A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Monday, spewing lava 300 feet into the air that could be seen from the country’s capital city of Reykjavik. The fissure, which is longer than two miles, does not pose a risk to locals. The nearby town of Grindavik was evacuated weeks ago after a series of small earthquakes rocked the area. Iceland is no stranger to volcanic activity — the island nation is home to nearly three dozen active volcanic sites, as well as a rich mythological history.
The Vikings settled on the island in the 800s, and according to Mathias Nordvig, who teaches Nordic and arctic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, they weren’t familiar with volcanoes.
But soon after their arrival, the landmass was rocked by multiple eruptions, including one at the Eldgjá fissure in the 930s.
“[It] very likely … settled in their folklore and mythologies, if nothing else, some impressions on this story about Ragnarök, the apocalypse and end of the world that is recounted in the poem Völuspá.”
He continues, “You're not familiar with the notion that fire can come out of the ground, right? All of a sudden, you're seeing these massive fire columns spewing up towards the sky, and you’ve got to be wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Nordvig says the Vikings used nordic mythology as a framework to make sense of the world. A similar phenomenon is found in other cultures along the Pacific Ring of Fire — countries such as New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Japan.
“It looks like populations that live in close proximity to volcanoes start attributing a lot of their social developments and deep history stories to the volcanoes.”
He points to an ancient Icelandic law that required its people to remove dragon head ornaments from boats as they approached the country. The practice was said to appease the land spirits.
“In the same way, once these early settlers come to Iceland … they had these rituals that are all about integrating their family and the genealogy with the land and the spirits that live in the land. And all of this seems to basically hint at this experience of a very volatile geology.”
When Icelanders adopted Christianity, volcanoes took on another cultural role. They were seen as places of torment, or as Nordvig suggests, even the gates of hell.