Iceland: Where Sagas, Geysers and the Northern Lights Meet
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Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge — the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates — which makes it one of the most geologically active places on earth. Volcanoes erupt regularly, not catastrophically but routinely, as part of the landscape. Geysers shoot boiling water into the air on schedule. Hot springs bubble up in unexpected places. Icelanders heat their homes with geothermal energy, swim year-round in outdoor pools fed by naturally hot water, and regard the violence beneath their feet as simply a feature of where they live.
The Sagas — the prose narratives written in Iceland in the 13th and 14th centuries describing the Viking Age settlements and conflicts — are among the great literary achievements of medieval Europe. They are written in a spare, unsentimental style that reads with striking modernity. The Saga of the Icelanders in particular treats the establishment of the world's oldest surviving parliament — the Althing, founded at Þingvellir in 930 AD — as the backdrop for complicated human stories of honour, vengeance, love, and politics. The Althing still meets. Iceland has the oldest parliament in the world.
The Aurora Borealis — the Northern Lights — appears over Iceland from September through March on clear, dark nights. Seeing it requires cold, darkness, and luck. When it appears, it moves: green curtains across the sky, sometimes shifting to purple, pink, and white. Photographs capture it imperfectly. The experience of standing under the aurora in silence is something for which no image fully prepares a person.
