The Icelandic sagas, written during the High Middle Ages, constitute a significant body of work of the medieval Icelandic literature, alongside the eddas and the skaldic poems. These manuscripts were mostly penned by anonymous authors, whose identities were either not revealed or remained very much obscure in the passing of time. However, these medieval literary…
The large troll sculpture at Arnarstapi, a small village located on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland, was designed by the Icelandic sculptor Ragnar Kjartansson, co-founder of the Icelandic Sculptors Society in 1972. The large monolith built in stone is the embodiment of a legendary figure recounted in the Icelandic sagas as Bárður Snæfellsás, a…
The small Nordic nation of Iceland is doubtlessly full of spectacular landscapes and natural wonders worth visiting. In this respect, the Vatnajökull National Park (one of the three national parks in Iceland) offers a variety of astonishing sceneries which feature the crystal clear beauty of meadows, rivers, and ice alongside the hectic and powerful volcanic/geothermal…
On the eastern shore of the Vatnsnes peninsula in the northwest of Iceland there lies an amazing rock formation dubbed as ‘Hvítserkur’ (literally meaning ‘white shirt’ in Icelandic). The 15 metre (or approximately 50 feet) tall sea stack resembles a dragon (or a troll, depending on the angle of perspective) drinking from the North Atlantic Ocean. Hvítserkur…
According to Landnámabók (a medieval manuscript detailing the Norse settlement of Iceland), Ingólfur Arnarson is widely ascribed to have been one of the first permanent settlers of Iceland, alongside his wife, Hallveig Fróðadóttir, and his foster brother Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson. A nobleman of Norwegian descent, Ingólfur (his name literally meaning ‘noble wolf’) was forced to leave early medieval…
