Keynote paper to the annual conference held by Skipulag, Iceland's national planning agency to disseminate best practice to Icelandic local authorities and to the architectural and planning professions in the country. The Raven is a notable symbol in Norse mythology, a shape shifter and magical creature attributed with supernatural powers including seeing into the future and on taking human form to intervene in events similar to the 'corbie' in Scots mythology and poetry. taking the vision of the raven as the point of departure, this keynote paper explores the tourism and developmental challenges facing contemporary Iceland through an examination of key issues such as cruise ship tourism and the selfie culture. A series of case studies from other small nations provides context including Valetta in Malta and Lubljiana in Slovenia.