Drangey () or Drang Isle is an uninhabited island in the

Skagafjörður Skagafjörður () is a deep fjord and its valley in northern Iceland. Location Skagafjörður, the fjord, is about 40 km long and 15 km wide, situated between Tröllaskagi to the east and the Skagi, Skagi Peninsula to the west. Ther ...

fjord in northern

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. It is the remnant of a 700,000‑year‑old

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, mostly made of volcanic palagonite tuff, forming a massive rock fortress. The island was first mentioned in the Icelandic classic ''

Grettis saga ''Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar'' (modern , reconstructed ), also known as ''Grettla'', ''Grettir's Saga'' or ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It details the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, a bellicose Icelandic ou ...

'' as being the refuge of the outlaw Grettir, who spent his last years there with his brother Illugi and his slave Glaumur. He fled there with his two companions when enemies were seeking his life because of the island's high, impervious cliffs. It is described as having a flock of 80 sheep, and many birds nesting on the cliffs. In late autumn of 1031, Grettir was assassinated where he lay dying in his shed on the island. Þorbjörn Öngull and his men were the perpetrators. An old legend says that two night-prowling giants, a man and a woman, were traversing the fjord with their cow when they were surprised by the bright rays of daybreak. As a result of exposure to daylight, all three were turned into stone. Drangey represents the cow and Kerling (supposedly the female giant, the name means "Old Hag") is to the south of it. Karl (the male giant) was to the north of the island, but he disappeared long ago. The bird life on Drangey is varied and lively, but the most common are diving birds: the

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family, part of the order Charadriiformes. In Europe, the term covers two genera, '' Uria'' and '' Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species are called mu ...

auk Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct speci ...

and

puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

. The guillemot nests in the cliffs, while the auk mostly prefers deep cracks underneath the cliffs. The puffin, on the other hand, digs holes in the edge of the cliffs. In addition to these species, the black-legged kittiwake and

fulmar The fulmars are tube-nosed seabirds in the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species, and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on s ...

nest in the cliffs and the

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

and

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

also have their sanctuaries there. Drangey has for ages been a harbinger of spring for the local residents. Every spring, they visited the island to collect both eggs and birds. They used ropes to climb down the fowling cliffs for the eggs, but the birds were caught using rafts placed on the sea underneath the cliffs. These rafts were covered with bird snares made of horsehair. The bird catchers mostly found shelter in sheds on the beach on the southernmost tip of the island. From this point, they also used to go fishing in their boats. At peak seasonal periods, there were as many as 200 men engaged in

fowling Fowling () is the hunting of birds by humans, for food (meat), feathers or any other commercially value products, or simply for leisure ("sporting") or collecting trophies. It is comparable to wildfowling, the practice of hunting waterfowls fo ...

and the catch was in excess of 200,000 birds when the yield was best. The use of snares was discontinued in 1966.

In popular culture

The 2011 Icelandic film '' Stormland'' includes Drangey.

References

{{Authority control Volcanoes of Iceland Pleistocene volcanoes Islands of Iceland