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HRAUNHAFNARTANGI

Region: North Iceland
Coordinates: 66.4958° N 16.07787° W

Hraunhafnartangi is the second northernmost point of the country (66°32’03″N) just 3 kilometres south of the Polar Circle. The lighthouse was moved there from Rifstangi, the northernmost point of the country, in 1945. Lake Hraunhafnarvatn is a good trout and char fishing lake.

The Foster Brother Saga tells about the sleighing of Thorgeir Havarsson after his brave defence and 14 dead enemies. A heap of stones on the spot is said to be his burial mound.

Sagas of Iceland Hraunhofn is mentioned in two other Sagas, The Gunnlaugs Saga and The Reykdaela Saga, and also in The Book of Settlements, which tells us about the first settler in the area, Arngeir. His sons were Thorgils and Oddur and the daughter Thuridur. Once Arngeir and Thorgils went to round up some sheep and were attacked by a polar bear and killed. Oddur arrived where they had been killed shortly afterwards, killed the bear, took it home, and ate it. The meat made him berserk like and difficult to handle. At one time he received a message from his sister, who lived at the farm Steinastadir in the Thjorsa Valley in the South, asking for his immediate help against her aggressive neighbours, who were going to stone her to death for witchcraft. He left on foot from Hraunhofn in the evening and arrived at Steinastadir early next morning, in time to save her sisters life.

He covered a distance of 200-300 km in one night, which goes to show how powerful the bear meat was. Once, after one of the plagues had almost desolated the north-easternmost part of the country, a young man, who was the only survivor of several farms, and a young woman, who lived far to the west and faced the same situation, left their homes on foot to seek someone alive elsewhere. They eventually met on a spot called Meyjarthufa, The Virgin Mound, and started a new generation.

The easternmost point of the country is Gerpir (13°30’V),
The northernmost point of the country is Rifstangi. second northernmost point Hraunhafnartangi (66°32’N),
The westernmost point Bjargtangar Latrabjarg (24°32’V; also the westernmost part of Europe)
The southernmost point, Kotlutangi (63°23’N). Hjorleifshodi