Heimaey

In tradition, Herjólfur Bárðarson was said to be the first person to settle in Heimaey. According to the Landnáma, he built his farm in Herjólfsdalur (literally: Herjólf's valley) about 900. The archaeological excavation in 1971 of ancient ruins in Herjólfsdalur revealed that there had been settlement nearly 100 years earlier.{{cite web | url=http://www.visitwestmanislands.com | title=About Westman Islands | work=Visit Westman Islands | access-date=December 21, 2012 | author=Jonsson, Sigurgeir}}

In 1627, three Arab pirate ships from the Ottoman-controlled Barbary Coast raided several towns on the south coast of Iceland and outlying islands.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IBSVMivndEQC&q=1627+muslim+raid+iceland&pg=PT116 | title=Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean | publisher=Penguin | author=Tinniswood, Adrian | year=2010 | isbn=9781101445310 | access-date=2012-12-21}} They attacked Grindavík and Heimaey. In Grindavík, townspeople could flee into the lava field of Reykjanes and hide indefinitely. Heimaey was so isolated that it was vulnerable and people suffered. Many heroic stories were told of the people who survived the invasion, most notably Guðríður Símonardóttir. Better known as Tyrkja-Gudda (Turkish-Gudda), she was taken by the pirates from her home at Stakkagerði on Heimaey to the slave market in Algeria. She was eventually ransomed back to Denmark by King Christian IV of Denmark and was re-educated by and later married the poet Hallgrímur Pétursson. The Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran church in Reykjavík is named in his honour.

File:Eldfell_eruption_en.svg

{{main|Eldfell}}

At 01:00 on 23 January 1973, a volcanic eruption of the mountain Eldfell began on Heimaey. The ground on Heimaey started to quake and fissures formed. The fissures grew to {{convert|1600|m|ft}} in length, and lava began to erupt. Lava sprayed into the air from the fissures. Volcanic ash was blown to sea. Later, the situation deteriorated. When the fissures closed, the eruption converted to a concentrated lava flow that headed toward the harbour. The winds changed, and half a million cubic metres of ash blew on the town. During the night, the 5,000 inhabitants of the island were evacuated, mostly by fishing boats, as almost the entire fishing fleet was in dock.

The encroaching lava flow threatened to destroy the harbour. The eruption lasted until 3 July. Icelanders sprayed the lava with six million tons of cold seawater, causing some to solidify and much to be diverted, thus saving the harbour.{{cite web|last1=William|first1=Richard|title=Man Against Volcano: The Eruption of Heimay, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland (2nd Edition)|url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/heimaey/heimaey.pdf|website=pubs.usgs.gov|access-date=14 May 2016}} During the eruption, half of the town was crushed and the island expanded in length. The eruption increased the area of Heimaey from {{convert|11.2|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} to {{convert|13.44|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}. Only one man died in the eruption.{{cite web|url=http://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2014/09/26/which-way-|title=Which Way The Wind Blows - The Reykjavik Grapevine|last=grapevine.is|date=26 September 2014}}{{cite book | title=The Control of Nature | publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux | author=McPhee, John | year=1989 | location=New York | isbn=0374128901}} The eruption is described by John McPhee in his book The Control of Nature.

Heimaey is home to around 4,500 people, and eight million puffins

every summer.{{cite book | title=Iceland | publisher=Lonely Planet | author=Harding, Paul | year=2004 | page=129}} Many millions of other birds migrate there for breeding and feeding.

The island is connected to the rest of Iceland by a ferry and Vestmannaeyjar Airport.

Most people on the island live off fishing. During an annual festival, people are allowed to catch a few puffins to share at the festival, or to eat at home.

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• Some final shots of Chris Marker's film Sans Soleil are of stark white Heimaey houses slowly buried by the deep black volcanic ash of the eruption. The backdrop reveals splashes of red lava as it flows into a steel-grey sea.
• Heimaey is mentioned in the song "Island" by American progressive-metal band Mastodon. The line is "Lava goddess, Ice and fire, Settling down, Ocean Geysir, Gullfoss, Heimaey 73." This refers to the eruption of Eldfell.
• Keiko the whale from the Free Willy films was in real life flown to Klettsvik Bay on Heimaey as his final home before being freed.
• Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (2007, English Translation 2011), the third of her murder mysteries set in Iceland, is largely set on Heimaey and focuses round the Eldfell eruption of 1973, and discoveries resulting from excavation, more than 30 years later, of a house buried in the volcanic ash.
• Heimaey features in Bruce McMillan's photo-illustrated children book Nights of the Pufflings (1995). In the story a tradition of rescuing young birds, pufflings, by local children is told. The pufflings take their first flight on August nights, and get accidentally stranded in the village streets. The children then set them free at the beach at daytime.
• The 1973 album Sumut by Greenlandic rock band Sumé features a song called "{{lang|kl|Heimaey erĸaivdlugo}}" (English: "Ode to Heimaey").

Helgafell, Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-17, DD 008.JPG|Helgafell volcano

Eldfell, Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-17, DD 067.jpg|Eldfell volcano

Acantilados de Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-17, DD 055.JPG|View of the island

Roca del elefante, Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-17, DD 043.JPG|View of the island

Puerto de Vestmannaeyjar, Heimaey, Islas Vestman, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-17, DD 093.JPG|Vestmannaeyjar harbour in Heimaey

{{reflist}}

{{commons category}}

{{wikivoyage}}

• [http://www.vestmannaeyjar.is Vestmannaeyjar town council]
• [http://bookingwestmanislands.is/ Travel info ]
• [http://www.visitwestmanislands.com All you need to know about Westman Islands]
• [http://www.eyjafrettir.is Local newspaper]
• [http://www.eyjar.net Local newspaper]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160428163004/http://puffinwalk.com/more-photos/ Photos from Westman Islands]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060831211339/http://www.heimaey.is/thumbnails.php?album=5 Photos]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204101629/http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/volcanoes/volc_images/europe_west_asia/heimaey/heimaey.html VolcanoWorld page]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20020814081226/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0812_020812_TVpuffin.html "Icelandic Kids Save Befuddled Puffins," National Geographic Today]

{{Islands of Iceland}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Vestmannaeyjar

Category:Islands of Iceland