Iceland

Iceland, Island country, northern Atlantic Ocean, between Norway and Greenland.

Area: 39,769 sq mi (103,000 sq km). Population: (2010 est.) 317,000. Capital: Reykjavík. The people are overwhelmingly Nordic. Language: Icelandic (official). Religion: Christianity (Evangelical Lutheran [official]). Currency: króna. One of the most active volcanic regions in the world, Iceland contains about 200 volcanoes and accounts for one-third of Earth’s total lava flow. One-tenth of the area is covered by cooled lava beds and glaciers, including Vatnajökull. Iceland’s rugged coastline is more than 3,000 mi (4,800 km) long. The economy is based heavily on fishing and fish products but also includes hydropower production, livestock, and aluminum processing. Iceland is a unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Iceland was settled by Norwegian seafarers in the 9th century and was Christianized by 1000. Its legislature, the Althingi, founded in 930, is one of the oldest legislative assemblies in the world. Iceland united with Norway in 1262 and with Denmark in 1380. It became an independent state of Denmark in 1918, but it severed those ties to become an independent republic in 1944. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the first woman in the world to be elected a head of state, served four terms as the republic’s president (1980–96).

Iceland, island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Lying on the constantly active geologic border between North America and Europe, Iceland is a land of vivid contrasts of climate, geography, and culture. Sparkling glaciers, such as Vatna Glacier (Vatnajökull), Europe’s largest, lie across its ruggedly beautiful mountain ranges; abundant hot geysers provide heat for many of the country’s homes and buildings and allow for hothouse agriculture year-round; and the offshore Gulf Stream provides a surprisingly mild climate for what is one of the northernmost inhabited places on the planet.

Iceland was founded more than 1,000 years ago during the Viking age of exploration and settled by a mixed Norse and Celtic population. The early settlement, made up primarily of Norwegian seafarers and adventurers, fostered further excursions to Greenland and the coast of North America (which the Norse called Vinland). Despite its physical isolation some 500 miles (800 km) from Scotland—its nearest European neighbour—Iceland has remained throughout its history very much a part of European civilization. The Icelandic sagas, most of which recount heroic episodes that took place at the time the island was settled, are regarded as among the finest literary achievements of the Middle Ages, reflecting a European outlook while commemorating the history and customs of a people far removed from continental centres of commerce and culture.

The capital, Reykjavík (“Bay of Smokes”), is the site of the island’s first farmstead and is a thriving city, handsome in aspect and cosmopolitan in outlook. Other major population centres are Akureyri, on the north-central coast; Hafnarfjördhur, on the southwestern coast; and Selfoss, in the southern lowlands.

Iceland is a Scandinavian country, the world’s oldest democracy but modern in nearly every respect. Unlike most European countries, however, it is ethnically homogeneous, so much so that genetic researchers have used its inhabitants to study hereditary disorders and develop cures for a host of diseases. Although increasingly integrated into the European mainstream, Icelanders take care to preserve their traditions, customs, and language. Many Icelanders, for example, still believe in elves, trolls, and other figures in the mythical landscape of the Norse past, while even Icelanders who live in cities harbour a vision of their country as a pastoral land, in the words of Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness, of