Iceland: land of sagas, land of volcanoes

From Flateyjarbók, written ca. 1387.  The beginning of the Saga of King Sverrir.

Iceland wasn't settled until around 900BC.  The sagas, although written much later, describe the Viking settlements of this time and epic battles with larger than life heroes.  The Saga of King Sverrir tells the story of the King of Norway supposedly dictated by King Sverrir himself.  The illustrations on the card show some of the battle scenes quite graphically - much cutting off of arms with swords.

Iceland - 39,768 square miles (103,ooo sq km).  Population 2004: 293,966.  Iceland is bounded by latitudes 66° 30' (the Arctic Circle) and 63° 15' N being about 220 miles north to south and 335 miles east to west.

Iceland sits on the mid-Atlantic Ridge which spreads at the rate of 2.5 cm a year, and this remarkable geological position gives Iceland a large number of active volcanoes, 130 of them.  Both the volcanoes which have given European airlines so much trouble recently are marked on the map, in tiny, tiny print.  The first, Eyjafjallajökull, is to the south west by the Mýrdalsjökull marked as a white area.  The most recent and also the most active, is the Grímsvötn marked on the much larger white area, the Vatnajökul.

For such a small country, Iceland has had a remarkable impact on the world, even as far as having the President of the United States of America change his travel plans recently.  President Obama arrived in the UK 12 hours early when flying from Ireland, in order to avoid any disruption from volcanic ash.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.