Sprengisandur

Sprengisandur is a windswept, largely lifeless highland route in Iceland's interior, running between the Hofsjökull and Vatnajökull glaciers, historically avoided by travelers unless absolutely necessary. Icelandic sagas and later folklore held the highlands were the domain of outlaws banished from settled areas under medieval law, and of the hidden people, the huldufólk, said to live unseen within the region's black lava and rock formations. The most famous of these outlaws, Fjalla-Eyvindur, survived for years hiding in the highlands during the 18th century with his wife Halla, and stories of his cunning survival blurred over time into ghost stories about travelers who vanished crossing Sprengisandur and were never found — some blamed on the harsh terrain, others on the spirits said to guard it. Even today the route has no permanent settlements and only a rough seasonal track, and Icelanders still sometimes describe an oppressive stillness when crossing it, an echo of the old belief that the highlands were never entirely empty.