Iceland: Songs Of Ice And Fire

Iceland’s primeval landscape gives Ashish Kothari a glimpse into a world where the Ice age still shapes the land.

- Ashish Kothari

    

 

 

Some scenes of Game of Thrones were shot here,” my host tells me casually. There is not a shred of disbelief in me as I look around; the area’s landscape is beyond anything any TV series can conjure up. Jagged rocky cliffs, vast plains made of volcanic lava criss-crossed by myriad streams, startling patches of rising steam, snow-topped peaks in the distance, furiously cascading waterfalls, and villages which are clearly just emerging from their ancient Viking past—all this is what Iceland is made of. George R.R. Martin’s epic tale of intrigue, power and romance in a fantastical alternate version of the Middle Ages could not have found a more apt site to be filmed in.

I was at Thingvellir National Park, and my host was Einer Saemundsen, the Interpretive Officer of the park. This is where Iceland’s earliest general assemblies were held in the early 10th century CE, large gatherings of men (yes, only men) from various parts of the island. Rules and edicts governing the conduct of all residents were decided on and announced here, and Iceland justifiably boasts of having amongst the earliest ‘parliaments’ in the world. For both cultural and natural reasons, Thingvellir is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It does have its dark side, as a site where harsh punishments were carried out; pools were pointed out to us where violators of rules (often women who did not adhere to norms set by men, or were blamed for being ‘witches’) were drowned.