Iceland to Build First Norse God Temple In 1,000 Years

 Icelanders announced this week that they will be building their first temple to Norse gods since the end of the Viking age, when Christianity became the primary religion in the country.

The temple will reportedly be built overlooking Iceland's capital of Reykjavik and will include a dome to let sunlight in.

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, high priest of Ásatrúarfélagið, a Norse god religious group, told Reuters that the worship of Norse gods is less religion-related and more focused on the stories about the gods and how they can be applied to life.

"I don't believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet," Hilmarsson told the media outlet.

"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology," Hilmarsson continued. "The sun changes with the seasons so we are in a way having the sun paint the space for us."

According to The Telegraph, popularity in the Norse god religion has increased in Iceland in the past years. The religion originally left the country about 1,000 years ago when Christianity was introduced.

The announcement of Iceland's first Norse god temple in 1,000 years comes after a new study published by scientists at the University of Arizona found that Iceland is reportedly rising out of the earth's crust due to rapidly melting glaciers around the island country.

"Iceland's crust is showing the current response," Sigrun Hreinsdottir, one of the principle geologists involved in the research, told The Washington Post. "It's hard to find a more ideal place to study this."