About Iceland

A Greek explorer wrote about this island in 360 BC, six days sail north of Scotland, and called it Ultima Thule. Centuries later the Vikings, who could build ships and navigate, came looking for it properly.

The Book of Settlement puts the beginning at 874, when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first settler. Others had tried before him. One of them, Flóki Vilgerðarson, had such a bad time that he left again — and gave the island the name Iceland on his way out. Between 870 and 950 settlers arrived mostly from Norway, some from Sweden and Denmark, bringing Gaelic thralls with them.

They governed themselves through the Althing, one of the oldest parliaments still working anywhere. Iceland came under Norwegian rule in the 13th century, then Danish rule in 1814, won home rule in 1918 and became a republic in 1944.

Icelandic comes down from Old Norse and has changed little enough that people here can still read the medieval sagas. Most Icelanders descend from Germanic and Gaelic settlers, and the sagas, the food and the literature all come from that.

Iceland has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army. A lightly armed coast guard does the job instead.

This town is also known as The Town in the Lava Field or The Town of the Elves. It received its municipal rights in 1908 and developed around one of the most important trading posts for centuries. It is the fourth-largest town in the country. It is beautifully situated in the lava landscapes and has a very nice, small park called Hellisgerdi in the old centre. The town has a very good, natural harbour, which is among the main attractions.

Every summer the very popular Viking Festival is celebrated for almost a week. It attracts visitors from all over the world.

The distance from the capital is 12 km.

The Golden Waterfall (Gullfoss) is situated in the upper River Hvita (White River). The water cascades down two steps, one 11 m high, and the other 22 m, into the roughly 2 km long canyon below the waterfalls. This canyon was created at the end of the Ice Age by catastrophic floods and is lengthened by 25 cm a year by constant erosion.

Sigríður Tómasdóttir was born in Brattholt in 1874 and lived there her whole life. Sometimes it was quite lively at the farm because visitors came from all corners of the world to see the renowned waterfalls Gullfoss. The sisters at the farm were very fond of the waterfalls and acted as guides for the visitors. The sisters laid the first path to Gullfoss.

At the turn of the 19th century, foreign investors were interested in exploiting Icelandic waterfalls for electrical production. An Englishman was interested in Gullfoss and offered Tomas, Sigridur’s father, 50,000, oo Ikr. for the waterfalls, but his answer was: “I do not sell my friends”. Financiers, who later got their hands on the waterfalls, wanted to harness them. Then Sigridur’s fight to save the waterfalls started. Her opponents were many of the country’s most powerful and richest men. She took on many long and difficult journeys, i.e. walks to Reykjavik (120 kilometres one way) to further her cause. At a time, when all seemed lost, she threatened to throw herself in the waterfalls.

Sigridur died in 1957 and was buried in the Haukadalur cemetery. She will always be remembered as the saviour of Gullfoss. The sculptor Rikhardur Jonsson made her memorial, which is standing by the waterfalls. Source: Brattholt’s website.

Djupalon is a pebble beach cove with bizarre lava formations and gorges at its end. From there it is only one kilometre’s walk to the west along the coastline to another cove, where there are prominent ruins of fishermen’s huts, sheds for storing the catch after processing it and lava walls used for drying the flattened fish in the sun.

At the beach are situated 4 big stones which people tried to lift and test their strength: Fully Strong 154 kg, Half-Strong 100 kg, Weakling 54 kg and Bungler 23 kg.

The iron wreckage on the beach partly belongs to the British trawler Epine GY-7, which ran aground just east of the skerry Dritvikurflogur in the evening of March 13th 1948. Rescue Corps from Arnarstapi, Hellnar and Hellissandur came immediately to the rescue.

Visitors are kindly asked not to move the wreckage!

Before Entering the Interior Highlands Check Your Nearest Information Centres! This pearl of the interior is situated in a valley between colourful mountains at the dark edge of the rhyolite lava field Laugahraun. Many hot and cold springs create a bathing warm brook, where people bathe.

The surroundings of Landmannalaugar are too colourful and magnificent to describe with words. The mountains are split with gullies and gorges, one of which, the Jokulgil, is about 13 km long.

Landmannalaugar is also the starting point for those, who want to hike to the Thorsmork area in the south. It is easy to walk there in three days, but many prefer to spend more time en route to be able to enjoy the trip to the utmost.

On March 20th 2010 just before midnight a half a kilometre long fissure opened up and an eruption started just to the west of the hiking trail Fimmvorduhals. Earthquakes and tremors had been monitored since the summer of 2009. The authorities were well prepared for the measures to be taken in case of an eruption. People were temporarily evacuated from the area and roads were closed.

April 14th 2010. Shortly after midnight, the mountain massif Eyjafjoll’s caldera started erupting. Flood waves rushed in two directions, mainly to the north into river Markarfljot’s wide valley, threatening farm communities and communications on rd 1 the Ring road, which was removed partly to save a relatively new bridge. Approximately 700 people were evacuated from their homes.

May 23rd 2010. The eruption has been dwindling during the week. A reporter flew over the crater in the afternoon and saw no sign of activity. The volcano has paused or the eruption is over.