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Black Sun, High Flame, and Flood: Volcanic Hazards in Iceland
Andrew Dugmore and Orri Vésteinsson
Sól tér sortna, sígur fold í mar,
hverfa af himni heiðar stjörnur.
Geisar eimi við aldurnara,
leikur hár hiti við himin sjálfan.
The sun turns black, earth sinks into the sea,
the bright stars vanish from the sky;
steam rises up in the conflagration,
a high flame plays against heaven itself.
“Völuspá” (The Wise Woman’s Prophecy), ca. AD 1270
Larrington 1996: 11
Iceland is one of the most volcanically active areas on earth, but were it not
for the description of the end of the world in the poem “Völuspá,” one might
think volcanic activity made little impression on Medieval Icelanders. Volcanic
eruptions are duly recorded in annals from the early twelfth century onward,
but as a rule they are noted with terse one-line accounts such as “1158: second
fire in Hekla” (Storm 1888: 116) or at most with minimal amplifications like
“such great darkness that the sun was blocked” (ibid.: 134). The most detailed
surviving description is given for events in AD 1362:
Fire erupted in four places in the South and lasted from early June until
autumn with such enormities that the whole of Litlahérað was deserted, and
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