Berserkjahraun

About Berserkjahraun

Berserkjahraun is a moss-covered lava field on the north side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, between Stykkishólmur and Grundarfjörður. Few lava fields in Iceland come with a murder story attached, and this one takes its name from two berserkers killed here in Eyrbyggja saga.

The Berserkjahraun lava field formed roughly 4,000 years ago, when four scoria craters erupted in quick succession and sent lava down from the mountains to the sea at Hraunsfjörður. What's left is a jagged field of black and gray rock under thick green and gray moss, with the reddish crater cones still rising along its inland edge.

The saga explains the name. The farmer Víga-Styr of Hraun had two Swedish berserkers, Halli and Leiknir, in his household, and when Halli asked to marry Styr's daughter, Styr set him an impossible task: cut a path through the lava to the neighboring farm of Bjarnarhöfn. The brothers finished it, and Styr had them killed and buried beside it. That track, Berserkjagata, can still be followed on foot today, and a cairn by the path is said to mark their grave.

Route 54 skirts the field, while gravel Route 558 loops through the lava for a closer look at the craters. The gravel road is fine in a regular car in summer but can be rough or slippery in winter, so check the official road-conditions map first. Allow 20 minutes for a photo stop or an hour with a short walk, and pair it with the shark museum at Bjarnarhöfn nearby. Expect about 2.5 hours of driving from Reykjavík, and no fee or facilities in the lava field itself.