Steinseljan er hér.

It is a very simple Icelandic sentence:

• Steinseljan = the subject
• er = the verb
• hér = an adverb of place

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + place

That is very close to English X is here.

Because Icelandic usually puts the definite article on the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• steinselja = an indefinite form
• steinseljan = the steinselja

For many feminine nouns ending in -a, the singular definite nominative form ends in -n.

The dictionary form is steinselja.

In dictionaries, Icelandic nouns are normally listed in the indefinite singular nominative form, so you would look up steinselja, not steinseljan.

Here, Steinseljan is singular and nominative.

Why nominative? Because it is the subject of the sentence, and subjects are normally in the nominative case in Icelandic.

This form also shows that it is definite.

Er is the 3rd person singular present tense of vera, the verb to be.

Because Steinseljan is singular, Icelandic uses the singular verb form:

• er = is
• eru = are

So Steinseljan er hér matches English The steinselja is here.

Hér is an adverb, not a noun or adjective.

It means here in the sense of in this place or at this location.

A useful contrast is:

• hér = here (location)
• hingað = to here / hither (movement toward here)

So in Steinseljan er hér, the idea is location, not motion.

Yes. Icelandic allows some flexibility, and this sentence could also be:

Hér er steinseljan.

That version puts more focus on hér.

A very important rule is that Icelandic is a verb-second language in main clauses. That means if you move hér to the front, the finite verb er still stays in the second position:

• Steinseljan er hér
• Hér er steinseljan

But not Hér steinseljan er.

Yes, but it changes the meaning.

• Steinseljan er hér = the steinselja is here
• Steinselja er hér = a steinselja is here or just steinselja is here, depending on context

So the presence or absence of the suffixed article matters.

No. Icelandic does not capitalize all nouns.

Here, Steinseljan is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence. If the same common noun appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be lowercase.

So this capitalization does not by itself mean that it is a proper noun.

No. The accent mark in Icelandic spelling is part of the vowel letter itself. It does not just show stress.

So é is a different vowel from e.

Also, Icelandic stress normally falls on the first syllable of a word anyway, so stress is not usually marked the way an English speaker might expect.