IcelandÍsland

Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart by about 2 cm a year, and above a hotspot that feeds extra magma from deep in the mantle. The result is one of the most volcanically active places on earth, with around 30 active volcanic systems. On average an eruption has occurred every three to five years.

The rift is visible at Þingvellir, where cliffs on either side of the valley mark the plate edges, and at the Silfra fissure, where divers swim in glacial water between continents. Geothermal energy heats about 90% of homes and supplies public pools in almost every village; hydro and geothermal power produce nearly all the country's electricity.

About a tenth of Iceland is covered by glaciers. Vatnajökull, the largest in Europe by volume, covers active volcanoes such as Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga; when they erupt beneath the ice, meltwater floods called jökulhlaups sweep across the sandur plains of the south coast. The glaciers are shrinking fast: in 2019 Okjökull became the first Icelandic glacier declared dead, marked with a plaque addressed to the future.

Eruptions shape history as well as land. The Laki fissure eruption of 1783–84 released so much gas that it killed livestock, caused famine and killed about a fifth of the population, and chilled the northern hemisphere. The 1973 eruption on Heimaey buried part of the town, and Eyjafjallajökull's ash closed European airspace in 2010. Since 2021 a new volcanic period on the Reykjanes peninsula has brought repeated eruptions close to Grindavík and the Blue Lagoon.

According to the medieval Book of Settlements, Ingólfur Arnarson made the first permanent home in Reykjavík in 874. Settlers came mainly from western Norway, fleeing the centralising kings, but they brought many people from the Norse settlements in Ireland and Scotland, including enslaved Gaels; DNA studies show a large Celtic share in the female line. Within about 60 years most usable land was claimed.

In 930 the chieftains founded the Althing, a general assembly that met each summer at Þingvellir to settle disputes and make law. There was no king. The Law Speaker recited the law from the Law Rock, and in the year 1000 the assembly decided that Iceland would become Christian, while allowing pagan practices in private for a time. The Althing is often called the oldest surviving parliament in the world.

In the 13th century Icelanders wrote down the sagas: prose stories of feuds, voyages and family fates in the settlement period, such as Njál's Saga, Egil's Saga and Laxdæla Saga, along with the Eddas, the main source for Norse mythology. Snorri Sturluson, poet, historian and politician, was murdered at his farm in Reykholt in 1241. The sagas describe real places, and many farms, rivers and hills named in them can still be visited.

The Commonwealth ended in civil war among chieftain families during the Age of the Sturlungs, and in 1262–64 Icelanders swore allegiance to the Norwegian king. The medieval manuscripts, many taken to Copenhagen, became a symbol of national identity; their return from Denmark between 1971 and 1997 was a national event.

After 1380 Iceland passed with Norway to the Danish crown. The following centuries were the hardest in its history: plague in the 15th century, a Danish trade monopoly from 1602 to 1787 that fixed prices and banned trade with others, pirate raids in 1627 that carried off hundreds of people to North Africa, a cooling climate, and volcanic disasters. By the late 18th century the population had fallen to about 40,000.

The 19th century brought recovery and nationalism. Scholars and poets revived the Icelandic language and the sagas, and Jón Sigurðsson led a peaceful campaign for self-rule; his birthday, 17 June, later became National Day. The Althing was restored in 1845 as an advisory body in Reykjavík, Iceland received a constitution in 1874, home rule in 1904, and sovereignty in a personal union with the Danish king in 1918.

British troops occupied Iceland in 1940 to keep it from Germany, and American forces took over in 1941. On 17 June 1944, while Denmark was still occupied, Iceland declared itself a republic at Þingvellir. Iceland joined NATO as a founding member in 1949 despite having no army; a US base at Keflavík operated until 2006.

Fishing was the economy, and fishing limits became a national cause. In the Cod Wars of 1958–61, 1972–73 and 1975–76 Iceland extended its fishing zone to 200 nautical miles, cutting nets of British trawlers and clashing with Royal Navy ships. Iceland won each time, and a quota system introduced in the 1980s still makes fishing highly profitable and politically contested.

Icelandic has changed so little since the Middle Ages that schoolchildren can read the sagas in the original. A language committee creates new words from old roots rather than borrowing: a computer is a tölva, from 'tala' (number) and 'völva' (prophetess); a telephone is a sími, from an old word for thread. Letters such as þ (thorn) and ð (eth), lost from English, are still in daily use.

Most Icelanders have no family name. They take a patronymic or matronymic: Jón's son is Jónsson and his daughter Jónsdóttir. People are listed and addressed by first name, including the president and prime minister. A naming committee approves new first names to make sure they fit Icelandic grammar, a rule that has been loosened and argued about. Since 2019 non-binary people can use the ending -bur.

Books matter. Iceland publishes a large number of titles per person, and most new books come out before Christmas in the Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas book flood, when a catalogue of new titles is sent to every home and books are the standard gift. Halldór Laxness won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955, and crime writers such as Arnaldur Indriðason and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir are read worldwide.

Belief in elves and hidden people (huldufólk) is part of folklore rather than religion, but it has occasionally shaped road routes and building plans, and people are reluctant to dismiss it outright. It is best understood as respect for the land and for stories: many rocks said to be elf homes are also striking landmarks.

For most of its history Iceland had no grain to speak of, little fuel and short summers. Food was preserved by drying, smoking, salting and souring in whey, because salt was scarce. Dried fish (harðfiskur) spread with butter was daily bread; lamb was smoked over dung fires into hangikjöt; sheep's heads (svið), ram's testicles and blood sausage were pickled in whey for the winter.

These foods survive at Þorrablót, the midwinter feasts held from late January into February, when families and societies eat platters of preserved foods with Brennivín. Fermented shark (hákarl), made from Greenland shark whose flesh is toxic when fresh, is buried or hung to ferment for months; its ammonia smell is famous. Most Icelanders eat it once a year, if at all.

Everyday food today is lamb, fish and dairy. Free-grazing lambs spend the summer on mountains and are rounded up in the autumn réttir, a social event. Skyr, a thick cultured dairy product made since the settlement, became an export. Greenhouses heated by geothermal water grow tomatoes, cucumbers and even bananas. The hot dog, made with lamb, is a national snack; Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur in Reykjavík has sold them since 1937.

Whaling remains legal and politically divisive. The last company hunting fin whales has faced suspensions and licence disputes; minke whale is sometimes served to tourists more than eaten by locals. Puffin is also on some menus. Many Icelanders never eat either, and campaigns ask visitors not to order them.

In the 2000s Iceland's three big banks borrowed abroad and grew to about ten times the size of the economy. In October 2008 all three collapsed within a week. The króna lost about half its value, protests with pots and pans brought down the government, and Iceland let the banks fail, imposed capital controls and prosecuted bankers. The economy recovered faster than many expected.

Tourism drove the recovery. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010 put Iceland on screens worldwide, and a weak króna, cheap transatlantic flights and film locations did the rest. Visitor numbers rose from under 500,000 in 2010 to more than 2 million a year, far more than the population. Pressure on roads, sites and housing led to parking fees, tighter camping rules and debates about limits.

Iceland is among the most gender-equal countries in the world. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, elected in 1980, was the world's first democratically elected female president; women's strikes in 1975 and 2023 shut the country down. In 2024 Halla Tómasdóttir became president, and Kristrún Frostadóttir became prime minister after the November 2024 election, heading a coalition of three parties led by women.

Iceland is a NATO member without an army, relying on a coast guard and allies. It belongs to the EEA and Schengen but not the EU; an application to join was frozen in 2015, and the government has promised a referendum on resuming talks by 2027 — check. The Reykjanes eruptions since 2021 and the evacuation of Grindavík in 2023 have been the country's biggest natural emergency in decades.