Subject: some sort of scorpion
Geographic location of the bug: akureyri, iceland
Date: 02/15/2020
Time: 05:41 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: this scorpion was found in akureyri iceland, pretty far from home im guessing, do you know what kind of scorpion it is and if its dangerous?
How you want your letter signed: icelandic scorpion
Your query leaves many questions unanswered. It is currently winter in Iceland and we imagine it is quite cold right now. You did not indicate if this Scorpion was discovered this week, last month or during the summer. You did not indicate where it was found other than what we have learned is a city in northern Iceland called Akureyri. Was it found indoors or outdoors? Was it found in a garden or someplace more wild where there are hot springs that might explain how a Scorpion can survive in Iceland in the winter? We can’t help but to ponder if this an escaped pet or some symptom of extreme global warming? Though it is not the ideal citation, we are very amused with this quote from the blog Gagleg Maltaka which states: “And now it’s time for one of my favorite things ever– today’s word is sporðdreki, the Icelandic word for scorpion. I’ve been fascinated with scorpions for a long time now, and have been keeping select species in captivity since my freshman year of college. If everything goes as planned, one day I will conduct independent research on their behavior/evolution and eventually become the scorpion guy. But enough about that. It’s interesting that there is a native Icelandic word for “scorpion” to begin with, as scorpions are not found in Iceland or anywhere remotely near the Arctic Circle for that matter.”
This is a fascinating story. I did a little online investigating and Akureyri is home to a botanic garden with a geothermally heated greenhouse, which sounds like the sort of place a scorpion might survive. Scorpions show up as hitchikers surprisingly often – here in the UK there is a least one colony of European scorpions in London and there may be others (at one time at least one Underground station had them).
Thanks for doing that research.
Scorpio being one of the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac, no surprise that Icelanders translated astrological treatises into their own language hundreds of years ago.
Using google translate, sporð translates as tail and dreki translates as dragon. So the Icelandic word would mean dragon with a tail. No dragons in Iceland either that I know of.
Thanks for this interesting trivia.
Scorpio being one of the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac, no surprise that Icelanders translated astrological treatises into their own language hundreds of years ago.
Using google translate, sporð translates as tail and dreki translates as dragon. So the Icelandic word would mean dragon with a tail. No dragons in Iceland either that I know of.