Við hittumst fyrir löngu síðan.

Hittumst is the 1st person plural form of hittast, which means to meet each other or to get together.

So:

• við hittumst = we met / we meet each other

It comes from the verb hitta (to meet, find, run into) plus the -st ending, which often gives a reflexive or reciprocal meaning.

In this sentence, it means that we met one another.

Because hitta and hittast are used differently.

• hitta einhvern = meet someone
  • Við hittum Jón. = We met Jón.
• hittast = meet each other
  • Við hittumst. = We met each other.

So if the subject is we, and the meaning is that the people in the subject met one another, Icelandic normally uses hittast.

The -st ending marks what is often called the middle voice in Icelandic.

In practice, this can give meanings like:

• oneself
• each other
• sometimes a more passive-like or internal meaning

In hittast, the meaning is reciprocal: the action goes both ways.

So:

• hitta = meet someone
• hittast = meet each other

This is a very common pattern in Icelandic, so it is worth getting used to.

Yes — by itself, við hittumst can be ambiguous, because this form can be understood as either present or past, depending on context.

What makes it clearly past here is:

• fyrir löngu síðan = a long time ago

That time expression forces a past reading.

So:

• Við hittumst fyrir löngu síðan. = definitely We met a long time ago.

Without context, Icelandic sometimes relies on time words to make the tense clear.

Yes, and together they form a very common idiomatic expression:

• fyrir löngu síðan = a long time ago

You can think of it as a fixed phrase that learners should memorize as a whole.

You may also hear just:

• fyrir löngu

That can still mean long ago, but fyrir löngu síðan sounds especially natural and complete.

Also, síðan can mean different things in other contexts, such as since or after that, but here it is simply part of the expression long ago.

This is one of those places where it is best to learn the phrase as a chunk:

• fyrir löngu (síðan) = long ago

The form löngu is the form Icelandic uses in this fixed expression after fyrir. It is not something you would normally translate word-for-word from English.

So rather than trying to build it from scratch each time, it is very helpful to memorize:

• fyrir löngu síðan = a long time ago

The sentence has a very normal neutral word order:

• Við = subject
• hittumst = verb
• fyrir löngu síðan = time expression

So:

• Við hittumst fyrir löngu síðan.

But Icelandic can also move the time expression to the front for emphasis:

• Fyrir löngu síðan hittumst við.

Notice what happens then: the verb still stays in the second position, so hittumst comes before við. This is a classic Icelandic word-order pattern.

In normal Icelandic, you usually do need the subject pronoun.

So the full sentence is:

• Við hittumst fyrir löngu síðan.

Unlike some languages, Icelandic does not normally drop subject pronouns in ordinary full sentences just because the verb ending gives a clue.

In informal conversation, people may sometimes use shorter fragments if the subject is already obvious from context, but as a standard sentence, við should be there.