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Ice and Fire

The passage discusses Iceland's unique landscape and culture. Iceland is geographically isolated from Scandinavia and its real neighbors are Greenland and the Arctic ice cap. Its volcanic landscape has been shaped by ice and fire over centuries. Despite lacking support from European artistic movements, Icelandic culture has flourished, as evidenced by Reykjavik's many musical and theatrical events and a respected film industry. Icelandic art reflects the danger of living in a country with active volcanoes, where eruptions can flood areas and destroy settlements.

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Tafannun Rahman
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4K views1 page

Ice and Fire

The passage discusses Iceland's unique landscape and culture. Iceland is geographically isolated from Scandinavia and its real neighbors are Greenland and the Arctic ice cap. Its volcanic landscape has been shaped by ice and fire over centuries. Despite lacking support from European artistic movements, Icelandic culture has flourished, as evidenced by Reykjavik's many musical and theatrical events and a respected film industry. Icelandic art reflects the danger of living in a country with active volcanoes, where eruptions can flood areas and destroy settlements.

Uploaded by

Tafannun Rahman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ice and Fire

The poet W.H. Auden once wrote: “To me Iceland is scared soil. It’s memory is a constant
background to what I’m doing. It is a permanent part of my existence. I could say Iceland is the sun
colouring the mountains without being anywhere in sight, even sunk beyond the horizon… .” The
extraordinary and lasting effect that this small island of 270,000 inhabitants invariably has on its visitors
is as enigmatic as the land itself. Those once intoxicated by it are likely to become addicts for life;those
who resoil the horror at the bleak lava fields, which surround its airport, may never return. [Paragraph 1]
Iceland is as distant in topographical character, modes of life and attitudes from its Nordic
neighbours on the Scandinavian main land as it is geographically. Isolated far north-west in the North
Atlantic, its real neighbours are Greenland and Arctic ice-cap. Far from the forested mountains if Norway
or the flat lakes of Finland, its geologically landscape is constantly being carved by the activity of ice and
fire. Volcanoes, glaciers and 700 years of Danish colonial rule have improverished the land, enriched the
human spirit. [Paragraph 2]
In its cultural history, Iceland has enjoyed no heritage of court patronage, no
interfertilisation with the European Renaissance, Baroque or Enlightenment. Yet from the first
murmuring of national affirmation in the latter half of the nineteenth century to full independence in
1944, cultural activity has sprung up like the geysers which shoot high from the country’s geothermal
energy sources just under the earth’s crust. [Paragraph 3]
Reykjavik can now boast as many as 60 musical events per month; it has two lively theatres, an
opera company an a flourishing and internationally respected film industry. Much Icelandic art articulates
the sense of danger felt living in a country with at least 30 live volcanoes: when one erupted under the
glacier in the autumn of 1996, the subsequent flooding swept away roads and bridges to the tune of six
million pounds. And, despite a sophisticated system of damage limitation, maverick avalanches can
destroy entire settelments. [Paragraph 4]

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