Enjoy the Silence

Kirk at Vik, Photo by VikingChild

More peaceful imagery from Iceland. Vik is a small village, the most southerly in Iceland, kinda near the middle. The population is around 300 in the town itself, and the church is to the east side, up on the hill as seen in the photo.

I love the straightforwardness of place names in Iceland. Many are in common with other Norse languages, but Icelandic has remained the most pure. A short glossary:

• dalur = valley
• foss = waterfall
• gata = trail
• hver = hot spring (pron. "kver")
• jökull = glacier
• laugar = hot spring
• skógar = forest
• vatn = lake or water
• vik = bay, cove, creek
• völlur = flat land

Others, like fjörður, are obvious...and some, like "fell" are also in dialects in the UK.

I like Vik. Reykjavik means "smoky bay"...and one of the possible etymologies of the word "viking" come from the idea of people coming from a bay - "vik - ing". Just like me?