Ancestral Land

I am half Icelandic... a Viking woman... and I've started taking more of an interest in my heritage recently. My exposure growing up was minimal, as I spent a good portion of my childhood away from Manitoba, where the largest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland exists, in what was first called New Iceland. The university here offers an undergraduate degree in Icelandic Studies. No, I am not going back to school, but I might take some of the Iceland language classes to see if I can get a handle on the language. Having watched some videos online of how to say phrases in Icelandic, I think it would be easier to learn to speak it without reading it too! Complicated alphabet that threw me off, but listening did not.

I was looking through different websites and came across many photos of the verdant green-ness of Iceland in summer. Most of the island is under glaciers but the parts that are not are exquisitely lush in summer. No trees, mind you... just grass... but a horse's fantasy to be sure!

Iceland is called the land of fire and ice for good reason. Being covered in glaciers and having very active volcanoes (the world has been reminded of that just a couple months ago) means the coexistence of opposites. I found a stunning photo, which I stole without permission so I won't mention the photographer's name but his copyright is on it, so he still gets all the acknowledgement of sure a fantastic image!

The foreground is glacier, the background is lava, with the aurora borealis hovering above. How can one not be awed by the majesty and terrifying power of nature shown here? I so want to go there...