Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide.

The origin of the name Hvalfjörður is uncertain. Certainly today there is no presence of whales in the fjord; while there is a whaling station in the fjord, whaling is conducted in the open ocean outside the fjord; likewise, it is modern and postdates the naming of the fjord. One theory as to the naming of the fjord is that early settlers encountered a pod of whales trapped in the fjord who ended up beached; the stranding of whales was in early Iceland a godsend in the meat that it provided, to the point that the word "hvalreki" means both "whale beaching" and "windfall/godsend". However, there is no direct evidence to support this theory. Another theory is that the fjord is named after Hvalfjall , which would have been in turn named after its visual appearance. A common folk story of unknown age also is sometimes presented as the origin of the name, involving an elf woman who transformed her human lover into an angry red-headed whale , who subsequently lived in the fjord wrecking ships, as revenge for him refusing to acknowledge their child.

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