Planet ring menu3/27/2023 ![]() ![]() While most of the stories are rooted in fact, many have a fantastical streak that stems from Iceland’s pantheon of myths and legends: strange tales of trolls, giants and dragons, as well as the island’s huldufólk (hidden folk) of gnomes, dwarves, fairies and elves. Iceland's horses have developed their distinctive traits over some 1,100 years © Gary Latham/Lonely PlanetĪs the Ring Road swerves inland across the humpbacked hills northwest of Borgarnes, it passes many locations from the Sagas: a farmstead that features in Egil’s Saga, a hot spring where the hero of Grettir’s Saga soothed his battle-weary bones. First written down by historians in the 12th and 13th centuries, but rooted in an older tradition of oral storytelling, these tales of family feuds, doomed heroes, warrior kings and tragic romances are part genealogy, part history, part drama. To Icelanders, this area is synonymous with the Sagas, the tales that are a cornerstone of Icelandic culture. Verne wasn’t the first writer to find inspiration among the fjords and valleys of Iceland’s west. The volcano remains a brooding presence as the Ring Road heads north from Reykjavík’s suburbs – a reminder that the forces of nature are never far away. Looking north across the bay of Faxaflói, a craggy finger of land extends along the horizon, terminating in the snow-capped summit of Snæfellsjökull, used as the setting for Jules Verne’s classic adventure tale, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. ![]() Even here, among the art galleries and pubs, hints of Iceland’s wilder side are easy to find. Naturally enough, all distances along Route 1 are measured from Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík. Circling around the island’s coastline for 830 miles, the Ring Road is an engineering marvel as well as a national emblem. Wild weather is par for the course on Iceland’s Ring Road – or Route 1, as it’s designated on highway maps. Now and then, black peaks emerge from the gloom, and slashes in the cloud reveal sudden glimpses of coastline: rocky cliffs, grassy dunes, wild beaches of black sand. ![]() Fog cloaks the road, blending land, sea and sky into a spectral grey. It’s mid-morning on Iceland’s east coast, but it might as well be midnight. It would take roughly 16 hours to drive non-stop around Iceland’s Ring Road © Gary Latham/Lonely Planet ![]()
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