The geothermal Highland mountains named after a troll woman called Kerling — 'the old hag' — who was petrified at dawn while crossing the interior with her troll followers.
📖 The Story
Kerlingarfjöll — 'The Mountains of the Troll Woman' — take their name directly from a figure in Highland folklore. According to the legend, a large troll woman called Kerling (simply 'the hag' or 'the crone') led a group of trolls across the volcanic interior of Iceland by night. Trolls, as all Icelanders know, cannot survive exposure to sunlight — when daylight touches them, they solidify instantly into stone.
Kerling and her followers were moving through the highlands, believed to be heading west toward the coast, when dawn broke faster than expected. The mountains caught them all mid-stride. The strange, towering peaks of the Kerlingarfjöll range — with their steaming fumaroles and shades of orange and red — are said to be the remains of Kerling and her companions, frozen in the moment of their petrification.
The landscape itself seems to support the myth. Steam vents rise continuously from the valley floors. The mountain ridges take on strange, anthropomorphic shapes in certain light. And the sheer remoteness of the area — accessible only in summer by 4x4 on the Kjölur highland road — gives it the feeling of a place that belongs to older forces than humans.
🗺️ Location
📍 Kerlingarfjöll