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Heimaey in February 2009. Looking north-east
Heimaey is located in Iceland
Heimaey off southwest Iceland
Heimaey harbour in June 2005, looking south
View from the Helgafell, looking north-west

Heimaey (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈheiːmaˌei]), literally Home Island, is an Icelandic island. At a size of 13.4 square kilometres (5.2 sq mi), it is the largest island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, and the largest and most populated island off the Icelandic coast. Heimaey lies approximately 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) off the south coast of Iceland. It is the only populated island of the Vestmannaeyjar islands, with a population of approximately 4,500.

In 1973, lava flow from nearby Eldfell destroyed half of the town and threatened to close off its harbour, its main income source. An operation to cool the advancing lava with sea water was successful in preventing the loss of the harbour.


Oldest tales[edit]

The Landnáma tells that after Ingólfur Arnarson, the first settler in Iceland, spent a winter at Ingólfshöfði, he released his Öndvegissúlur (chief's pillars) into the water and followed them west. (These were pillars associated with the chief's chair. They were put into the sea and let float to shore. Where they came ashore, the Viking who followed it would build his farm.) At Hjörleifshöfði, Ingólfur found that his brother/close friend Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson was dead and his slaves were missing. Out at sea he could see boats going toward a small group of islands, and he set off after them.

Abducted from the north of Ireland, the slaves were called westmen (Vestmenn), as before discovering Iceland, Ireland was the most western part of the world known to northern Europeans then (c. 840). The slaves went ashore at Heimaey and took shelter in the hills. Ingólfur hunted them and killed them in revenge for their murdering his foster brother. In the process, he named various places and landmarks. For example, he named "Dufþekja", an area on Heimaklettur, Heimaey's highest hill (283 m; 928 ft), after the slave Dufþakur (the Icelandic version of the Gaelic 'Dubhthach,' Anglicized as 'Duffy') who was said to have thrown himself off Heimaklettur at that point, preferring to take his own life than to let Ingólfur take it.

First settlers[edit]

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.[1]

Turkish Raid[edit]

In 1627, three Arab pirate ships from the Ottoman-controlled Barbary Coast raided several towns on the south coast of Iceland and outlying islands.[2] 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. From there she bought her way back to Iceland through Tunisia, Italy and Denmark—Iceland was then under Danish rule. Upon returning to Iceland, she married the poet Hallgrímur Pétursson. The Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran church in Reykjavík is named in his honour.


Sketch showing the changes to Heimaey caused by the eruption of Eldfell

Around 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 began to form. The fissures grew to 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) in length, and soon lava began to erupt. Lava sprayed into the air from the fissures in the ground. Volcanic ash was blown out 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 were blown on to 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 main source of livelihood for most of the town. The eruption lasted until 3 July the same year. Townspeople constantly sprayed the lava with cold seawater, causing some of it to solidify and much to be diverted, thus saving the harbour from destruction. The people were elated that their livelihoods remained intact, even though much of their town had been destroyed. During the eruption, half of the town was crushed and the island expanded in length. The eruption increased the area of Heimaey from about 11.2 km2 (4.3 sq mi) to about 13.44 km2 (5.19 sq mi). Only one man died in the eruption: a sailor who was smothered while looting a pharmacy.[3] The eruption is described by John McPhee in his book The Control of Nature.[3]

Present day[edit]

Vestmannaeyjar is home to around 4,500 people, and eight million puffins every summer.[4] 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. They hold an annual festival. People are then allowed to catch a few puffins to share at the festival, or to eat at home.

In popular culture[edit]

  • Some final shots of Chris Marker's 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 may refer 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 Sigurdardottir (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.


  1. ^ Jonsson, Sigurgeir. "About Westman Islands". Visit Westman Islands. Retrieved December 21, 2012. 
  2. ^ Tinniswood, Adrian (2010). Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean. Penguin. ISBN 9781101445310. Retrieved 2012-12-21. 
  3. ^ a b McPhee, John (1989). The Control of Nature. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374128901. 
  4. ^ Harding, Paul (2004). Iceland. Lonely Planet. p. 129. 

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 63°25′N 20°17′W﻿ / ﻿63.417°N 20.283°W﻿ / 63.417; -20.283