an ancient seeress (völva) is summoned from the grave by odin to tell him stories of the past and offer predictions for the future. the völva tells odin of the nine worlds that make up the universe, the first war of the gods, and the end of the world; throughout the epic tale odin, seeking to deepen his understanding of existence, continually asks, “would you let me know more?” 

 

hverfjall holds depths of understanding  as well, from hverfjall itself, which directs one’s imagination through its own 2500 bc eruption to the fathoms of geologic time evident across the region, to the cultural histories of icelandic folklore and ancient sagas, towards possible futures congured as one circumambulates the crater.  the visitor to the hverjfall lookout, as in the völva tradition of physically lifting the seeress so she could see into other realms, is raised out over the volcano rim as an invitation to discover worlds that exist beyond one’s personal consciousness. in accepting this invitation, visitor becomes seer, discovering not only the magnificent views but also the latent powers simmering below the surface, between the cracks, in the dark of the waters, frozen in the glaciers, lurking high in the mountains, and embedded in the living landscape.

 

as return visitors to iceland we find much  icelandic allure lies in a combination of the physical and extra-physical dimensions of this place; hence, our design aims to focus this interdependence by framing a landscape quite literally alive in a biological/geological sense, and metaphorically alive in cultural-cosmic sense. and, just as odin sacrificed his eye to gain wisdom,  visitors to hverfjall come to “know more” as they move beyond mere vison into the plausible fictions of the lake mývatn region.