You know the rules. Name that sheep. Tell us the name of this specific sheep. Email us at sheep@grapevine.is. If you get the right name, and you’re in Iceland, you win a hot dog, made in part with sheep. One guess per email address please.
Not in Iceland? Guess the right name, and you’ll get a separate prize from our Grapevine store.
But wait: How can you possibly guess the name of a single sheep? We don’t know. This isn’t the New York Times. Our games are cruel. However, if you give us a name the sheep SHOULD have, we’ll give one prize for the best name the sheep doesn’t have but would in an ideal world.
From Week Ten: Kamilla
It takes a village to raise a child. We have a small story in this issue about group sing-alongs at the library that made me think fondly of this axiom. It also takes more than one person to raise a lamb. While the local species is hardy, one person doesn’t mind the flock single-handed. I thought of this when I stared, bewildered, at another correct guess.
It wasn’t a guess. It was a declaration. “The sheep is named Kamilla,” was the email I received. And this is correct.
The time from print to solution was 11 days, 10 hours, and 44 minutes. (We rounded this up to 12 days on our website.)
Perhaps more alarming, there were four K-letter submissions for this sheep. Suggesting either multiple people knew the sheep but had forgotten her name in the fog of, say, a party, or that something in the idea of language and genetic code told us this sheep should have a K-name.
My favourite submission was: Vikatíu, rhymes with Pikachu. As this was week ten, and Vikatíu means week ten, this is perfect.
A submission from Germany stated, “I realise you will get a lot of “Brown-nose” or “Bandit” names, but since I visited the Visindavaka this past Saturday and visited a kvöldvaka the first time I visited Iceland in the early 80s, I decided that this woke little guy should be named ‘Vaka’!”
We had two submissions who each claimed they knew the sheep personally. One stated her name was Wigwam. Another stated her name was Bláberjum.
The winner for best ideal name goes to Katla, because it’s clear this sheep was meant to have a K name. As for how someone knew this sheep’s name, the guess is that someone helped raise this sheep and remembers her. For that, they deserve a hot dog.
For Week 11:
I don’t know. We’re dealing with mystic stuff here. If someone names the sheep correctly again, I might take up religion.
To give readers a fair shot, I will note: this is a ram. The photo is of him on his home turf.