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No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Fish

Little Fish: Reindeer Animal Animal

September 06, 2026 • 34m

Summary

⏱️ 6 min read

Overview

A weekly fact show featuring hosts Andrew Hunter-Murray, James Harkin, and Anna Tychisky sharing fascinating facts from listener emails. This episode covers a wide range of topics including etymology, geography, history, and quirky inventions, with discussions about reindeer, national anthems, Ice Age geology, World War II plans, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and Ernest Shackleton's unusual dog names. The hosts also announce new fact custodians from their Patreon community.

Reindeer Etymology and Viking Language

The episode opens with a fascinating linguistic fact about reindeer. Doug Steen explains that the word 'reindeer' combines Old Norse 'hrein' (meaning reindeer) and 'dyr' (meaning animal), making 'reindeer' essentially redundant—we're actually saying 'reindeer animal.' The hosts humorously explore the implications of this, imagining how confusing it must have been for Vikings if 'dyr' meant any animal, making everything a 'deer.'

  • The word 'reindeer' comes from Old Norse 'hrein' (reindeer) and 'dyr' (animal), making it redundant like 'ATM machine'
  • In Old Norse, 'dyr' just means 'animal,' so technically all animals were 'deers'
" So when we say reindeer, we're actually saying reindeer animal. "

Polish National Anthem and Sweden

Christian Berlin shares that the Polish national anthem is the only national anthem that mentions Sweden. The discussion expands to explore how various national anthems reference or don't reference their own countries. The British anthem notably doesn't mention Britain by name, though it does have a non-canon verse about crushing rebellious Scots that was added in the 19th century.

  • The Polish national anthem is the only one that mentions Sweden
  • The British national anthem doesn't say 'Britain' by name
  • There's a non-canon verse about crushing rebellious Scots that was added in the 19th century
" Of course, now we're all mates. "

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