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Authorities reluctant to renew passport of Harriet, 10, as name is not on approved list of 3,565You can be Aagot, Arney or Ásfríður; Baldey, Bebba or Brá. Dögg, Dimmblá, Etna and Eybjört are fine; likewise Frigg, Glódís, Hörn and Ingunn. Jórlaug works OK, as do Obba, Sigurfljóð, Úranía and – should you choose – Vagna. But you cannot, as a girl in Iceland, be called Harriet. "The whole situation," said Tristan Cardew, with very British understatement, "is really rather silly." With his Icelandic wife Kristin, Cardew is appealing against a decision by the National Registry in Reykjavik not to renew...

Plans to build a new road in Iceland ran into trouble recently when campaigners warned that it would disturb elves living in its path. Construction work had to be stopped while a solution was found. From his desk at the Icelandic highways department in Reykjavik, Petur Matthiasson smiles at me warmly from behind his glasses, but firmly. "Let's get this straight before we start - I do not believe in elves," he says. I raise my eyebrows slightly and incline my head towards his computer screen which is displaying the plans for a new road in a neighbouring town. There...

Iceland was not amongst the countries invited to take part in a conference on the world’s oceans, due to the continued practice of whale hunting. RÚV reports that the conference – Our Ocean – is hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Many countries around the world have been invited to take part in the two-day conference, where subjects such as pollution and sustainability in our world’s oceans will be discussed. Iceland, despite having sought to participate, has not been invited to take part in the conference, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says this because of whale hunting....

Today is 17th June, Iceland’s national day. It is a public holiday and one of the biggest festival days of the year. There are many official and unofficial events in practically every city, town and tiny village across Iceland. A parade featuring a brass band, the scouts and police in ceremonial uniform are widespread; as are speeches by local officials and a reading by Fjallkonan – the mountain woman. The mountain woman wears an ornate version of the Icelandic national costume, with gold trimmings. Symbolically, she is the spirit of the nation. In Reykjavík, the ceremony takes place on Austurvöllur...

PLIMER: "Okay, here's the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland .. Since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet - all of you. Of course, you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life. I know....it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings...

Steeped with folklore and mythology, Iceland is no stranger to tales of elves roaming the wilderness. Last December, 25 people turned out to protest the construction of a road through a lava field near Reykjavik on the basis that it would pass through a rock believed to be an elven church. One of those participating in the protests was Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, who from an early age maintained that she had the ability to see and communicate with these mythological sprites. No stranger to the inquisitive glance of strangers, Jónsdóttir remains steadfast in her beliefs and is convinced that everything she...

<p>A stunning new video of Iceland's rumbling, smoking volcano shows rainbow-like shockwaves belching from the crater like snakes from a can of nuts.</p> <p>A stunning new video of Iceland's rumbling, smoking volcano Eyjafjallajokull shows rainbow-like shockwaves belching from the crater like snakes from a can of nuts.</p>

Awesome pics of Mother Nature

Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle (Stromboli Online) Explanation: Why did the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? Although the large ash plume was not unparalleled in its abundance, its location was particularly noticeable because it drifted across such well populated areas. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of small glacier on April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into...

The worry now is that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano may cause the Katla volcano to erupt. Scientists fear that a Katla eruption would be a much larger and much more dangerous eruption than Eyjafjallajokull was. The Katla volcano is sitting on a glacier that has much ice covering.

Explanation: Why did a picturesque 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? Although the large ash plume was not unparalleled in its abundance, its location was particularly noticeable because it drifted across such well-populated areas. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on 2010 March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of a small glacier on 2010 April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising volcanic plume....

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Viking longhouse that many believe was the home of Snorri Thorfinnsson, thought to be the first European born in the New World.</p> <p>The 1,000-year-old ruins were found in a glacial valley in northern Iceland during a survey of Viking-era buildings led by archaeologists at the University of California, Los Angeles.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Viking longhouse that many believe was the home of Snorri Thorfinnsson, thought to be the first European born in the New World.</p> <p>The 1,000-year-old ruins were found in a glacial valley in northern Iceland during a survey of Viking-era buildings led by archaeologists at the University of California, Los Angeles.</p>

Auroracoin, the “cryptocurrency for Iceland”, will begin distributing auroracoins to the country’s citizens this week, starting tomorrow, 25th March. The distribution, which is being called Airdrop, will send 50% of the total auroracoins in circulation to the country’s populace. Icelandic residents that enter their permanent resident ID on auroracoin’s official website will receive 31.8 AUR (roughly $385 at press time). The fourth-place digital currency in terms of overall market cap, Auroracoin quickly rose to prominence even amongst the myriad of new digital currencies for its unique approach to community building. Further, as it climbed up the market cap leaderboard, auroracoin...

Explanation: If you see a sky like this -- photograph it. A month ago in Iceland, an adventurous photographer (pictured) chanced across a sky full of aurora and did just that. In the foreground lies the stratovolcano Öræfajökull. In the background, among other sky delights, lies the constellation of Orion, visible to the aurora's left. Auroras are sparked by energetic particles from the Sun impacting the magnetic environment around the Earth. Resultant energetic particles such as electrons and protons rain down near the Earth's poles and impact the air. The impacted air molecules obtain excited electrons, and when electrons in...

An Alaska senator said the State Department called his office today to say that they would be creating a post for a U.S. ambassador to the Arctic. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) introduced the United States Ambassador at Large for Arctic Affairs Act a year ago, pressing Secretary of State John Kerry to make the appointment on economic and national security grounds. Six of the eight Arctic nations currently have ambassador-level diplomats representing their interests before the Arctic Council. The United States will assume the chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2015. “It’s not always easy explaining to Washington bureaucrats how...

"If these negotiations [with Iran] fail, there are two grim alternatives," said Sen. Richard Durbin, "a nuclear Iran, or war, or perhaps both." Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham returned from the Munich security conference saying that even John Kerry agrees that President Obama's Syrian policy has failed. They are urging another look at air strikes. North Korea is warning that should the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises go forward in March, it could mean war, possibly nuclear war. Philippines President Benigno Aquino III this week compared his country's situation to Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the disputed islets off his...

A paper published January 21st in Quaternary Science Reviews reconstructs storm activity in Iceland over the past 1,200 years and finds storminess and extreme weather variability was far more common during the Little Ice Age in comparison to the Medieval Warm Period and the 20th century. The paper adds to many other peer-reviewed publications finding global warming decreases storm activity, the opposite of claims by climate alarmists....

American progressives like to think of their country as backward and reactionary compared to Europe. And they have never been more right than now when Europe and the rest of the First World have gone right while America under Obama has been left back. Recently Australia, Japan and Norway welcomed in conservative governments. Tony Abbott, Australia’s new prime minister, is a former heavyweight boxer who attended Oxford and is putting a spoke in the wheel of the Global Warming ecohoax. Japan is casting off its pacifism and standing up to the People’s Republic of China and Norway gave its left-wing...

Elf advocates in Iceland joined forces with environmentalists to urge authorities to abandon a highway project that they claim will disturb elf habitat. The project has been halted until the supreme court of Iceland rules on a case brought by a group known as Friends of Lava, who cite both the environmental impact and the detrimental effect on elf culture of the road project. The group has regularly mobilised hundreds of people to block bulldozers building a direct route from the tip of the Álftanes peninsula, where the president has a property, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. Issues about...