Iceland: The annual Rettir

You might not think that there is anything romantic about rounding up animals; but, in Iceland the annual round-up of sheep and horses, known as the rettir, is becoming so popular that it's sometimes felt that there are more people than animals.

Nick Haslam went to record impressions of the rettir from people taking part in Iceland.

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The rettir is a time to time to fall in love, tell stories about elves, and reconnect with your roots.

It's a tradition which goes back a thousand years, to when Iceland was first settled by the Vikings.

Farmers and helpers - many of them city dwellers who remember the rettir from their childhood - spend several days in some of the wildest landscapes of Europe, bringing in livestock which has spent the summer roaming free on the vast highlands.

The animals are collected together by a long line of horsemen which can extend to more than 30 kilometres, and driven down to the lowlands to be claimed by their owners.