‘The alternative history of Iceland’ podcast: ‘What if Iceland had been wiped out by a volcano?’1 min read

‘The alternative history of Iceland’ podcast: ‘What if Iceland had been wiped out by a volcano?’

For almost a thousand years, nature had been torturing the poor residents of Iceland. Then, in 1783, it decided to finish the job. A volcano erupted that was felt around the world, nowhere more so than in Iceland itself. About a third of the population perished and the Danes considered transporting the survivors to Denmark. What if they had? How would they have fared? And what would have become of the unpopulated island? 

What if Icelanders had settled in North America during the Viking Age? What if Iceland was wiped out by a volcano and the survivors moved to Denmark? What if Iceland had been occupied by the Nazis instead of the Allies? What if the Nordic Countries had united? And what if the economic collapse had been averted? Listen to historians Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson talk about Icelandic history as it happened and what could have been. Produced by Sindri Freyr Steinsson.

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