Iceland

Actually true

• Geothermal energy powers nearly everything

  Hot water from volcanic activity heats almost all homes and fills public pools year-round.

• Belief in elves and hidden folk persists

  Road construction projects have genuinely been rerouted over concerns about disturbing supposed elf habitats.

• Gender equality is unusually strong

  Iceland has topped global gender equality rankings for over a decade running.

• The literary tradition is extraordinary for its size

  Iceland publishes more books per capita than almost anywhere, rooted in its medieval saga tradition.

Commonly believed, wrong

• "Iceland is covered in ice"

  Only about 10% of the country is glacier; much of it is green volcanic terrain, moss fields and geothermal areas.

• "Greenland is icier so the names are swapped"

  It's a coincidence of naming history — Iceland genuinely has significant ice caps, while Greenland is mostly ice-covered too.

• "It's dark all year round"

  Summers bring near-24-hour daylight; only winter has the long dark days people picture.

• "There's nothing to eat but fish"

  Iceland has a growing new-Nordic food scene using lamb, skyr, foraged herbs and geothermally grown vegetables.