To expand on my point (noting difference, not ascribing valence![1]), of these claims from TFA:

  - word for keeping on trucking through life's challenges
  - love of hot pools and hiking
  - toponyms lasting over 1'000 years
  - importance of hospitality
  - importance of society
  - wide kinship networks
  - seasonal livestock drives
  - longstanding democratic traditions
  - attested body of folklore
  - register of official names

all fit my local culture, and I'd claim most elements can be found (not only in low germany and denmark, but) all over eurasia[2]. If they seem odd to the author, I claim that says more about the uniqueness of her own culture than the uniqueness of Íslensk menning.

[1] To be perfectly explicit: that was an observation that these differences exist, not a claim that either side of the channel were better than the other.

[2] Most european cultures, for instance, have a native phrase for wishing one's companions a good meal.