Probably works in rural areas. A friend of mine addressed a postcard to "the red house by the lake" in a small Norwegian town, and they were able to deliver it. Other people I know in Norway didn't have street names until there was a big push for naming all the streets around 2015 or so. Prior to that they just used the name of the farm or skipped it entirely if their last name matched the farm.

None of these examples were from Iceland, but considering Iceland is even less populated than Norway, it seems plausible that drawing a map could work.

Most countries' postal services try their very best to route mail with scant information. It's not specific to Iceland.

It happens surprisingly often in the UK too. Royal mail take a smug pride in figuring out where it needs to go, and delivering it. I know of several times they have successfully delivered postcards to tents at a festival.

Most postal companies treat it as a challenge and a break from the more mundane work. A chance to show off their local knowledge.

When I was living in Bhutan, we were having a competition to see who could receive the mail with the least information. My boss won with a letter from the US that only had "white guy law school Bhutan" on the envelope

Union staff have the time and energy to go the extra kilometre.

I hope the postal worker deciphering this gets paid by work time

I remember when the US Postal Service used to be considered impressive.

Then we elected fascists.

My uncle in rural Italy received a postcard with “house with trees in front yard - Town postcode”. I now live in a region that is sparsely populated and a lot of addresses in the countryside are just the name of the farm. Sometimes even buildings in the city have their own name. (I have no idea how people managed before the internet…)

If postal workers can deliver mail, usually they will try. Overall, people tend to care about their jobs (if its not shit)

We bought our house in 2020. First day I had keys I had to dig up the sewer line. Drunk and exhausted I ordered a hoagie for delivery, called the pizza place. Guy was like ok where do you live? I was like here's my address. He was like no just describe the directions on how to get there we only deliver to our little neighborhood in the city so what main roads are you close by?

Pretty cool that still happens I guess, felt like I was transported back to the 90s

Postal workers are actual wizards.

A kid can write a giant To MOMMYin Crayon and they’ll figure out who it goes to.

My mother was sent a letter from Australia to New Jersey. The lady knew my mother's unique first name and the state/town name and that was it. (And what country obviously)

So it was just addressed to First Name, Country, State, City Name

It got to the town where it was pinned to the board for unknown letters. Our mailman went "oh that's on my route" and brought it to mom lol

I have just been cataloging letters home from a Canadian soldier in the first world war.

All of them are addressed to:

Mrs. L. Moore Douglas, Ont. Canada

And clearly, since his mother saved them all, they were all delivered properly.

Well yeah, it's because only 7 people live there and one is the postie.

Skyrim treasure maps be like:

In Finland it's possible to just put their name and it will probably get there. As long as it's a unique name, it will get there on the first try.

Bill Bryson wrote about this in one of his books...

HILL JOHN MASS

Which translates as John Underhill, Andover, Massachusetts

Not sure if it's a joke though

They need the power of openstreetmap

Me and one of my exs used to fantasize about running away from everything to Iceland.

It was really dumb, but it seemed like such a nice way to escape everything.

I live in a small town in California and one time received a letter with my name and zip code only. I can totally believe Icelandic letter carriers could get it done.

The street address is a relatively modern invention. Same with the mailbox.

Found it https://www.facebook.com/holarminizoo/