Vestmannaeyjar - City of Iceland

Vestmannaeyjar are named after the Irish who were captured into slavery by the Norse Gaels. The Old Norse word Vestmenn, literally "Westmen", was applied to the Irish, and retained in Icelandic even though Ireland is more easterly than Iceland. Not long after Ingólfur Arnarson arrived in Iceland, his brother Hjörleifur was murdered by the slaves he had brought with him. Ingolfur tracked them down to Vestmannaeyjar and killed them all in retribution.

Vestmannaeyjar is a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The other islands are uninhabited, though two have single hunting cabins. The archipelago came to international attention in 1973 when Icelanders battled to prevent lava from the volcano Eldfell blocking Heimaey's harbour.

The area is very volcanically active, like the rest of Iceland. There were two major eruptions in the 20th century: the Eldfell eruption of January 1973 which created a 700-foot-high mountain where a meadow had been, and caused the island's 5000 inhabitants to be temporarily evacuated to the mainland, and an eruption in 1963 created the new island of Surtsey.

From 1998 to 2003 the islands were home to Keiko the killer whale, star of Free Willy.

The islands are famed in Iceland for their yearly festival, Þjóðhátíð , which attracts a large portion of the nation's youth. The festival was originally held in 1874, concurrent with Iceland's celebration commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the inhabitation of Iceland. Vestmannaeyjar residents had been prevented by weather from sailing to the mainland for the festivities and thus celebrated locally. Over the last century, the festival has grown to become the largest festival in Iceland.