Vestmannaeyjar

Folklore

Story & Folklore

The name Vestmannaeyjar — 'Islands of the Western Men' — refers to a dramatic episode from the saga age. In 877 AD, Irish and Scottish thralls (slaves) brought to Iceland by Norwegian settlers murdered their master, the brother of Iceland's first settler Ingólfur Arnarson, and fled to the offshore islands. They were later caught and killed, but the islands kept their name. The archipelago later became one of Iceland's most productive fishing communities — until the catastrophic 1973 Eldfell eruption buried a third of the town in lava. The remarkable evacuation and rebuilding of the island is one of Iceland's great modern stories. Pompeii of the North meets Viking heritage.