Sod-Roofed Farmhouses at Reykjavík’s Árbær Open Air Museum

There is an old joke that goes: What do you do if lost in an Icelandic forest? Answer: Stand Up.

Because of the Arctic winds that scour the island of Iceland, there are no substantial forests. At one time there were more than there are now., but the early settlers burned them for fuel. Even then, in no case was there enough wood of the right kind to build structures, unless the wood was shipped over at ruinous cost from Scandinavia.

Notice in the above photo the sparing use of wood on the short sides of the above structures. The photo was taken at the Árbær Open Air Museum in Reykjavík, which includes buildings that had been moved to the museum from other parts of the city and country.

Shown below is the layout of the turf house at Stöng in Southwest Iceland:

Farmhouse Layout at Stöng

The single largest room consists of two rows of benches where the residents slept. There was no living room as such, though there was a combined dining room/kitchen on the left. Add a storeroom and a lavatory, and that’s pretty much it.

If you read any Icelandic literature, such as Halldór Laxness’s Independent People, you will find that, before independence, the lives of Icelanders were grim to say the least. Now Iceland is enjoying prosperity due mostly to tourism.

It’s an expensive country to visit, but note that the tourist season is only three months long: from June through August. Some people visit in the winter, mostly to see the Northern Lights, but the weather can be forbidding.