On the Ground in Iceland During a Volcanic Eruption

From the Iceland Review Online:

“We tried driving into the darkness and it was like we had stepped into another dimension. We felt it was the end of the world as described in Völuspá, the old Icelandic Poem that tells the story of the end of the world called Ragnarök or Götterdämmerung in the famous opera by Wagner.

“We saw nothing. The windshield filled with ash and we did not dare leave the car. It was like the sun had gone out in the middle of the day,” said Iceland Review editor Bjarni Brynjólfsson and photographer Páll Stefánsson. “It is not only fine ash but rough small grains. We did not dare go further. After three kilometers we felt we had gone too far. So we returned to Skógar. The ash is so thick that it was like driving through snow...

"The Völuspá says:

"The sun turns dark,
earth sinks in the sea,
the fair, bright stars
disappear from the heavens.
Sizzling blazes
around the tree of life,
colossal heat plays with
the heavens."