The Svínafellsjökull glacier
The Game of Thrones shoot in Iceland began last Friday, as scheduled (make sure to follow @CatonSet on Twitter for relatively timely, but sometimes cryptic updates). Promptly, Iceland’s biggest news site ran an article about it. Thanks to our Icelandic reader Fridrik the Squealer, we give you the partly summarized translation below:
“Filmmakers started shooting the second season of Game of Thrones this morning by Svínafellsjökull. According to Snorri Þórisson, production manager at Pegasus Films, more than 70 locals are working on the production which intends to wrap on the 11th of December.
“We had some extremely wild weather yesterday but today it’s just perfect – as if we had ordered it out of a catalogue” says Snorri about the site conditions.”
He then goes on to talk about how many actors and crew are there etc. Just around the end he then says that “in addition to Svínafellsjökull [glacier], scenes will also be shot on and around Vatnajökull [glacier] and Höfðabrekkuheiði.”
Some photos from Höfðabrekkuheiði can be found here, here, and here. This last one shows the remains of the Beowulf and Grendel set; it is possible that the production would take advantage of it.
Hear Me Roar: Good luck to the cast and crew in the cold north! This is the final stretch, two weeks from now the entire Season Two will be in the can.
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63 Comments
:O
VaariQuote Reply
there are some pics of a small set built by the Myrdaelingur company who are supporting the GoT production here:-
http://myrdaelingur.is/EN/Sets.aspx
Presumably it was built for an earlier movie that they provided support to, but again I suppose it’s the sort of thing that could be re-used, so long as that wasn’t too long ago and it’s still standing. Keep an eye open in any ‘behind the scenes’ photos that get posted :D
Nick LarterQuote Reply
i hope we can get some set pictures :)
(i’m looking at you, john bradley! Tweet something!)
BTW..THIRD!
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
Höfðabrekkuheiði
They can keep the actual road signs to reach this place as this name can work perfectly for a wilding village north of the Wall.
cwolfQuote Reply
I really come to Love Icelandic names!!
G_LeeQuote Reply
Seven Hells!!!
And I thought saying Eyjafjallajökull (the volcano that erupted) was difficult!
But Höfðabrekkuheiði?!!
Needs Melisandre’s Sorcery to sort it out.
It is known!
UdiQuote Reply
Wow, the shots of that Glacier are truly magnificentl, I can see Mances troops marching there. And those black rocks are perfect for the Frost Fangs. Hope they have some dime left to film some Shadow Cats feasting on corpses. It would further the the Otherworldiness of Beyond the Wall. Even if we only have confirmation on Rattleshirt, I still hope the put Sixskins in there as well (just reread that chapter and Jon’s first warging experiences and him meeting the Brantree are such wonderfull premonitions for DwD)
Chris77Quote Reply
Haha, I actually find it easier to pronounce than Eyjafjallajökull. But I always sound like a dyslexic walrus when I try to speak Icelandic anyway, so that doesn’t mean much. ;)
LisaQuote Reply
Lisa,
I have no idea how ð should sound.
How should Höfðabrekkuheiði be pronounced? I think I need a phonetic guide for that one.
ShinyteapotQuote Reply
It’s like the th in them. The double kk should be pre-aspirated and the u is more like an y (I think, that’s the best I can do with English, in German it’s easier to say how it should be pronounced). ;)
LisaQuote Reply
Shinyteapot,
Lisa,
The English translations call it Hofdabrekka Heath – which is a bit more in the comfort zone :D
Nick LarterQuote Reply
Lisa,
Thanks very much- I think I get it :)
ShinyteapotQuote Reply
Those are wonderful pictures of Höfðabrekkuheiði!
Off-topic, but does anybody know where they shot the scenes for Harrenhal? In Northern Ireland maybe?
LouisaQuote Reply
Yikes! Cajunman gets grief over how to pronounce “Thibodeaux” and “Atchafalaya” !Icelanders have us beat hands down!
CajunmanQuote Reply
OT but set report from EW with pictures! http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/28/game-of-thrones-season-2-dragons/
LisaQuote Reply
Lisa,
thanks!
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
So presumably, the only characters on the official cast list shooting in Iceland are Jon, Ygritte, Qhorin and Rattleshirt – all the rest will be extras or featured extras.
Nick LarterQuote Reply
Nick Larter,
and Craster, Gilly, Samwise Gamgee, and others? Also I think GRRM is doing a Stan Lee style cameo as a Yeti.
Epic failQuote Reply
Okay so is this Season 3 or Season 2? I thought season 2 filming was finished!>!>!?!
Harry The HeirQuote Reply
Harry The Heir,
This is the last leg of season 2 shooting in the final location of Iceland.
Epic failQuote Reply
Where are the Reeds??? I am going to Svínafellsjökull someone right now if the Reeds are not in the show, someone is going to suffer, I am going to Vatnajökull their heads over and over with a very big Höfðabrekkuheiði wilding weapon!!! ;-)
Iker GernikaQuote Reply
Lisa,
I love that picture of the Quartheen gate. It looks far more imposing than in the Hibberd pic. Shame that the quartheen women are standing in the back row. Can’t see if they are wearing their “traditional” outfit.
Chris77Quote Reply
I definitely like what I see of the Qartheen gate! Curious about the garb of the female part of the population, though. We’ll see (soon hopefully).
As for Icelandic jawbreakers, I seriously wonder what the name Höfðabrekkuheiði really means. Icelandic is closer to Old Norse than the modern versions of the other Scandinavian languages and it almost sounds like what would mean “Head fracture heath” in Norwegian. That sounds like dangerous territory! Any native speakers who could give a translation?
Lise BollumQuote Reply
Lise Bollum,
I think, brekku comes from brekka which means slope. It does look very similar to brekke in Norwegian, though. And höfðað would be a form of höfuð which does mean head. Sorry for all that smart-assery but I just finished my Icelandic homework and am still in the “translation mode”. ;)
LisaQuote Reply
Epic fail,
Well I don’t think there’s any Sam – at any rate he’s still tweeting from London at the mo – so that would probably rule out Mormont’s force altogether, and so far as I know all of the Craster stuff was filmed in Ireland. I think it’ll just be the scouting party of Jon, Qhorin et al and Rattleshirt’s group and then distant views of wildling hordes.
Nick LarterQuote Reply
Some spoilers from book 3 in the comments on there, be careful if you haven’t read that far!
Cool pics though, ty.
JamboQuote Reply
Wow.
Kit Harington is not on Twitter, isn’t he? Dang. What about Rose Leslie then?
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
In this case, “Höfða” is a form of “Höfði” which means “Cape”, such as in a geographical cape, not the superhero cape. Lisa was right with “brekka” or “brekku”, it’s a slope or hill. So in essence, it’s somewhere around “Capehill Heath” or thereabouts. I guess. It sounds meaningful in Icelandic but when you’ve translated it, it’s just a series of things from nature. Lakerivermountain. Capehillheath.
Whatever. There you go.
SquealerQuote Reply
Squealer,
Oh, that’s good to know. But höfða can also be a form of höfuð or did I get that completely wrong? :)
LisaQuote Reply
Lise Bollum,
Höfðabrekkuheiði pretty much means the heath that can be recognised by Höfðabrekka (which is a small mountain near where they’re filming)
Höfði is kind of difficult to translate- this here is a ‘höfði’, so that should give you some idea of what it is. basically a small mountain.
And brekka does indeed mean slope.
Sooo, the heath that can be recognised by the slope in the small mountain..
source; native speaker : )
spearwifeQuote Reply
Just want to wish all the Icelandic extras good luck.Given the nature of the locations its safe to say it will be somewhat of an endurance. But it WILL be worth it.
Curious as to how the actors and extras will be able to find any grip from their “medieval” style, smooth soled boots. Last year we had plenty of hard falls by folks in costume, and that was just on a ground frost in an NI field.
Hope the weather plays ball and every one stays safe. Winter IS coming.
Two FeathersQuote Reply
Nick Larter,
Could be. I assumed & stacked all the possible beyond the wall scenes into Iceland.
Epic failQuote Reply
Lisa,
spearwife,
Squealer,
Thanks a lot! Any kind of smart-assery demonstrated in this case has been deeply appreciated! :D
Lise BollumQuote Reply
Oh yeah. How come the bits of set from Beowulf and Grendel are still there? I would have thought the authorities would have made the production company leave the place as they found it.
The two dwellings look to be constructed from biodegradable materials, maybe its a tourist attraction?. I think they sit well in their surroundings, and are a pretty cool thing. Isn`t the hut in the rocks the “witchs” shack.?
Two FeathersQuote Reply
Apparently we’ve got our Craster’s Keep, and it looks kind of like that of the Game Cards
GonzaloQuote Reply
Such beautiful sites…wow! I’m sure that the scenes north of The Wall will be amongst my favourites come next season…
loco73Quote Reply
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Oh yeaaaaaahhhh.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeahQuote Reply
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
Some more language fun, let’s deconstruct Svínafellsjökull :) It’s actually not too bad, quite English when you look at it the right way. Meaning: Pigmountain glacier. Not really so Englishy? Well, first part as in swine, second as the -fell (hill or high moorland) of Winterfell(!), and jökull is cognate (and sounds closer than it looks like) with the -icle in icicle. So there :)
Native speakers and other Scandinavians, please correct me if I’m wrong.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
Hear Me Roar,
Nice one. Too me it looked like this. All those languages look just like that one illustration to me. (You’ll have forgive me as I am not well educated and quite bigoted). So I learned something today. Svine!!!!
Epic failQuote Reply
Two Feathers,
I’m not sure why it was left there, but I actually went to the location on a trip to Iceland the year Beowulf & Grendel came out. The director wrote an article at the time, about shooting in Iceland, that basically gave directions to the village set. It definitely wasn’t a tourist attraction, but it was only a few miles off the main highway, so I stopped by to check it out.
Here are a few shots: http://photobucket.com/beowulfset
CMWQuote Reply
CMW,
Thanks for that. I hope to visit in the spring,will check it out along with the GOT locations.
Two FeathersQuote Reply
Dead on. Not the -icle part, though. But still. Dead on.
SquealerQuote Reply
Squealer,
Oh, not the icicle part? Thought I had it :P
Origin of icicle – Middle English: from ice + dialect ickle ‘icicle’ (from Old English gicel). Which is in Swedish (i.e. proper Germanic, but rarer word, not the fancy french glaciär) jökel, and related to ickel.
Anyway, cool how you can still see the English (via proto-Germanic) connection in the name :)
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
Hear Me Roar,
Here I am, wallowing in smart-assery and you put me down with a dictionary. :-)
I had no idea! Well played, sir.
SquealerQuote Reply
There’s a good old viking curse – I think it occurs in Njal’s saga where Skarp-Hedin insults Flossi at the Althing by calling him the ‘Mistress of the Svinafell Troll.’ Every ninth night the Svinafell Troll was accustomed to emerge from its lair, capture an unsuspecting viking warrior and ‘use him as a woman.’
Nick LarterQuote Reply
Nick Larter,
Hoho, nice one :) Poor GoT crew :P
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
New location report here:-
http://www.visir.is/framleidendur-vilja-meira-af-islandi-i-game-of-thrones/article/2011711309955
includes awesome pic of Jon Snow and also lists the hotels being used by the cast and crew, if any papparazzi fancy a quick trip ;)
Nick LarterQuote Reply
Nick Larter,
Wow, cool … or better, cold. ;) Thanks for the link.
LisaQuote Reply
i’m wishing i lived in iceland right now :D
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
FYI, an Icelandic news program, Ísland í dag (Iceland Today) is bringing a report from the shooting location in about half an hour. Footage from location coming up…
Ser MollerQuote Reply
D.B.Weiss: “Some characters that make it through the books don’t make it through the show.”
Has this been revealed before??
Ser MollerQuote Reply
Ser Moller,
They’ve said they wanted to surprise the book readers in this upcoming season, so that book readers are more entertained. If they said how they are planning to do it, I hadn’t noticed.
There are many great but inconsequential characters that don’t officially die in the books but are at one point never mentioned again that could easily die without damaging the story arc as it exists.
Epic The BallsQuote Reply
Well there were a couple examples of this in season one (Mago, Marillion ((sorta))), so Dan might be referring to that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened in season two as well.
Any chance this video may find its way online?
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Winter Is Coming,
I think Dan was referring to season 2 when he said that, but maybe I am wrong.
It will be posted online soon, I don’t know whether it can be viewed outside of Iceland. It can probably be posted on YouTube by someone with the know-how if not. The footage showed the location at Svínafellsjökull, interview with David, Dan and Chris Newman (along with some members of the Icelandic crew).
Ser MollerQuote Reply
Cool, looking forward to seeing it…. Just get Gunnar Víking’s people on it; they’ll hack that video off… literally, with steel.
Epic The BallsQuote Reply
Lol :D
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
http://visir.is/section/MEDIA99&fileid=VTV71F46466-A06C-4712-A852-F1A4B8F87202
Short preview of the show which will probably be up online the next few hours. Hope outseide iceland viewers are able to watch this.
StrongBelwasQuote Reply
http://visir.is/section/MEDIA99&fileid=SRC3B2C1862-00D1-49E3-99C3-8ABBD74A3210
Here is the complete video. It begins about one minute in the video. Its about 50/50 english and icelandic. Just enjoy the beautiful icelandic language between.
StrongBelwasQuote Reply
StrongBelwas,
I can watch it in Germany. Looks amazing.
LisaQuote Reply
i think i can watch it! thanks :)
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
StrongBelwas,
Thank you Strong Belwas.
That really made my day :) (more than DVD-BR stuff).
The RabbitQuote Reply
you know, i think Icelanding looks slightly similar to English and German. I think I can actually understand the subtitles, and it sounds AMAZING. I will learn this language someday!! :D
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
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