RSS feed from icelandreview.com 
Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
more
Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
more
An extensive archeological project on behalf of the National Museum of Iceland, which began in 2001, is currently taking place in Mosfellsdalur valley in southwest Iceland. A farm is being excavated where saga hero Egill Skalla-Grímsson is believed to have lived.
On the farm, which is called Mosfell, there was also a church which was mentioned in Egils Saga. According to the saga, Skalla-Grímsson spent his last years, 974 to 990, on Mosfell with his niece Thórdís and her husband, Morgunbladid reports.
The Mosfell project is so extensive that archeologists don’t know when it will finish and research in relation to the objects excavated and the farm itself will take years.
“It is a large house, compared to Icelandic houses, and among the largest houses ever excavated [in Iceland],” said archeologist Davide Zori, who is participating in the project.
The building is well preserved and the remains of doors and pillars are clearly visible as are the locations of the rooms. There are also clear remains of a large fireplace in the center of the building.
Objects that have been discovered in the excavation process support theories that wealthy people used to live on the farm, including various pearls, around 20 in total, some with a gold cover and others with silver in between layers of glass. Some of these pearls are painted according to South Asian traditions.
Archeologist Sigrid Juel Hansen said it is incredible how many pearls have been discovered which were very valuable in the early middle ages.
Underneath the Mosfell church an empty grave was discovered which may possibly have been the resting place of Skalla-Grímsson. According to Egils saga, his remains were buried underneath the church’s altar until they were relocated along with the church.
The Viking’s silver treasure has, however, not been discovered yet. According to legend, he buried it in an area within a distance of one night’s ride from Mosfell.
Archeologists from Denmark, Canada, Italy, England and other countries are participating in the project and filmmaker Adam Fish is working on a documentary about it, scheduled to finish by the end of this year.
The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
more
The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
more
The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
more
One hundred and forty million cubic meters of ash is estimated to have fallen in Iceland during the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull last spring. That excludes all the ash that fell into the ocean and in other countries.
more
The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
more
REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
more
On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
more
Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
more
