. . .and ice

Ice is an inseparable part of the north, be it at sea or on land. Glaciers cover about the same amount of land as the lava which has erupted since the end of the Ice Age (about 11%). The largest glacier in Iceland, indeed in Europe, is Vatnajökull. It is thought that five large volcanoes lie under it.

Other large glaciers are Hofsjökull and Langjökull, in the Icelandic highlands. Snæfellsjökull is also well-known: its sides are covered with lava which has erupted during the recent epoch.

Through Icelandic eyes these glacier are not just cold ice but are seen in something of a fantastic light, as is illustrated by the many folk tales which have been spun about them, both before and now. Snæfellsjökull has been a popular subject amongst authors. The novel by the French science-fiction writer Jules Verne, Le voyage au centre de la terre or Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864, and translated into Icelandic in 1944 under the title Leyndardómar Snæfellsjökuls), is well-known. The book is about a fantastic journey into the glacier.

Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss is an Icelandic saga written in a fantastic or exaggerated style. It tells of Bárður, a man descended from "stone dwellers", who flees Norway and settles under the glacier. In the end, he descends into the glacier and becomes a spirit of the land, or landvættur.

Further, Kristnihald undir jökli (Christianity Under the Glacier), written by the Nobel Laureate Halldór Kiljan Laxness in 1968, has been made into a movie by Guðný Halldórsdóttir. Indeed, film directors have taken glaciers into their service and photographers and advertisers make their way eagerly to glaciers and other pearls of the Icelandic landscape.

It is popular to go on mountain and glacier tours on specially equipped trucks and, in the embrace of the mountains, to enjoy the peace and beauty.