| Summary: | The term réttir in Iceland denotes a series of annual events occurring in the smaller towns and agricultural regions outside the capital of Reykjavík. Translated literally to “gathering,” the réttir season begins in early September and consists of the collective herding of Icelandic sheep from common agricultural lands throughout the country. The use of common pastures in the ecologically sensitive highlands region not only contributes to the specific taste of Icelandic lamb, but is also questioned in debates around soil conservation. Large swathes of the Icelandic highlands have experienced continual desertification since shortly after settlement in the 9th century, and historic grazing practice is implicated in scientific narratives of land degradation. However, réttir exists not just as a means of production, but as a strategy to maintain agrarian identities and ancestral land rights dating to the 13th century via practice. This paper extends the concept of terroir beyond taste to include the condensed meanings of landscape expressed through biological accruals of place in the bodies of livestock. Terroir indicates more than a taste of place, but exposes the larger multispecies entanglements of land rights, agricultural production, climate change, environmental conservation, and agrarian identities. In this sense, an ovine diet of subarctic grasses, scrubby willows, and glacial water not only constitutes muscles and fat as a biological process, but concomitantly exposes the topographical complexities of the Icelandic highlands. Le terme réttir en Islande désigne une série d’événements annuels qui se produisent dans les petites villes et les régions agricoles autour de la capitale Reykjavík. Signifiant « rassemblement », la saison des réttir commence début septembre et consiste à mener collectivement les troupeaux de moutons islandais de retour des aires agricoles communautaires à travers le pays. L’utilisation de pâturages communs dans la région des hautes terres écologiquement sensibles non seulement ...
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