PHOTOGRAPHY: Iceland

Ísland

the tails of summer north of the atlantic

With its towering volcanic mountains, sweeping coastline, and gaping geothermal pools, vapor billowing from their mouths, Iceland's landscape is in a word, magic. It's unsurprisingly the cradle of life for a number of sagas and folktales that have provided base for many of today's modern fantasies. When traveling the island however, those tales become seemingly less fantastical. Teasing out what is Icelandic history and what is folktale becomes more and more difficult, and one finds herself peering around bends looking for elves or ogres. This is because they cannot be teased apart, they are one. Nearly every location on the small island is the site of a bloody scene in a saga, or home to the Huldufólk, Iceland's elf populace. Find this fine line between reality and fantasy underlying the following photos.

Coastline at Arnarstapi

Arnarstapi is a small village on the west coast of Iceland, and the setting of a saga about Bárðr, a viking fisherman who was half-man, half-ogre. After a lifetime of strife, murder, and sorrow (it's a saga) he retreated into the mountains and grew into the glacier on Snæfellsjökull, becoming a spirit of the ice. He now watches over the village and the fishermen, warning them of storms and danger from the heights above.

Icelandic horses, Snaelfessness Peninsula

Unicorn, Snaelfessness Peninsula

Icelandic horses, Snaelfessness Peninsula

Skógá River, South Iceland

Icelandic Sheep, South Iceland

The Icelandic sheep have been living in isolation on the island since they were brought over by the first settlers 1000 years ago. As a result, they are genetically unchanged, and the oldest breed of domestic sheep in the world.

Vík í Mýrdal, black sand beach

Þakgil and Remundargil Canyon

Just south of the volcano Katla, named for a witch who causes the eruptions. Katla is expected to erupt in the coming years and cause significant melting of the Mýrdalsjökull glacier that sits atop it.

Þakgil and Remundargil Canyon

Jökulsárlón, Glacier Lagoon

The ghostly Icebergs at Jökulsarlón - this massive lagoon is Iceland's deepest lake and is only 80 years old. It is the result of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier's rapid retreat as it melts and drops icebergs into the lagoon.

Abandoned farm, Southeast Iceland

A common sight in rural Iceland, many empty farms and country schools dot the roadsides. Much of Iceland's population today has fled the more remote pastoral lands and settled in the cities.

Geothermal Nature Baths at Hoffell

Low visibility at Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður

Mare and foal, Southeast Iceland

Swans in the Evening, East Iceland

The sagas and poems describe the Valkyries as female warriors who chose the fates of men in battle. Early viking settlers believed the swans were these maidens in animal form, visiting the island to heal themselves by bathing in the mineral rich waters of the hot springs.

Low visibility on RTE 1, East Iceland

Folaldafoss, East Iceland

Öxi Pass

Hallormsstaður National Forest

Iceland's largest forest, it is mostly populated with the native birch tree, an impressive feat of restoration considering Iceland's history. When settlers arrived on the island 900 years ago, over 40% was covered in forest. Over time as people needed to make room for sheep and create structures, the forest population was decimated to a low 1% of the country's area. In the early 1900's efforts began to preserve and restore Iceland's forests, and today Hallormsstaður is a thriving wonderland of trees, sweet berries, and wild mushrooms.

Hallormsstaður National Forest

Stone bramble berries in the forest

tiny mushrooms, Hallormsstaður National Forest

Local Berry Picker's dog

Hallormsstaður National Forest

Local girl in Akureyri

She said her name was Katla.

Icelandic House, Akureyri

Glymur, Hvalfjörður

Glymur is Iceland's 2nd highest waterfall, only having been dethroned in 2011 by a newer waterfall of glacier runoff. From here the river Botnsá flows down to the fjord, making its way to the ocean.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Iceland

Ísland

the tails of summer north of the atlantic

Coastline at Arnarstapi

Icelandic horses, Snaelfessness Peninsula

Unicorn, Snaelfessness Peninsula