Goðafoss is Iceland’s “Waterfall of the Gods,” a name linked by tradition to Iceland’s conversion to Christianity around the year 1000.
The waterfall is formed by the Skjálfandafljót River in northern Iceland. According to the well-known story, the law speaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði adopted Christianity at the Althing and then symbolically threw his pagan idols into the falls. The name Goðafoss is therefore often translated as “Waterfall of the Gods.”
The story is preserved in medieval Icelandic historical tradition, especially accounts connected with the Christianization of Iceland. The waterfall itself is a broad series of channels rather than one narrow plunge.
Goðafoss is not the waterfall associated with a path behind the falling water; that description belongs to Seljalandsfoss. Skógafoss is another separate Icelandic waterfall on the Skógá River.