Hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint, hlakkar henni alltaf til ferðarinnar.

It is a fixed pattern meaning whether ... or ..., often with the sense of regardless of whether.

So:

• Hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint = Whether we go early or late
• It introduces two alternatives, but the main point is that the result in the main clause stays the same.

This structure is very common in Icelandic.

In this kind of construction, hvort sem ... eða ... is the normal idiomatic pattern.

You can think of sem here as part of the fixed expression rather than something you translate word-for-word every time. It helps give the sense of no matter whether or regardless of whether.

So learners should usually treat hvort sem ... eða ... as one unit.

Because Icelandic, like English, often leaves out repeated material when it is obvious.

So:

• Hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint literally corresponds to
• Whether we go early or go late

But just as English normally says whether we go early or late, Icelandic normally says hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint.

The second förum is understood.

Yes, this kind of hvort sem ... eða ... clause often uses the subjunctive.

However, in this particular form, you cannot see the difference, because the 1st person plural present subjunctive of fara is also förum, exactly the same as the indicative form.

So grammatically, this is the kind of place where you expect the subjunctive, but the form looks identical.

They are adverbs, not adjectives.

They describe when the action happens:

• snemma = early
• seint = late

They are not agreeing with a noun; they are modifying the verb förum.

Because hlakka til does not work like an ordinary English verb.

In Icelandic, the person who feels the anticipation is often in the dative case, not the nominative. So instead of hún you get:

• henni = to her / for her

That is why the sentence says hlakkar henni til ..., not hún hlakkar ....

This is one of the most important things to learn about this verb: it does not take a normal nominative subject in the way an English speaker might expect.

Because við belongs to the subordinate clause:

• Hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint

It is not the grammatical subject of hlakkar.

In the main clause, hlakka til is being used impersonally. The experiencer is henni in the dative, and there is no normal nominative subject controlling plural agreement. As a result, the verb appears in the default 3rd person singular form:

• hlakkar

So the plural við has no effect on the form of hlakkar.

You should learn it as a fixed expression:

• hlakka til = to look forward to

Grammatically, it is a verb plus the preposition til, but in practice it behaves like a single unit of meaning. The important thing for learners is:

• the person who is looking forward is often in the dative
• what they are looking forward to comes after til
• the noun after til is in the genitive

So hlakkar henni til ferðarinnar means that she is looking forward to the trip.

Ferðarinnar is genitive singular definite of ferð.

That happens because the preposition til requires the genitive.

So:

• ferð = trip, journey
• ferðar = of a trip
• ferðarinnar = of the trip / the trip, in genitive definite form

The ending -innar includes the suffixed definite article, so ferðarinnar means the trip in the genitive.

Because Icelandic usually expresses the as a suffix attached to the noun.

So instead of a separate word like English the trip, Icelandic commonly has:

• ferðin = the trip
• and in the genitive:
• ferðarinnar = of the trip

This is a normal feature of Icelandic nouns.

This is because Icelandic is a verb-second language in main clauses.

The first position in the sentence is already occupied by the fronted clause:

• Hvort sem við förum snemma eða seint

Once that comes first, the finite verb of the main clause usually comes next:

• hlakkar

Then come other elements, such as henni.

So the order:

• Hvort sem ... , hlakkar henni alltaf til ferðarinnar

is exactly what you would expect in Icelandic main-clause word order.

Yes, henni hlakkar til ferðarinnar is also a normal clause by itself.

But in this full sentence, the initial subordinate clause takes the first slot, and then Icelandic verb-second order pulls hlakkar into second position:

• Hvort sem ... , hlakkar henni ...

So both orders can occur, but they belong to different sentence structures.

Here alltaf modifies the main clause and means always.

Its position here is natural:

• hlakkar henni alltaf til ferðarinnar

It comes after the verb and the dative experiencer, before the prepositional phrase til ferðarinnar.

Icelandic adverb placement can vary somewhat, but this placement is very idiomatic and natural in a neutral sentence.

Yes. Because it is definite, it means the trip, not just a trip.

So the sentence refers to some known or understood trip. If the trip were not specific, the wording would be different.

That is why the sentence gives the feeling that both speaker and listener already know which trip is being talked about.