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Reykholt, Western Iceland
Reykholt () is a village in the valley of the river Reykjadalsá, called Reykholtsdalur. It is part of Borgarfjörður, Western Region. Reykholt was at one time one of the intellectual centers of the island and had for many years one of the most important schools of the country. The poet and politician Snorri Sturluson lived in Reykholt during the Middle Ages. Sturluson's records of the Old Norse language and mythology of medieval Iceland are invaluable to modern scholars. Remains of his farm and a bathroom with hot pot and a tunnel between the bath and the house can still be visited. The Snorrastofa Cultural / Research Centre was established in Reykholt on September 6, 1988, with opening ceremonies attended by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland and King Olaf V of Norway. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constituencies Of Iceland
Iceland is divided into 6 constituencies for the purpose of selecting representatives to parliament.National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 4 History The current division was established by a 1999 constitution amendment and was an attempt to balance the weight of different districts of the country whereby voters in the rural districts have greater representation per head than voters in Reykjavík city and its suburbs. The new division comprises three countryside constituencies (NW, NE and S) and three city constituencies (RN, RS and SW).National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 5 The imbalance of votes between city and country still exists and a provision in the election law states that if the number of votes per seat in parliament in one constituency goes below half of what it is in any other constituency, one seat shall be transferred between them. This has occurred twice, in the elections in 2007 and 2013. On both occasions, a seat was transferred from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (; born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first woman who was democratically elected as president. With a presidency of exactly sixteen years, she also remains longest-serving elected female head of state of any country to date. Currently, she is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and a member of the Club of Madrid. She is also to-date Iceland's only female president. Early life Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was born at Reykjavík on 15 April 1930. Her father, Finnbogi Rútur Þorvaldsson, was a civil engineer, as well as a professor at the University of Iceland. Her mother, Sigríður Eiríksdóttir, was a nurse and the chairperson of the Icelandic Nurses Association. They had two children: Vigdís and then a son, Þorvaldur, a year later. After passing her matriculation exam in 1949, Vigdís studied French and French literature at the University of Grenoble and the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Iceland
The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers and the people they enslaved from the east, particularly Norway and the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uninhabited long after the rest of Western Europe had been settled. Recorded settlement has conventionally been dated back to 874, although archaeological evidence indicates Gaelic monks from Ireland, known as papar according to sagas, had settled Iceland earlier. The land was settled quickly, mainly by Norwegians who may have been fleeing conflict or seeking new land to farm. By 930, the chieftains had established a form of governance, the ''Althing'', making it one of the world's oldest parliaments. Towards the end of the tenth century, Christianity came to Iceland through the influence of the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason. During this time, Iceland remained independent, a period known as the Old Commonwealth, and Icelandic historians began to document the nation's h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterfalls Of Iceland
Iceland is unusually suited for waterfalls (Icelandic: s. ''foss,'' pl. ''fossar''). This island country has a north Atlantic climate that produces frequent rain and snow and a near-Arctic location that produces large glaciers, whose summer melts feed many rivers. As a result, it is home to a number of large and powerful waterfalls. North * Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Iceland. * Gljúfursárfoss * Selfoss * Hafragilsfoss * Goðafoss * Aldeyjarfoss South * Faxi or Vatnsleysufoss in Tungufljót river * Foss á Síðu * Gluggafoss * Gljúfrafoss * Gjáin has many small waterfalls * Gullfoss (''Golden Falls'') * Háifoss (''High Falls'') * Hjálparfoss * Merkjárfoss * Ófærufoss used to be noted for the impressive natural bridge which stood above the falls, but it collapsed in 1993. * Seljalandsfoss * Skógafoss (''Forest Falls'') * Svartifoss (''Black Falls'') is one of the many waterfalls of Skaftafell National Park * Systrafoss, in Kirkjubæja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deildartunguhver
Deildartunguhver () is a hot spring in Reykholtsdalur, Iceland. It is characterized by a very high flow rate for a hot spring (180 liters/second) and water emerges at 97 °C. It is the highest-flow hot spring in Europe. Some of the water is used for heating, being piped 34 kilometers to Borgarnes and 64 kilometers to Akranes. A fern called ''Struthiopteris fallax ''Struthiopteris fallax'' is a small species of fern in the family Blechnaceae. It is endemic to Iceland where it lives in close proximity to hot springs. In Iceland it is locally red listed as an endangered species (EN)Náttúrufræðistofnun � ...'', grows in Deildartunguhver. This fern is the only endemic fern in Iceland, and it does not grow anywhere else in the world. References External links Icelandic website describing Deildartunguhver {{coord, 64, 39, 47, N, 21, 24, 33, W, region:IS_type:waterbody, display=title Hot springs of Iceland Borgarbyggð ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borgarnes
Borgarnes () is a town located on a peninsula at the shore of Borgarfjörður in Iceland and is the largest town in the Borgarbyggð municipality with a population of about 3800 residents. It is a main junction in Iceland and the gateway to the Snaefellsnes National Park. Iceland's capital Reykjavik is 69 kilometers from the center of Borgarnes. The second largest bridge in Iceland, the Borgarfjarðarbrú, connects traffic to and from Reykjavik. Local area There are four national forests in the region (approximately 40 km from the town center) which are overseen by the Icelandic Forest Service. The forest in Borgarfjardur are mix of Birch woods and native conifers. These forests are Vatnshorn, Norðtunga, Selskógar, Stalpastaðir and Jafnaskarð. Borgarnes has the oldest and tallest of the birch trees in Iceland. History Borgarnes was founded in the late nineteenth-century, in a region that served as the setting of Egil's Saga. The town draws its name from Borg á ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surtshellir
Surtshellir () is a lava cave located in western Iceland, around 60 km from the settlement of Borgarnes. Approximately a mile in length, it is one of the longest such caves in the country. It was the first known lava tube in the world, at least by modern speleologists, and remained the longest known lava tube until the end of the 19th century. While mentioned in the medieval historical-geographical work '' Landnámabók'', Eggert Ólafsson was the first to give a thorough documentation of the cave in his 1750 travels of the region. It is named after the fire giant Surtr, a prominent figure in Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ..., who is prophesied to one day engulf the world in the fire of his flaming sword. Surtshellir was formed as a lava ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hraunfossar
Hraunfossar (; in Borgarfjörður, western Iceland) is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about 900 metres out of the Hallmundarhraun, a lava field which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjökull. The waterfalls pour into Hvítá (Borgarfjörður), from ledges of less porous rock in the lava. The name comes from the Icelandic word for ''lava'' (''hraun'') and the word for ''waterfalls'' (''fossar''). The Hraunfossar are situated near Húsafell and Reykholt and the Víðgelmir lava tube is close by. Literally a stone's throw upstream from Hraunfossar, there is another waterfall called Barnafoss. Its name, the ''waterfall of the children'', comes from an accident which is said to have taken place here in former times. There was a natural bridge over the waterfall and two children from a nearby farm fell to their deaths crossing the river on the bridge. Afterwards, the grief-struck mother had the brid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hraunfossar 2004
Hraunfossar (; in Borgarfjörður, western Iceland) is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about 900 metres out of the Hallmundarhraun, a lava field which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjökull. The waterfalls pour into Hvítá (Borgarfjörður), from ledges of less porous rock in the lava. The name comes from the Icelandic word for ''lava'' (''hraun'') and the word for ''waterfalls'' (''fossar''). The Hraunfossar are situated near Húsafell and Reykholt and the Víðgelmir lava tube is close by. Literally a stone's throw upstream from Hraunfossar, there is another waterfall called Barnafoss. Its name, the ''waterfall of the children'', comes from an accident which is said to have taken place here in former times. There was a natural bridge over the waterfall and two children from a nearby farm fell to their deaths crossing the river on the bridge. Afterwards, the grief-struck mother had the bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurora Borealis
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky. Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by the solar wind. Major disturbances result from enhancements in the speed of the solar wind from coronal holes and coronal mass ejections. These disturbances alter the trajectories of charged particles in the magnetospheric plasma. These particles, mainly electrons and protons, precipitate into the upper atmosphere ( thermosphere/exosphere). The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emit light of varying colour and complexity. The form of the aurora, occurring within bands around both polar regions, is also dependent on the amount of accelera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustav Vigeland
Gustav Vigeland (11 April 1869 – 12 March 1943), born as Adolf Gustav Thorsen, was a Norwegian sculptor. Gustav Vigeland occupies a special position among Norwegian sculptors, both in the power of his creative imagination and in his productivity. He is most associated with the Vigeland installation (''Vigelandsanlegget'') in Frogner Park, Oslo. He was also the designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal. Early life Adolf Gustav Thorsen was born to a family of craftsmen, just outside Halse og Harkmark, a former municipality in Mandal. His parents were Elesæus Thorsen (1835–1886), a cabinetmaker and Anne Aanensdatter (1835–1907). He had three brothers, of whom Emanuel Vigeland (originally Thorsen) became a noted artist. As a youth, he was sent to Oslo where he learned wood carving at a local school. However, the sudden death of his father compelled him to move back to Mandal to help his family. Gustav lived for a time with his grandparents on a farm called Mjunebrokka in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olaf V Of Norway
Olav V (; born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was the King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991. Olav was the only child of King Haakon VII of Norway and Maud of Wales. He became heir apparent to the Norwegian throne when his father was elected King of Norway in 1905. He was the first heir to the Norwegian throne to be brought up in Norway since Olav IV in the fourteenth century, and his parents made sure he was given as Norwegian an upbringing as possible. In preparation for his future role, he attended both civilian and military schools. In 1929, he married his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden. During World War II his leadership was much appreciated and he was appointed Norwegian Chief of Defence in 1944. Olav became king following the death of his father in 1957. Owing to his considerate, down-to-earth style, King Olav was immensely popular, resulting in the nickname ('The People's King'). In a 2005 poll by the Norwegian B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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