Iceland

Iceland is a large volcanic island on the edge of the North Atlantic, just below the Arctic Circle, halfway between Europe and America. It is one of the most thinly populated countries in the world: about 390,000 people on an island slightly larger than Portugal, two-thirds of them around the capital, Reykjavík. A young land, born of fire and shaped by volcanoes and glaciers, Iceland was settled by the Vikings a little over a thousand years ago and has kept their language almost intact.

Iceland is a land of fire and ice, sitting on the rift between the North American and Eurasian plates, where new crust is being formed. It is a country of volcanoes and lava fields, moss, hot springs and geysers, a word that comes from here. It is also a country of huge glaciers, great waterfalls, fjords and black-sand beaches. In winter the sky lights up with the northern lights; in summer the midnight sun barely sets. The almost treeless landscape was used to train the Apollo astronauts.

Iceland was one of the last large lands in Europe to be settled: around 874, Vikings from Norway, along with captives and wives from the British Isles, founded a society of free settlers there. In 930 they set up the Althing, an assembly that ranks among the oldest parliaments in the world. The sagas, written down in the 13th and 14th centuries, tell the story of that time and are among the great works of medieval literature. After centuries of Norwegian and then Danish rule, the island became a fully independent republic in 1944; today it is one of the most prosperous and equal societies in the world.

Icelandic is the Scandinavian language that has changed least, so close to the Old Norse of the Vikings that Icelanders can still read the medieval sagas in the original almost without effort. The country works to protect its language, coining Icelandic words rather than borrowing foreign ones. Iceland's tradition is Lutheran, but it is very secular; many people still talk, half seriously and half in jest, about the hidden folk, elves and nature spirits.

Icelandic culture is shaped by the sagas, the great tales of settlers, heroes and feuds that feed the national imagination, and by a deep love of literature: it is said that one Icelander in ten publishes a book. The music scene is remarkably creative for such a small country, from Björk to Sigur Rós. People bathe outdoors in geothermal pools, even in the snow, as at the Blue Lagoon. Lamb, fish and seafood dominate the table, along with skyr and a few dishes from leaner times, such as fermented shark.