Everything about Vestmannaeyjar totally explained
» See also Vestmanna.
Vestmannaeyjar (English: The
Westman Islands) is a small
archipelago off the south coast of
Iceland. Only the largest,
Heimaey, is inhabited.
Geography
Vestmannaeyjar consist of the following islands:
Total: 16,3 km²
Name and history
The islands are named after the
Irish who were captured into
slavery by the
Norse Gaels. The
Old Norse word
Vestmenn, literally "
Westmen", was applied to the Irish, and retained in
Icelandic even though
Ireland is more easterly than Iceland. Not long after
Ingólfur Arnarson arrived in Iceland, his brother
Hjörleifur was murdered by the slaves he'd brought with him. Ingolfur tracked them down to Vestmannaeyjar and killed them all in retribution.
On June 20,
1627, in an event known as
the Turkish abductions, the islands were captured by an
Ottoman fleet of 15 ships (12 galleys and 3 other types of vessels), accompanied by the
Barbary Pirates from
Algiers, under the guidance of
Murat Reis; who stayed there for 26 days until July 16, 1627. The forces of Murat Reis enslaved 400 people from the islands and took them to Algiers (after a voyage which lasted 27 days) where most of them spent the rest of their lives in bondage. One of the captives,
Ólafur Egilsson, later managed to return back and wrote a book about his experience. Subsequently, a Turkish corsair named Ali Biçin Reis also came to the archipelago and Iceland itself, from where he took 800 slaves.
The area is very volcanically active, like the rest of
Iceland. There were two major eruptions in the 20th century: the
Eldfell eruption of January
1973 which created a 700-foot-high mountain where a meadow had been, and caused the island's 5000 inhabitants to be temporarily evacuated to the mainland, and an eruption in
1963 created the new island of
Surtsey.
From
1998 to
2003 the islands were home to
Keiko the killer whale, star of
Free Willy.
The islands are famed in
Iceland for their yearly
festival,
Þjóðhátíð (
Thjodhatid, English: "national festival". See
Wiktionary:þjóð
), which attracts a large portion of the nation's youth. The festival was originally held in 1874, concurrent with Iceland's celebration commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the inhabitation of Iceland. Vestmannaeyjar residents had been prevented by weather from sailing to the mainland for the festivities and thus celebrated locally. Over the last century, the festival has grown to become the largest festival in Iceland, with an annual attendance of 10,000, with up to 7,000 travelling from mainland Iceland.
The current Mayor of Vestmannaeyjar is Elliði Vignisson.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Vestmannaeyjar'.
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