Is it the magic swords? Perhaps the ill-fated battles between the old and the young? No…it can’t be the latter, ’cause then Vader would have won.” Well, the past few weeks I had been reading a lot of sagas and a lot of the long introductions to them in the Íslenzk Fornrit series. So as a joke I responded, “And Ben, as far as I’m concerned, the trilogy as presented in Lucas’s films represents only one manuscript tradition, and a rather late and corrupt one at that. I believe that there is a palimpsest to a Latin choral that contains fragments of a version where Vader survives to old age after slaying Luke out of loyalty to the emperor, but is naturally still conflicted about it when Leia’s son avenges the killing on him.”

But I had drunk a lot of coffee that day… and the idea kept getting bigger in my head… finally after a couple hours of playing with it in my head while doing other jobs around campus, I just sat down and typed out “Tattúínárdœla saga – If Star Star Wars Were an Icelandic Saga.” I posted it as a Facebook note and tagged some colleagues.

Saunders: I see, and then it started getting passed around?

Crawford: Yeah. And it was being passed around so much that I decided to put it on a blog and make it easier for other people to find it. It’s also an extremely busy semester (I have my PhD prelim’s in May) and I was looking for a fun way to practice my most needed skill: Old Norse. And I decided that actually writing out this saga was a perfect opportunity.

Saunders: Where did you write it? How long did it take?

Crawford: I wrote in my room… it took 45 minutes. If you’re talking about that original post. Subsequent posts, written in Old Norse, have taken maybe an hour and a half each.

Saunders:Okay, so it’s up on the blog. From what I saw in the comments section, you’re away for a few days, come back, and it’s being viewed more and more.

Crawford: Yes. I typically don’t get online on the weekends. Someone put it on Fark (I still don’t know who), and from there it just spread all over the Internet.

Saunders: I’ve seen some of the feedback in the comments section, but what feedback have you been particularly pleased about?

Crawford: I’m particularly glad to see remarks of the “This guy knows his stuff” variety – they give me a little bit of encouragement that maybe I really will “know my stuff” when I take my prelim’s in May!

Saunders: It’s being passed around in Iceland too. How does that feel?

Crawford: That has been one of the biggest surprises to me. I approach Icelanders with some humility – after all, I’m trying to make an academic career that’s built largely around their language. Not every Icelandic comment has been favorable. But for the most part the Icelandic comments that I have seen have been encouraging.

In part two we’ll move away from Star Wars to find out more about Crawford himself.

-Sturla Sighvatsson (second from right) at REVA car signing agreement.

*** Read part one of this interview here.

IN: How is the program going right now? Do you already have charging posts out in the cities? How’s the roll-out going for that?

Sighvatsson: We will start the roll-out next year (2010). We are still in the design phase. First of all we set out and visited companies both in the US and the UK. They were building charging stations and offering them at point of sale to customers. But we quickly found out that they simply did not fit into the demand we put on them as products.

First of all, there is a company designing charging stations to be set up in California. We have different weather conditions here in Iceland. These solutions simply did not work. Another thing… we didn’t find the product appealing enough. We are now talks with Ideal, a design house. We have pretty much set out on all the technical specifications for the enclosures themselves. They’re being sketched up right now. We will offer a line up of charging poles and charging stations. We want the design to be consistent and fresh, trendy. We have to redefine the user experiences for them to come in and use it. We really just felt we had to do that ourselves.

However, the interior of the charging stations and the technology behind are all important. We get them from other players. But the enclosures and the look of the product is going to be our. We will have that finished by this spring.

IN: You have fast charging posts. How do you make the decision about where they go and how many of them are you going to have?

Sighvatsson: Regarding fast charging, there’s a little bit of a misconception about it. If we talk about what is considered level one charging in the US (110 volts), then we have the level two charging which is basically the general electricity here in Iceland (220 volt outlets). We are going to use a proposed standard. It’s going to be decided upon on January 28. The specs for that in the beginning are 400 volts. That current actually gives the basic batteries that are coming out from the likes of Nissan, a charge up to 80% in 15-20 minutes. However, there are other standards in the worked right now that are being tested by manufacturers by manufacturers as charging solutions. Car manufactures themselves that are at a much higher current. We’re talking maybe 600 volts. This standard has not been set yet.

But basically what we set since the electric grid here in Iceland is one of the most sophisticated in the world, we will be able to what is now considered 400 volts. Basically in 70% of the streets in Iceland. And that’s the system we’re going to set up. Instead of using the basic 220 outlets that would charge some of the bigger with the bigger batteries in 8-10 hours. They’re all going to be charged within an hour just from the regular poles on the streets.

Then there is what we refer to as the “uber-charging”. We will set up that as well. We’ll see that they put it up at gas stations all around the country. For you to stop by on longer journeys. We’ll basically have one or two or three within the city itself and scattered around the country at selected locations. We’ve mapped that out already. It might add to a 100 locations but we will not proceed installing these ultra fast charging stations until the standard has been set.

IN: Is there much of a price different between these standard charging post and fast charging posts?

Sighvatsson: There is a much heavier equipment that needs to be external. We can in the, what is considered fast charging stations (400 volts), pretty much pack all the gear in a very sleek and sexy pole. Right now. But if we are to move up to the ultra fast charging we’d actually have to have an external enclosure with the gear set up for that and need proper cooling as well.

One other thing I want to mention about the charging stations. The design of the system has to be highly scalable and there is no preference between models or anything. Having no battery swapping stations or anything like that. Our system from the very beginning is trying to work with whatever car that comes out to the market. So it’s not only bound to cars by Nissan. We work with everybody. Everybody can come in and charge at our stations.

IN: What made them so special that you decided to strike a deal with REVA.

Sighvatsson: Basically they are a first market product. They are able to deliver cars to us in significant quantities next year. That’s the reason why we decided to go with them. Because the market is screaming for the cars right now and most manufacturers in trouble with delivering cars. It’s not going to be a problem in 2011 and 2012. But 2010 there is great scarcity of cars. This gives the market something right away.

IN: What has the Icelandic public response been like to your plans?

Sighvatsson: People are extremely positive towards this. Everyone is looking forward to it. People want to start right away. Since the crash, car importing has fallen by pretty much 90% from what it used to be in 2007. So we have a unique situation. What’s basically happening right now is one is coming out and buying gasoline cars. People are holding off and waiting and once we have the cars ready and the system. People are going to move in and buy cars. We have two to two-and-a-half years of buffer that’s building up demand. Once we have the product in hand, the cars, we will do a very quick transition over.

The government has agreed now to remove all import taxes on electric cars while raising the import tax on gasoline cars up to 45%. And then on top of the import tax comes 25% VAT. We are now in the final phases of getting the government to remove the VAT on electric cars as well. So a price advantage will be there for electric cars. Currently they are more expensive. By having these incentives from the government we will be able to offer them at a better price or same price as gasoline.

IN: How much is it going to cost an Icelandic person to make this change over to the car?

Sighvatsson: It is costly but the central bank and forecasts are predicting to start coming out of the crisis in 2011. There are signs of significant recovery in the economy. We know that this is pricey. But there is another point here as well. The government has agreed to help. The government has agreed, if we take a gasoline car and ship it out,sell it out of the country, they will give back the tax that was taken off that car. It’s a refund that so you can get a voucher towards a payment for the electric car.

IN: What would happen to the gas stations attendants and employers that are associated with that? Do they need people to check them over?

Sighvatsson: We are of course both plans for conversion of the whole fleet. I guess it won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take 5 to10 years at least to convert. Maybe 15 years. We have a situation right now where the numbers of people working… the guys on the pump are dwindling and most people just pump themselves to get a discount. But we see the oil companies and gas station operators have already started to adapt to this fact. Gasoline is not their main product anymore. There is certain attraction to sell the gas and all of the oil companies here have extended their stakes. They are service stations now. They sell more groceries than gasoline. And you know… there are restaurants within them. Pizzas, burgers. The standard of the average gas station in Iceland is pretty high. So I don’t fear for them.

They came to us and want the ultra fast charging stations to be set up within their plots. We agreed to do that as well because simply… like the city of Reykjavik for example… has decided there will be no new plots issued to gas stations within the city, because there are enough gas stations. The city is willing to allow you to extend or make your plot that you have, maybe a little bit bigger so you can fit in other energy sources at your stations. Whether it’s hydrogen, ethanol, bio-diesel or electric poles for that matter. They will be setup at the current gas stations so you can go and have a hot dog and Pepsi come out again once your car is full.

IN: Anything else to cover?

Sighvatsson: Iceland has the possibility of being the first all electric nation in the world. We are not that big. It’s much more difficult to convert the UK or anything on that scale. So I think we are able, with the right product. We are at the right time. If we had set up this initiative 10 years ago we wouldn’t have gone anywhere with it because there would not have been any cars to support it. They are coming now and they are coming pretty fast. We have to prepare ourselves.

Sighvatsson: One of the biggest factors in building a new industry like this is the batteries they contribute about half of the price to a new electric car today. By any means possible to get the price of production down is very welcome by all parties here.

Building batteries is a very energy intensive thing to do. We have partnered with a company in china. We are doing feasibility studies of changing the way the batteries are made in such a way that we can add geothermal steam directly into the manufacturing line. Because during the manufacturing process there are metals that need to be heated up and cooled down. You’re building a green industry but it’s not very green if all the batteries are made in energy intensive ways. We want to reduce the overall carbon footprint and production. Here we have 100% renewable energy. Since the energy use is such a great contributor to the end price on the battery making the batteries in Iceland is a very feasible choice. Once the cells are combined and the battery pack is built the manufacture has to charge the battery 15-20 times before it’s ready. That’s done to condition the cells and a major contributor to the price. Energy prices in Iceland are some of the lowest in the world. We are currently looking into building the first 100% clean manufacturing battery plant in the world here starting late next year.

- On the streets of Iceland next year? CREDIT

2012 – New Beginning, announces the arrival of the electric car. Our goal is to implement a system in Iceland, which will enable the Icelandic public to convert their whole fleet, in to electric cars.

IN: How did you come to start the 2012 initiative separate Icelandic New Energy?

Sighvatsson: One and half years ago we decided that it was time to bring the electric car to Iceland. We said “Okay it’s time to do it, so how do we do it?” It’s the chicken and the egg problem. You know, no infrastructure, no cars. Nobody is building the infrastructure because there are no cars. So we set out and said we’ve got to build the infrastructure. The cars will then come. But once we started digging into this we found that it was not going to be so easy. Because we were looking product road maps of all the major manufacturers to see what was going on. See what models were coming out and we soon figured out that it would not happen that way. We went abroad did meetings with many of the major manufacturers.

By the end of 2012 (we want to) have the island covered in charging stations. As a consumer you must be able to drive wherever and be secure about knowing a charging station or a fast charging station is near you so you can continue your journey. As I said we soon found out it was not just building the infrastructure. There’s a great deal of bringing stakeholders together, stakeholder management, talking to the government, the municipalities and everyone that has any control of either the supply of cars to Iceland. Then there is the education of people about the uses of electric cars. So basically we just initiated the 2012 project. We’re still in the preparation phase. When we do the agreements with all the stakeholders and once we have that all in place we will start the roll out of charging stations.

IN: Why do you think Iceland is ready for the electric car?

Sighvatsson:Well, as you probably know Iceland was hit pretty bad the credit crunch and the financial crisis. It might be something related to that. People are really ready for something new. We have great sources of energy here in Iceland. Renewable energy in the form of geothermal and hydrothermal power. Everyone basically feels that it is nonsense that we, being the small volcanic island here in the middle of the Atlantic, are importing energy in the form of oil.

I think the general public has been early adopters of technology and new trends. We are one of the highest users of mobile phones in the world. I think we have the most high speed internet connections in the home. We are just a nation that is very quick to adopt new trends. We intend the electric car to be a new trend here. As the island is small and has renewable energy sources we think it’s a perfect test case or showcase to see or to demonstrate what the future city and community can be like.

IN: When you were making your decision to do this was there a big decision to make between electric cars and hydrogen based cars?

Sighvatsson:There has been some initiatives here in regards of hydrogen for the past nine years. The first public hydrogen station in the world was setup here in Iceland back then. There are some players testing their vehicles here. Daimler and Ford. We feel that, technology wise, the advancement in battery technology is simply now. The density of the batteries are increasing 14-20% every year. It doesn’t matter if it’s Chinese, Japanese, or in America or Europe. Everyone is putting money into batteries and not into hydrogen. For the past ten year or fifteen years there had been a lot of research towards hydrogen. It simply has not succeeded. Hydrogen fuel cells are still outrageously expensive. You will not see any viable cars at reasonable prices. You won’t see hydrogen fuel cells anytime soon. So we think this technology is coming out on top.

There’s also the issue with the energy loss. Hydrogen is simply an energy carrier. If you have about 60% loss of the energy first of all converting electricity into hydrogen and then converting it over again I think it’s just a no brainer.

*For more information on the 2012 Initiative CLICK HERE.

When Sirry Jonasdottir found out Icelanders were struggling to send their children to school because of the country’s financial crisis, she’d had enough.

“Parents were calling their children sick for the first days as they couldn’t afford the books or the pencils,” Jonasdottir says. “There was a single mother with three sons and she could not afford to put all of them to school. That really, really, shocked me.”

Jonasdottir, 37, and her partner, Veigar Margeirsson, 37, are two ex-pat Icelanders living in Los Angeles, California. As well as running their music production company, they’ve set up a charity called Silver Lining, to help raise money for fellow Icelanders most affected by the country’s financial crisis.

Since the crisis began in October 2008, on the surface things didn’t look that bad. Yet according to Margeirsson there’s a silent problem running deep. “A lot of people who need this help are extremely embarrassed and ashamed,” he says. “So sometimes it looks like things are not so bad. But when we talk to the people who are giving out the food they say it’s worse than ever.”

One of those groups giving out the food in Iceland is the Family Help Center. They’ve been having 300 families a week use the service according to Jonasdottir. However, with the Christmas period fast approaching, they’re expecting it’s going to be more than double that number for the month of December.

“We hear from the Family Help Center they really are nervous,” she explains. “They know that in December… it’s just going to be needed more than ever because… you want a decent meal on Christmas.”

Charity origins

Back in the summer Jonasdottir and Margeirsson knew Christmas would be a time of increased need. So their charity went from an idea to a functioning non-profit within a month. Their goal is to send the sum of money they collect before the end of the year and hope people abroad can now donate without having to spend an extra $40 wiring the money to Iceland.

Since the charity began donations have come in from all over the world, including Luxemburg, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.

Margeirsson is also seeing a lot of donations from people that have lost touch with Iceland, who seem to like the fact that somebody is trying to help. “It also shows that even though they’ve been away for a long time… they still sincerely care about their home country,” he says. “Even though we live here we’re still Icelanders.”

Initial donations

The first person to donate to the charity was 33-year-old Karl Jonsson. He’s an Icelander living abroad for the past 12 years, having co-founded a business based out of Singapore, with offices in Irvine, California.

“(I’ve) always been very proud of my country and where I come from. It has been very sad seeing the collapse over the last year,” Jonsson explains. “I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything. It’s not easy to transfer money to Iceland.”

So he opened his wallet to the tune of a few hundred dollars, which with the fall in the value of the Icelandic Krona, can go a long way, he says.

It’s a generous donation, even with the fall of the currency. Margeirsson hopes that many people will give whatever they can give, big or small.

As 2010 approaches then, the problems in Iceland are worse than they have ever been in the last several decades.“Unfortunately… predictions are… it’s not going to get better for a while,” he adds.

For more information on Silver Lining visit: http://www.silverliningcharity.org/