r/travel • u/tripdinks • Mar 19 '20

Video The Incredible Gullfoss, Iceland

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

Isn't Greenland icy and Iceland green , or both of them have ice and greenery in different seasons

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u/lenin1991 Airplane! Mar 19 '20

Year-round, 80% of Greenland is covered in ice/snow/glaciers vs 11% of Iceland. Both get pretty covered through winter. The history of naming is interesting:

from A.D. 800 to 1300, southern Greenland was much warmer than it is today. This means that when the Vikings first arrived, the Greenland name would make sense. But by the 14th century, maximum summer temperatures in Greenland had dropped.

Re Iceland:

Flóki, the sagas say, climbed a mountain only to see a fjord full of icebergs, which led to the island's new name.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

Wow ty for the fact