The dark waters foam in the wake of the ferry. Before us, gilded shards of fog dance in the light of the setting sun, and the crests of the waves are coloured a brilliant gold. A flock of seagulls flies merrily alongside us, hoping for a fish or two from the crew. The air has a hint of salt. In the distance, the peaks of the group of islands begin to loom up. One of the islands is half hiding behind the other, the third a little further along. I count more than ten of them. They are black shapes against the pink and purple evening sky. The time for photos has arrived and the Vestmannaeyjar, also known as the Westman Islands, are very photogenic subjects.

The islands lie barely 11km off the coast of mainland Iceland, 135km from the capital Reykjavik. Driving there is a visual delight through the almost unearthly beautiful landscape of western Iceland, past heavily moss-covered lava fields that look as if they have been churned up by a giant mole, and past the Seljalandsfoss, a 65m high, hypnotising waterfall which you can access via a slippery green path. On clear days you have a good view of the Westman Islands through the clear waters of the waterfall, crashing down onto the rocks with the thunderous noise of a jet engine.

Herjólfur pulls into the natural harbour of Heimaey, the largest and only inhabited island in the archipelago. To my right are tall, black rocks, which closer to the water are coloured in various shades of algae and seaweed green. It is as if I have entered a fairytale. The twilight gives the sky a deep-blue hue. The orange light of the town frames the rocks and the water in a warm glow. Shielded by the tall rocks, fishing boats bob up and down in the harbour. Some of the vessels are lit up, their crews busy at work, whilst others snooze gently in the swell. Welcome to Heimaey, also affectionately known as the Pompeii of the North.

23 January 1973. Recently there have been several light tremors, but today the earth has torn open. First a small crack, but soon a 3km crevice opens up across the island. A spectacular lava fountain begins to spray out across the length of the fissure. It looks rather bad for the 5000 inhabitants of the island. They knew they lived on a volcano, the vast volcano Helgafell looking down over the town on a daily basis, but now a second volcano is forming at a rapid pace, and unlike Helgafell the new volcano, Eldfell (Fire Mountain), lives up to its name. Hell is trying to crawl up onto the Earth. Glowing lava flows down into Heimaey from the east as hot ash rains down. 400 houses disappear into the molten lava. The inhabitants of the village are quickly evacuated. The entire fishing fleet is in port as the previous days’ weather has prevented them from sailing out, thank God. It’s a miracle that there was only one death, an alcoholic who had fallen asleep in his cellar.

Mother Earth spews forth its magma on a daily basis. The strength of the eruption then begins to quickly peter out. In a combined effort the remaining inhabitants of the village fight to stem the tide of the lava flow by cooling it with sea water. It takes until July for the eruption to finally stop, after which the island has increased in size from 10km² to 12.5km², a 20% increase in land area caused by the cooled lava. The island has also gained a 220m high hill: the Eldfell volcano.

 

The islands were named after the Westmannen, the name the Vikings gave to the Irish. Back then the world ended at Ireland, the most westerly piece of land on Earth. Go any further and you’d end up falling off the edge, according to the ancient Icelandic manuscript, the Landnámabók. The colonisation of Iceland began in 870 with the arrival of the Norwegian Ingólfur Arnarson on the island’s southern coast. His brother-in-law Hjörleifur Hróðmarsson was also there, but not for long. A year later Hjörleifur was murdered by his Irish slaves, who then fled to the islands following their foul deed in order to escape the wrath of Ingólfur. The plan didn’t entirely work out as planned, as Ingólfur slew the Westmannen one by one. From that moment the islands were known as the Vestmannaeyjar, a.k.a the Westman Islands.