About Iceland
Iceland is a little island in the north Atlantic made up of ice and fire. It’s full of mountains and glaciers and hot water and sheep and little puffins and many Icelandic people who make good music.
You may remember hearing about it in April 2010 when its Eyjafjallajökull volcano (that’s eye-ya-fiat-la-yo-kutl) erupted, causing European air-travel to ground to a halt (literally) when the ash cloud rose into the atmosphere. A Scottish man got a little angry with the poor little island because of it. People also got pretty panicked when a year later, Grímsvötn decided to erupt.
Despite their names, Iceland is green and Greenland is icy. This is because of a Viking called Erik the Red being convicted of murder in Iceland and exiled for three years (and because of the fact that when Iceland was discovered, it was quite snowy). In around 982, Erik had been kicked out of the country and found himself on the huge landmass close to little Iceland. When his exile was over, he brought stories of “Greenland”, deliberately giving it a more appealing name to entice potential settlers. The name stuck and a lot of people remain confused by it.
About Emma
Emma is a 17 year old girl living in London, wishing she was in Iceland. She is learning to speak Icelandic in between taking the International Baccalaureate and pictures and cannot wait to go there. She also quite likes deer. She isn’t nearly as interesting as Iceland but hopes you enjoy this blog.
