Law Rock

    One of my favorite stops during my trip to Iceland was at Þingvellir, also known as Althing National Park. As we walked through the park, our guide told us about how this was the place where the Vikings held their first parliament over a thousand years ago. The meeting place was called the Althing, and it began around the year 930. Chiefs and their families would travel from all over Iceland to gather here once a year to make laws and settle disputes. It was not a building like we think of today but an open-air meeting place in a valley surrounded by cliffs and streams.

    There is a tall Icelandic flag standing on a rocky ledge called Lögberg, which means “Law Rock.” Our guide explained that this was the spot where the lawspeaker would stand and recite the laws out loud for everyone to hear. It felt amazing to stand there and imagine the crowds of Vikings gathered below, listening carefully as decisions were made that shaped the early history of Iceland.

    During our visit to the park, we also went snorkeling. Þingvellir is famous for the clear, cold water that fills the fissures between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Snorkeling there was incredible. The water was so clear that it felt like floating through glass, and you could see the rocky bottom below. The water was very cold making it inhabitable for fish. The flag at Lögberg and the underwater views made Þingvellir one of the most memorable places of my trip.

Human Influence

When I visited Iceland this summer, I expected to see glaciers, black sand beaches, and volcanoes. What surprised me most was something our tour guide told us as we hiked on Iceland’s glaciers. He explained that a long time ago Iceland was covered in trees, and that it was the Vikings who irrevocably changed the land.

Over a thousand years ago, when the first Norse settlers came around 874 CE, Iceland was full of birch trees and shrubs. Those early Vikings needed wood for almost everything. They used it to build houses, make boats, and stay warm through the long winters. They also cleared land so their animals could graze. Over time, the trees disappeared, and with nothing to hold the soil in place, the strong winds carried much of it away. By the Middle Ages, most of the forests were gone, leaving behind the bare, rugged landscape that people see now.

Now, more than a thousand years later, Iceland is trying to bring its trees back. Across the country there are projects where people are planting birch and other hardy trees in valleys and on hillsides. These trees help keep the soil from blowing away, provide new habitats for birds and other animals, and slowly make the land greener again. Iceland may never look like it did before the Vikings arrived, but these efforts show how people today are trying to care for the land that was changed so long ago. Learning this history made me see the island in a new way.