Vopnafjörður (, meaning ''weapon fjord'') is a village and municipality in Northeast
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
, standing on a peninsula in the middle of a mountainous bay by the same name. The main industries of Vopnafjörður are fish processing, agriculture and tourism and other services.
Overview
Vopnafjörður is known for its salmon rivers and large areas of untouched landscape.
Hofsá and
Selá are two of the most exclusive salmon rivers in Iceland. The salmon rivers and other attractions in and around Vopnafjörður have drawn numerous foreign visitors, including artists, celebrities and politicians such as
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...
,
George Bush, Sr.,
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...
and
Queen Paola of Belgium.
Vopnafjörður is on
Route 85 and has an
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...
with scheduled flights to
Akureyri
Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...
on business days. Other services include
Vopnafjarðarskóli primary school with 99 students,
Leikskólinn Brekkubær preschool,
Landsbankinn bank and
Heilbrigðisstofnun Austurlands clinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
.
HB Grandi, Iceland's largest fishing company, is the largest employer in the area. The company runs a high-tech freezing plant and a fishmeal factory in Vopnafjörður.
History
The bay of Vopnafjörður was first settled by Vikings in the late 9th century
CE. The name ''Vopnafjörður'' (
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
: ) literally means "Weapon Fjord" or "Weapon Bay", and comes from the nickname of one of the settlers,
Eyvindur ''vopni''.
Disputes between local chieftains led to a number of killings in the 10th century. The story of the disputes is told in
Vopnfirðinga saga, one of the classic
Sagas of Icelanders
The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and earl ...
, a series of epic family histories written in the 13th century.
Little is known about the history of Vopnafjörður after Iceland lost its independence to Norway in 1264. Foreign merchants sailed to Vopnafjörður in the early modern age, and it was one of three trade ports in East Iceland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Danish trading company
Ørum & Wulff had extensive operations in Vopnafjörður in the 19th century. A local
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
,
Kaupfélag Vopnfirðinga, was established in 1918, and was one of Vopnafjörður's largest employers throughout the 20th century, but filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
In the late 19th century, poor farmers were forced to move into the mountains above Vopnafjörður, when they could no longer afford living on densely populated land in the lowlands. For several decades, many families lived in the highlands, experiencing extreme hardship. The highland farms inspired the setting of the novel ''
Independent People'' by
Halldór Laxness. The book helped him win the
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
in 1955.
Modern infrastructure, including roads, harbors and bridges, was first introduced in Vopnafjörður in the early 20th century. Today, new infrastructure is of highest standards.
Emigration to America
Vopnafjörður was the largest port of Icelandic emigration to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thousands of North Americans have ancestors who lived in Vopnafjörður.
Geography

Vopnafjörður is located in Northeast Iceland. The Vopnafjörður area coastline is characterized by the Tangi peninsula, coastal rocks, islets, coves, river mouths, and black sand beaches.
During the
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...
(up to 10,000 years ago) a large glacier covered the bay. The Ice Age
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
carved the diverse mountains and rock formations that characterize the area. After the Ice Age, the land rose as the heavy load of the glacier fell away, and began to look as it does today.
The largest river to run into the bay is
Hofsá, one of the best known
salmon-fishing rivers in the country. KrossavÃk Mountains at , tower over the bay.
The village of Vopnafjörður is located on the Tangi peninsula in the middle of the bay. Surrounding farms reach far into
Hofsárdalur and
Vesturárdalur valleys, and to the northern coast of the bay.
Climate
Vopnafjörður has a rainy, mild winter
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Dfc'';
Trewartha: ''Eolo'') or a subpolar
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(''Cfc'') depending on the isotherm used, or , similar to the rest of coastal Iceland.Despite its extreme north Atlantic location, Vopnafjörður is much warmer than most locations at a similar latitude. Temperatures very rarely drop below −10 °C (14 °F) in the winter. This is because the Icelandic coastal weather in winter is moderated by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Summers are cool, with temperatures sometimes reaching 20 °C (68 °F). The climate has significantly warmed in recent years.
Administration
The local government is the municipality of Vopnafjarðarhreppur , which is governed by the municipal council. The council has seven members who are elected in direct elections by the residents of Vopnafjörður for four-year terms. Anyone who is 18 years or older and has his or her legal domicile registered in Vopnafjörður has the right to participate in the local elections. The last municipal elections were held in May 2010.
Demographics
On 1 January 2011, the population of Vopnafjörður was 668, of whom 529 lived in the village, and 139 in the rural part of the municipality. 350 were males and 318 females. 146 were under 18 years of age.
In 2010, the total population was 683, of whom 666 people held Icelandic citizenship. 17 were citizens of other countries, and did not hold dual Icelandic citizenship. Four of those were
Danish citizens, one
Finnish, three
German, one
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
n, one
Mexican, one
Dutch, one
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
, three
Thai, one
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
, and one
US.
The total population of Vopnafjörður was 987 in 1901, 677 in 1950, 908 in 1990, and 789 in 2000.
Sports
Einherji is Vopnafjörður's sports team. Soccer is the most popular sport, followed by Volleyball.
Main sights
*
Bustarfell, folk museum
*
Gljúfursárfoss, waterfall on Vopnafjörður's southern coast.
*Highland farms, the setting that inspired Nobel Prize-winning author
Halldór Laxness' novel
Independent People.
*
Ljótsstaðir, childhood home of
Gunnar Gunnarsson.
*
Múlastofa, a museum about the lives and art of Vopnafjörður-born musicians and playwrights and .
People from Vopnafjörður
*, musician, playwright and radio host
*, playwright and lyricist
*
Björgvin Guðmundsson, composer
*
Gunnar Gunnarsson, writer
*
Pálmi Gunnarsson, pop singer
*
Linda Pétursdóttir, businesswoman, Miss Iceland World 1988 and
Miss World 1988
*
Sigurður Þórarinsson geologist and lyricist
*Pall Thordarson (born 1971), Director of Research in the School of Chemistry,
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949.
The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...
Pall Thordarson CV
/ref>
*, architect
* Konráð S. Guðjónsson, economist
References
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vopnafjordur
Municipalities of Iceland
Populated places in Eastern Region (Iceland)
Fjords of Iceland