Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Stundum dreymir hana um framtíð þar sem hún býr á rólegra svæði. - Sometimes she dreams about a future where she lives in a quieter area.

There is no explicit subject; the verb just appears in 3rd person singular (dreymir).
The person who dreams (her) is in the accusative case: hana.
So you say:
- Mig dreymir um... – I dream (literally: “me-ACC dreams about...”)
- Þig dreymir um... – you dream
- Hana dreymir um... – she dreams

When you talk about hopes / ambitions rather than literal sleep-dreams, you can also see a personal construction with a nominative subject:

Hún dreymir um betra líf. – She dreams of a better life (as an ambition / wish).

But in your sentence, dreymir hana is the normal impersonal “sleep-dream” pattern: experiencer in accusative, no overt subject.

Can I change the word order, e.g. say Hana dreymir stundum um framtíð…?

Yes, word order can change a bit, but Icelandic has a verb‑second rule (V2) in main clauses: the finite verb must be in second position.

Your original:

Stundum dreymir hana um framtíð…
- 1st slot: Stundum (Sometimes)
- 2nd slot: dreymir (finite verb)
- Then: hana um framtíð…

Alternative that is also correct and natural:

Hana dreymir stundum um framtíð þar sem hún býr á rólegra svæði.
- 1st slot: Hana
- 2nd slot: dreymir
- Then: stundum um framtíð…

What you cannot do in a main clause is:

✗ Stundum hana dreymir um framtíð…
(Here the verb is in third position, which breaks the V2 rule.)

So:

You may front stundum or hana (or something else) to first position,
But the finite verb (dreymir) must stay in second position.

What case is hana, and what would it be for other persons?

Hana is the accusative singular feminine form of the 3rd‑person pronoun (hún = she).

With dreyma in this impersonal sense, the dreamer is in the accusative case:

Person	Nominative (subject form)	Accusative (used here)
I	ég	mig
you sg	þú	þig
he	hann	hann
she	hún	hana
it	það	það
we	við	okkur
you pl	þið	ykkur
they m	þeir	þá
they f	þær	þær
they n	þau	þau

So you could have:

Mig dreymir um framtíð… – I dream about a future…
Okkur dreymir stundum um… – We sometimes dream about…

What does um framtíð mean here, and which case does um take?

Here um means “about / of” (in the sense “to dream about something”).

um framtíð – about (a) future

The preposition um takes the accusative case, so:

The noun framtíð appears in accusative (form is the same as nominative here).

A few more examples with um + accusative:

Hún talar um ferðina. – She talks about the trip.
Við hugsum oft um börnin. – We often think about the children.

What exactly is þar sem? Is sem necessary?

Þar sem is a two‑word linker introducing a relative / subordinating clause.
In this sentence it means roughly “where” (literally “there where”):

…um framtíð þar sem hún býr á rólegra svæði.
“…about a future where she lives in a calmer area.”

Breaking it down:

þar – “there”
sem – a relative subordinator (roughly “that / which / where” depending on context)

Points to note:

sem is not optional here;
✗ framtíð þar hún býr… is ungrammatical.
You also can’t just use sem alone in this particular phrasing;
þar sem together works like “where”.
Inside this subordinate clause, word order is subject–verb (no V2 rule):
- hún býr á rólegra svæði (subject hún before verb býr),
- not ✗ býr hún á rólegra svæði in this position.

So: þar sem = “where / in which”, and sem must be there.

Why is it hún býr and not hún er að búa for “she lives”?

The verb búa means “to live, reside”.

In Icelandic, a simple present tense often covers what English expresses with both simple and progressive:

Hún býr í Reykjavík. – She lives in Reykjavík / She is living in Reykjavík.

The construction vera að + infinitive (e.g. hún er að búa) is more like “be in the middle of doing X”, and is not usually used for stable states like residence:

Hún er að búa til kvöldmat. – She is making dinner (in the process of doing it).
Hún er að flytja. – She is moving (house) now.

So for “She lives in a calmer area”, the natural form is simply:

hún býr á rólegra svæði, not hún er að búa á rólegra svæði.

Why is it á rólegra svæði? Which case does á take here?

The preposition á can take either accusative or dative, depending on meaning:

Accusative: motion onto / to a place
- Hún flytur á rólegra svæði. – She is moving to a calmer area.
Dative: location on / in a place (no movement)
- Hún býr á rólegra svæði. – She lives in a calmer area.

In your sentence, býr á describes location, so á governs the dative case.

The noun svæði is neuter, and its dative singular happens to look the same as nominative/accusative (svæði), so you can’t see the case difference in the noun form itself. But grammatically, it is dative here because of á + location.

How is rólegra formed, and why does it end in -a?

The base adjective is:

rólegur – calm, quiet

You want the comparative “calmer / more quiet” modifying svæði (area), which is neuter singular. The comparative of rólegur has the stem rólegri‑, and with a neuter singular noun the form is:

rólegra svæði – a calmer / more peaceful area

Key ideas:

rólegra is the comparative form (calmer).
It agrees with svæði in gender and number (neuter singular).
The ‑a ending is the normal neuter singular ending for comparatives in this position.

You could compare:

rólegur staður – a calm place (masc.)
rólegri staður – a calmer place
róleg kona – a calm woman (fem.)
rólegri kona – a calmer woman
rólegt svæði – a calm area (neut.)
rólegra svæði – a calmer area

What kind of noun is svæði (gender and basic forms)?

Svæði is a neuter noun meaning “area, region, zone”.

Its main singular forms:

Nominative: svæði – area (subject)
Accusative: svæði – area (object)
Dative: svæði – area (after certain prepositions, like á here)
Genitive: svæðis – of an area

Plural:

Nominative: svæði
Accusative: svæði
Dative: svæðum
Genitive: svæða

In your sentence, because of á + location, it is dative singular: á rólegra svæði.

Why is there no word for “a” in rólegra svæði?

Icelandic has no indefinite article like English “a / an”.

rólegra svæði can mean “a calmer area”.
hestur can mean “a horse” or “horse” in general.
bók can mean “a book”.

Definiteness is usually expressed by a definite suffix instead of a separate word:

svæðið – the area
rólegra svæðið – the calmer area
bókin – the book
hesturinn – the horse

So your phrase has no article simply because Icelandic doesn’t use an indefinite article; context supplies “a” in English translation.

How do you pronounce the special letters þ, ð, and ý in this sentence?

In your sentence you see:

þ in þar and þar sem
ð in framtíð
ý in býr

Approximate guidance:

þ
- Pronounced like unvoiced “th” in English think, thing.
- þar ≈ “thar” (with the sound from think).
ð
- Pronounced like voiced “th” in English this, though, brother.
- In framtíð, it’s at the end and can be quite soft, but still that “th” sound from this.
ý
- A long “ee” sound, like English see.
- býr ≈ “beer” (but with Icelandic r and a clear long ee vowel).

Remember: þ and ð are two separate letters with different sounds; don’t pronounce them both the same way.

Where does stundum usually go in the sentence? Can I move it?

Stundum means “sometimes” and is an adverb of frequency. It’s quite flexible in position, as long as you respect the verb‑second rule in main clauses.

Correct options include:

At the beginning (as in your sentence), with verb second:
- Stundum dreymir hana um framtíð þar sem hún býr á rólegra svæði.
After the (logical) subject/experiencer:
- Hana dreymir stundum um framtíð þar sem hún býr á rólegra svæði.
Sometimes also after the verb but before other elements:
- Dreymir hana stundum um framtíð…
  (Here something else would normally be in first position, e.g. Í nótt dreymdi hana stundum… etc.)

What you should avoid is placing stundum in a way that pushes the finite verb out of second position in a main clause:

✗ Stundum hana dreymir um framtíð… (verb in 3rd position – wrong)

So yes, you can move stundum, but make sure the finite verb (dreymir) stays in the second slot of a main clause.