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Vestmannaeyjar or Westman Islands is a small cluster of islands off the south coast of Iceland. Only the largest, Heimaey is
inhabited.
The islands are named after Irish slaves. The Old Norse word "Vestmenn", literally "west-men", was applied to the Irish.
Archeologists have found out in the meantime that in the 7th and 8th century, there was indeed a settlement of celtic people on these islands. But it was not mentionned in the famous landnámabók (the book of the first
settlement of Iceland).
In the year 1627 the islands were attacked by a fleet of Algerian pirates, who killed many and enslaved much of the population and took them to Algeria where most of them lived the rest of their lives in bondage.
The area is very volcanically active, like the rest of Iceland. There were two
major eruptions in the 20th century. The Heimaey eruption of 1973 caused the island's 5000 inhabitants to be evacuated to the mainland and the Surtsey eruption of 1963 created the new island of Surtsey.
The islands were from 1998 to 2003 home of
Keiko the killer whale, the 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 because of the islanders inability to
participate in the festivities due to the 1000 year aniversary of inhabitation of Iceland, and decided to hold their own
festival. The word "Þjóðhátíð" means "national festival". For the first seventy years or so it was a large family oriented
festival, but has in the last century become a rite of passage for teenagers, and an exceptionally fun event for the
alcohol-oriented.
See also
External links
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