Word Of The Issue: Ægisif

Some sights are so breathtaking, they demand a new word—in your own language. For 12th-century Icelanders, Hagia Sophia was one of them. Though Icelandic often adapted foreign place names, only one European building earned its very own Icelandic name: Ægisif. That says something about the awe this Byzantine cathedral inspired, even from the edge of the known world. This piece from The Grapevine dives into that rare linguistic honor—and the Viking-era journeys that brought tales of Constantinople home to the North.

Jón Trausti Sigurðarson

Reykjavik Grapevine

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