CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According to a Live Science report, researchers led by volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer of the University of Cambridge examined ice cores and tree ring data from Iceland, in order to calculate precise dates for the medieval eruption of the Eldgjá volcano, and determine whether the massive lava flood and sulphurous gases emitted by the eruption could have been witnessed by the Viking and Celtic migrants who settled Iceland in A.D. 874. The study indicates the lava flowed from the spring of A.D. 939 through the autumn of 940. These dates also correspond with records of haze, cold summers, and food shortages in Europe. Oppenheimer says the dates indicate that some of Iceland’s first settlers, and perhaps two generations of their descendants, may have witnessed and survived the cataclysm, and eventually translated their experiences, including the ensuing devastation and famine, into the Voluspá, a poem written around A.D. 961. It describes a volcanic eruption and meteorological events signifying the end of the island’s pagan gods and is credited with paving the way for the Christianization of Iceland. To read more about archaeology in Iceland, go to “The Blackener’s Cave.”
