Sumarnætur: Summer Nights in Iceland – 11

July 12, 2021

Gates of the Arctic.

Summer nights in Iceland are not all honeyed light of the low midnight sun. In the far-flung Langanes peninsula on the northeastern tip, fog, and with it, a sense of isolation, are recurring themes.

Here at the gates of the Arctic, the headland tapers into the cold waters of the Greenland Sea. When not lashed by ferocious storms, its still and forlorn expanse evokes a feeling of melancholy, what the Portuguese aptly refer to as saudade. In the summer months, hundreds of thousands of sea birds take up residence in the cliffs.

Once a thriving settlement, the tip of Langanes is now abandoned, with the last of the families vacating in 1955. During WWII, both the British soldiers and the US Marines maintained a presence here; ruins of concrete and rusted metal serve as reminders of their time.

The Sumarnætur collection.