August 12, 2026
Fire and ice, the wolves of Ragnarök, and Spain's first totality in over 120 years.
On August 12, 2026, the Moon's umbra arcs over the Arctic — sunrise on Russia's Taymyr Peninsula, a loop near the North Pole, then across eastern Greenland's ice cap before clipping western Iceland and racing across the North Atlantic to make a low, sunset landfall over northern Spain. Maximum totality is 2 minutes 18 seconds, over the ocean about 45 km west of Iceland's Látrabjarg cliffs.
Two minutes of darkness over the land of fire and ice.
Where the shadow falls, the best spots to stand inside it, and how to be there — with us or on your own.
In the path: Greenland · Iceland · Spain · Algeria · Tunisia. Total eclipse within the path; partial for hundreds of km beyond.
No events listed yet for this eclipse.
The specific good spots to stand inside the path.
In Iceland: the Westfjords (Látrabjarg gives ~2m13s), the Snæfellsnes peninsula, and the Reykjavík/Reykjanes area. In Spain: cities near the centerline include León (~1m45s), Burgos (~1m43s) and Valladolid (~1m28s), plus A Coruña, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Valencia and Palma; Madrid and Barcelona fall just outside. Because the Sun is so low in Spain — only 4–10° above the horizon — a completely clear western horizon is essential. Lower-elevation inland sites offer excellent August clear-sky odds; higher elevations carry more cloud risk.
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This is the first total solar eclipse visible from Iceland since 1954 — the only one of the entire 21st century, with the next not until 2196 — and the first over Reykjavík since 1433. For mainland Europe it is the first totality since 1999; for Spain, the first meaningful mainland totality since August 30, 1905, whose path was nearly identical to 2026's. It opens an unprecedented Spanish trilogy of three central eclipses in under 18 months: total in 2026, total again in August 2027, and an annular 'ring of fire' in January 2028 — prompting Spain to create a thirteen-ministry committee (CITE) to coordinate the run.
The 'land of fire and ice' eclipse. In Iceland the Moon's shadow sweeps low over glaciers, lava fields and volcanoes, the black Sun hanging just above stark terrain. Crossing into Spain it becomes a true sunset eclipse — the eclipsed Sun framed over the Meseta plateau, castles, cathedrals and vineyards in surreal twilight colors at the close of a summer day. Scientists plan to recreate the 1919 Eddington starlight-bending experiment, which confirmed general relativity, during the event.
Norse and Icelandic cosmology is steeped in solar-devouring myth. The Sun is the goddess Sól, riding a chariot drawn by the horses Árvakr and Alsviðr; her brother Máni drives the Moon. Both are eternally pursued by two wolves, sons of Fenrir: Sköll ('One Who Mocks') chases the Sun, and Hati ('One Who Hates') chases the Moon. At Ragnarök — the twilight of the gods recorded in the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda — the wolves finally catch and swallow Sól and Máni. Folk tradition held that people banged drums and pots during eclipses to scare the wolves off. That the Eddas themselves were written down in Iceland makes this the most mythologically resonant possible setting.
At 2m 18s of totality, the The Iceland Eclipse sits 7th by duration among the 7 total solar eclipses in this series. Every eclipse in the series is its own experience — the numbers below are for context only.
Every total solar eclipse in the series, in date order. Each marker links to its page.