The waterfall Godafoss (Icelandic: waterfall of the gods) is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Iceland.  It is located right off the Ring Road, about 50 km (31 miles) east of Akureyri and 53km (33 miles) south/west of Husavik. Godafoss  is not very tall or powerful; but admirers point to the separate cascades forming an elegant semicircular arc, the swirling patterns in the blue-green (or sometimes brown) water, and the strange bubbliness of the surrounding lava.

GEOLOGY

The glacial river Skjalfandafljot runs across a lava field which is approximately 7000 years old. Through the ages the river has dug about 3 km up through the lava field a canyon which just below the falls is about 100m wide. Rocky promontories in the horseshoe shaped edge of the falls divide it into two main falls and a few smaller one, depending on the flow.

Godafoss is closely connected with one of the most important event in Icelandic history, the conversion to Christianity from heathendom or "the old custom" in the year 1000.

In the year 1000, Thorgeir Thorkelsson, the law Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament lived on the farm Ljosavatn only 2 km from the waterfall.  This year  (1.000)  Iceland's legislative assembly was debating which religion they should practice:  "Norse paganism" or "Christianity". 
Thorgeirr, himself a pagan priest and chieftain, decided in favor of Christianity after a day and a night of silent meditation under a fur blanket.  Pagans could still practice their old religion in private. 
After his decision, Thorgeirr himself became a Christian and when he returned back home to Ljosavatn from this historic Althingi, he dispensed of his heathen gods by throwing them into the falls in a symbolic act of the conversion. As a result of the event, the waterfall was named Godafoss  (Waterfall of the Gods).

In the year 2000 a church was built on the farm Ljosavatn commemorating the 1000 year anniversary of Christianity in Iceland and named after chieftain Thorgeir. The church is open to visitors during the summer.