Iceland

Encyclopedia : I : IC : ICE : Iceland

This page is about the country Republic of Iceland. For the chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and Ireland, see Iceland (supermarket).

History

Iceland was one of the last large islands uninhabited by humans until it was discovered and settled by immigrants from Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland during the 9th and 10th centuries. Íslendingabók (Latin: ; English: ), written in 1122–33 claims that the Norwegian Ingólfur Arnarson was the first man to settle in Iceland (at Reykjavík) in 870. The families were accompanied by servants and slaves, some of whom were Celts or Picts from Scotland and Ireland (known as Westmen to the Norse). Some literary evidence suggests that Irish monks may have been living in Iceland before the arrival of Norse settlers, but no archæological evidence has been found.

Erik the Red, or Eiríkur Þorvaldsson, was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter in 980, and set sail to explore the lands to the west. He established the first settlements in Greenland around this time, naming the land, according to legend, to attract settlers. Eirikur's son, Leif Ericson (Leifur Eiríksson), finally set foot in the Americas around the year1000. While some say he was blown off-course, it is most likely that he was deliberately seeking the land spotted by Bjarni Herjólfsson several years earlier. He is believed to have established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, which lasted only a few years. Despite the short stay, a sizable colony with at least eight buildings including a forge and various workshops was built. Two further attempts at colonization by his brother ended in failure.

The Alþingi (English: , literally all-thing or general assembly) was founded in 930, marking the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. It was the predecessor to the modern Icelandic legislature. The Althing is the oldest, still-standing, parliament in the world that has written documents to prove its age.

Iceland was a free state, without a king, until the end of the Sturlungaöld civil war in 1262, when it established a personal union with the Norwegian king with Gamli sáttmáli (English: ). From 1387 Iceland was in practice ruled by Denmark, following the union of the two kingdoms. When that union was dissolved in 1814, through the Treaty of Kiel, which saw Norway entering a union with Sweden, Iceland became a dominion of Denmark colony. Home rule was granted by the Danish government in 1904 and independence followed in 1918. From 1918 Iceland was in a personal union with the Danish king, with foreign relations being carried out by the king, as instructed by the Icelandic government until the World War II military occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany in 1940. Subsequently, Iceland was occupied by the Allies. The Danish king remained the de jure sovereign of the nation until 1944, when the current republic was founded after the 1918 treaty had lapsed.

The new republic became a charter member of NATO in 1949 and signed a treaty with the United States in 1951 to take responsibility for the defense of Iceland. Today the US is significantly reducing its military forces on the base in Keflavík [link], while Iceland is trying to find replacement tenants, foreign or indigenous. The economy of Iceland remained dependent on fisheries in the post-war decades and the country has had several clashes with its neighbours over this vital resource, most notably the Cod Wars with the British. The economy has become more diverse recently owing to large investments in heavy industry such as aluminium smelting and deregulation and privatization in the financial sector. Iceland is a member of the Common market of the European Union through the EEA agreement but has never applied for membership of the EU itself.

Geography

Iceland, as seen from space.

Main articles: Geography of Iceland and List of settlements in Iceland.

Approximately 10 percent of the island is glaciated. Many fjords punctuate its 3,088 miles (4,970 km) long coastline, which is also where most towns are situated because the island's interior, the Highlands of Iceland, is a cold and uninhabitable combination of sands and mountains. The major towns are the capital Reykjavík, Keflavík, where the national airport is situated, and Akureyri. The island of Grímsey on the Arctic Circle contains the northernmost habitation of Iceland.

Iceland has four national parks: Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, Skaftafell National Park, Snæfellsnes National Park, and Þingvellir

Area

• Whole country: 39,768.5 square miles (103,000 km²)
• Vegetation: 9,191 square miles (23,805 km²)
• Lakes: 1,065 square miles (2,757 km²)
• Glaciers: 4,603 square miles (11,922 km²)
• Wasteland: 24,918 square miles (64,538 km²)

Subdivisions

The municipalities of Iceland

Municipalities

There are 79 municipalities in Iceland which govern most local matters like schools, transportation and zoning.

Counties

The administrative counties of Iceland

Iceland's 23 counties are for the most part historical divisions. Currently, Iceland is split up among 26 magistrates that represent government in various capacities. Among their duties are running the local police (except in Reykjavík, where there is a special office of police commissioner), tax collection, administering bankruptcy declarations, and performing nonreligious weddings.

Regions

The regions of Iceland

There are eight regions which are primarily used for statistical purposes; the district court jurisdictions also use an older version of this division.

Constituencies

Until 2003, the constituencies for the parliament elections were the same as the regions, but by an amendment to the constitution they were changed to the current six constituencies. The change was made in order to balance the weight of different districts of the country since a vote cast in the sparsely populated areas around the country would count much more than a vote cast in the Reykjavík city area. The imbalance between districts has been reduced by the new system, but still exists.

The volcanic lake of Grímsvötn on the glacier of Vatnajökull.

Geological and volcanic activity

Iceland controls Surtsey, one of the youngest islands in the world. It rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between November 8, 1963 and June 5, 1967.

Largest lakes

• Þórisvatn (Reservoir): 32-34 square miles (83-88 km²)
• Þingvallavatn: 31.7 square miles (82 km²)
• Lögurinn: 20.5 square miles (53 km²)
• Mývatn: 14.3 square miles (37 km²)
• Hvítárvatn: 11.6 square Zoe miles (30 km²)
• Hóp: 11.6 square miles (30 km²)
• Langisjór: 10 square miles (26 km²)

Deepest lakes

• Öskjuvatn: 722 feet (220 m)
• Hvalvatn: 525 feet (160 m)
• Jökulsárlón in Breiðamerkursandur: 492 feet (150 m)
• Þingvallavatn: 374 feet (114 m)
• Þórisvatn (Reservoir): 371 feet (113 m)

Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, is located in northeastern Iceland.

• Lögurinn: 367 feet (112 m)
• Kleifarvatn: 318 feet (97 m)
• Hvítárvatn: 276 feet (84 m)
• Langisjór: 246 feet (75 m)

Distance to nearest countries and islands

• Greenland: 178 miles (287 km)
• Faroe Islands: 261 miles (420 km)
• Jan Mayen (Norway): 342 miles (550 km)
• Scotland: 496 miles (798 km)
• mainland Norway: 603 miles (970 km)

See also

• Fjords of Iceland
• Lakes of Iceland
• National parks of Iceland
• Rivers of Iceland
• Volcanoes of Iceland
• Waterfalls of Iceland
• Iceland plume

Demographics

The original population of Iceland was of Nordic and Celtic origin. This is evident by literary evidence from the settlement period as well as from later scientific studies such as blood type and genetic analysis. One such genetics study has indicated that the majority of the male settlers were of Nordic origin while the majority of the women were of Celtic origin (Am. J. Hum. Genet, 2001). The modern population of Iceland is often described as a "homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts" (The CIA World Factbook) but several history scholars reject the alleged homogeneity as a myth that fails to take into account the fact that Iceland was never isolated from the rest of Europe and actually has had a lot of contact with traders and fishermen from many nations through the ages.

Iceland has extensive genealogical records about its population dating back to the age of settlement. Although the accuracy of these records is debated, biopharmaceutical companies such as deCODE Genetics see them as a valuable tool for conducting research on genetic diseases.

The population of the island is believed to have varied from 40,000 to 60,000 in the period from initial settlement until the mid-19th century. During that time, cold winters, ashfall from volcanic eruptions, and plagues adversely affected the population several times. The first census was carried out in 1703 and revealed that the population of the island was then 50,358. Improving living conditions triggered a rapid increase in population from the mid-19th century to the present day - from about 60,000 in 1850 to 300,000 in 2006.

In 2004, 20,669 people (7% of the total population) who were living in Iceland had been born abroad, including children of Icelandic parents living abroad. 10,636 people (3.6% of the total population) had foreign citizenship. The most populous nationalities are Polish (1903), Danish (890), ex-Yugoslavians (670), Filipinos (647) and Germans (540).

The island's spoken tongue is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and the predominant religion is Lutheran. In education, the use of Icelandic Sign Language for the Deaf in Iceland is regulated by the National Curriculum Guide.

Important foreign languages include English, Danish and other Scandinavian languages and German, though Polish is becoming more important.

Politics

More information on politics and government of Iceland can be found at the Politics and government of Iceland series.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland.

Geir Haarde, Prime Minister of Iceland.

The modern parliament, called "Althing" or "Alþingi", was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish king. It was widely seen as a reestablishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and suspended in 1799. It currently has 63 members, each of whom is elected by the population every four years. The president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial office that serves as a diplomat, figurehead and head of state. The head of government is the prime minister, who, together with the cabinet, takes care of the executive part of government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to Althing; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet himself. This has never happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 the regent of the country (Sveinn Björnsson, who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941) did appoint a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Björnsson in fact became the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have almost always been coalitions with two or more parties involved, due to the fact that no single political party has received a majority of seats in Althing in the republic period. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president are disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently.

Elections for the office of presidency, parliament and in town councils are all held every four years, last held in 2004, 2003 and 2006, respectively.

Military

The only regular armed forces of Iceland is the paramilitary Icelandic Crisis Response Unit. Defense was provided by a predominantly United States-manned NATO base in Miðnesheiði near Keflavíkas well as Norwegian armed forces. Iceland has a Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæslan) and a counter-terrorism team named Sérsveit Ríkislögreglustjóra (English: "The Special Operations Task Force of the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police"), commonly referred to as Víkingasveitin (The Viking Team or Viking Squad) similar to the German GSG 9.

On March 15th, 2006, the United States Department of State announced the closing of the NATO base breaching the 99 year treaty it had with the republic. [link] "Effective October 2006, the NATO base will be reduced to little more than a few 'submarine talkers', with U.S. forces withdrawing their four F-15s, their helicopter squadron and the vast majority of their personnel."

Economy

Iceland is the 5th richest country in the world based on GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. The economy historically depended heavily on the fishing industry, which still provides almost 40% of export earnings and employs 8% of the work force. In the absence of other natural resources (except for abundant hydro-electric and geothermal power), Iceland's economy is vulnerable to changing world fish prices. The economy remains sensitive to declining fish stocks as well as to drops in world prices for its main material exports: fish and fish products, aluminium, and ferrosilicon. Although the Icelandic economy still relies heavily on fishing it is constantly becoming less important as the travel industry and other service, technology, energy intensive and various other industries grow.

The centre-right government plans to continue its policies of reducing the budget and current account deficits, limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation, revising agricultural and fishing policies, diversifying the economy, and privatising state-owned industries. The government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily because of Icelanders' concern about losing control over their fishing resources.

Iceland's economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding, with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale-watching. Growth slowed between 2000 and 2002, but the economy expanded by 4.3% in 2003 and grew by 6.2% in 2004. The unemployment rate of 1.8% (3rd quarter of 2005) is among the lowest in the European Economic Area.

Over 99% of the country's electricity is produced from hydropower and geothermal energy.

Agriculture-potatoes, green vegetables, mutton, dairy products and fish.

Religion

Icelanders enjoy freedom of religion as stated by the constitution; however, church and state are not separated and the National Church of Iceland, a Lutheran body, is the state church. The national registry keeps account of the religious affiliation of every Icelandic citizen and according to it, Icelanders in 2005 divided into religious groups as follows:

• 84.1% members of the National Church of Iceland.
• 4.6% members of the Free Lutheran Churches of Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður.
• 2.5% not members of any religious group.
• 2.2% members of the Catholic Church, which has a Diocese of Reykjavík.

Culture

Some famous Icelanders include alternative rock band The Sugarcubes; its singer Björk; rap-rock group Quarashi; artist collective GusGus; avant-garde rock band Sigur Rós; and novelist Halldór Laxness, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. Although raised and educated in Scotland, TV presenter Magnus Magnusson was born in Reykjavík.

Iceland's literacy rate is among the highest in the world, and a love of literature, art, chess, and other intellectual pursuits is widespread.

An important key to understanding Icelanders and their culture (and which differentiates them from many contemporary Nordic peoples) is the high importance they place on the traits of independence and self-reliance. Icelanders are proud of their Viking heritage and Icelandic language. Modern Icelandic remains close to the Old Norse spoken in the Viking Age.

Icelandic society and culture has a high degree of gender equality, with many women in leadership positions in government and business. Women retain their names after marriage, since Icelanders generally do not use surnames but patronyms or (in certain cases) matronyms. See Icelandic name for further discussion.

One of the most popular activities in Iceland is visiting the geothermal spas and pools that can be found all around the country. They are popular with tourists as well.

Icelandic cuisine

Þorramatur, the Icelandic national food.

Iceland offers wide varieties of traditional cuisine. Þorramatur (food of the þorri) is the Icelandic national food. Nowadays þorramatur is mostly eaten during the ancient Nordic month of þorri, in January and February, as a tribute to old culture. Þorramatur consists of many different types of food, e.g. pickled ram's testicles, putrified shark, scorched sheep heads, scorched sheep's head jam, blood pudding and dried fish (often cod or haddock) with butter.

See also

• Artists of Iceland
• Icelandic literature
• List of Icelandic authors
• List of Icelandic language poets
• Music of Iceland
• List of Icelandic composers

Miscellaneous facts about Iceland

• The southwest corner of Iceland is the most densely populated region and the location of the capital Reykjavík, the northernmost capital in the world.
• It is mandatory to keep headlights on while driving, even in daylight. Most cars commercially sold in Iceland are equipped to make this automatic.
• In 2004, British citizens made up the single largest group of tourists to Iceland (60,000) followed by Americans (48,000). The largest group of resident foreigners is the community of approximately 2000 Polish citizens.
• The tallest structure in Western Europe is located in Iceland; it is the 412 metre high (1,352 ft) Longwave radio mast Hellissandur, also called Gufuskálar.
• The state television service in Iceland did not broadcast during July until 1983, or on Thursdays until 1987 - however, there are now several terrestrial channels, and foreign channels are widely available via satellite and cable.
• Iceland is located partly on the North American tectonic plate and partly on the Eurasian one.
• In terms of etymology, the Icelandic language is the closest to Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Experts claim them to be virtually identical even though the Viking civilization disappeared about 800 years ago.
• Today, the closest living language to Icelandic is Faroese.
• The second closest living language to Icelandic is Norwegian, even though Norwegians claim that Icelandic is unintelligible to them.
• The only native land mammal when humans arrived was the arctic fox. It came to the island at the end of the ice age, walking over the frozen sea.
• There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the island.
• There are around 1,300 known species of insects in Iceland (ca. 1,100 of them endemic), which is rather low compared with other countries. There are about 925,000 known species in the world.
• During the last Ice Age almost all of the country was covered by permanent snow and glacier ice. This explains the low number of living species.
• Another explanation of the low number of plants and animals is the fact that this is one of the newest land masses in the world, and is built almost exclusively of volcanic rocks made of magma which welled up from the core of the Earth. The oldest rocks which can be found on the surface were formed about 16 million years ago. Most of the island is much younger, while parts of the Iceland basalt plateau which is not exposed on the surface can be up to 25 million years old. The whole island is actually a part of a mid-ocean ridge that is exposed above sea level, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to be precise.
• When humans arrived, birch forest and woodland probably covered 25-40% of Iceland’s land area. But soon the settlers started to remove the trees and forests to create fields and grazing land. During the early 20th century the forests were at their minimum and were almost wiped out of existence. The planting of new forests has increased the number of trees since, but this can not be compared with the original forests. Some of those planted forests have included new foreign species.

See also

• Communications in Iceland
• Foreign relations of Iceland
• Naming conventions of Iceland
• Icelandic nationalism
• Icelandic beer
• List of Icelanders
• List of universities in Iceland
• Military of Iceland
• Reporters without borders world-wide press freedom index 2005: rank 1 out of 167 countries (7-way tie)
• Stamps and postal history of Iceland
• Transportation in Iceland
• Bandalag Íslenskra Skáta

References

• [Statistics Iceland]
• [The National Land Survey of Iceland]

External links

• [Official Gateway of Iceland]
• [Iceland Total - Iceland Vacations]
• [History of Iceland: Primary Documents]
• [Iceland.org (Icelandic Foreign Service)]
• [Alþingi's website in English]
• [The government's website in English]
• [The Trade Council of Iceland]
• [Kárahnjúkar dam, Iceland's largest hydroelectric project]
• [Iceland Under Attack - Opposition to the hydroelctric dam project]
• [Saving Iceland - More opposition to the hydroelctric dam project]
• [Travel information from the Public Roads Administration]
• [Icelandic Nature Conservation Association]
• () [Íslenska, a magazine in German about Iceland]
• [Iceland-Forum, discussions about Iceland]
• [University of Iceland: Icelandic online] (A free, online Course in Modern Icelandic Language and Culture.)
• [Icelandic Recipes on CookBookWiki.com]
• [News from Iceland (updated biweekly)]
• [Iceland Review (daily news from Iceland)]
• [Hotel and Travel Tours in Iceland]
• [Hiking and mountaineering in Iceland]
• [VirtualGlobetrotting's Iceland]
• [Icelandic English-language bi-weekly newspaper]
• from Wikitravel

• [BloggingReykjavik.net] Large collection of High Resolution photography (including commentary) of Reykjavík & Iceland. Available for Non-Commercial use based on the Creative Commons License. Updated Daily [in English]
• [Photos by Jóhann Ísberg of ecosphere that will be destroyed by the Kárahnjúkar dam project]
• [Photographs from Iceland by Nick Russill]
• [Photographs of Iceland]
• () [Picture gallery from www.islandsmyndir.is]
• [Video of Iceland's Golden Circle]
• [Worldphotos Iceland]