Three days into a trek across the volcanic highlands of southwest Iceland, it occurs to me: This is Tolkien's Middle-earth. With its obsidian lava fields and steaming hot springs, its moss-covered foothills and treeless valleys, Iceland is Mordor one минута and the Shire the next. It has a magical quality to it, this Land of огонь and Ice—as if it has been plucked from the imagination and placed here, somewhere between Европа and North America, to be a playground for the adventurous traveler.
A thousand years ago, Iceland's Viking settlers sent criminals to the island's inhospitable interior,...
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