Iceland Part 2
Most of
Iceland was petty remote. What was odd,
was the occasional church, sitting out in the middle of nowhere; not another
building or settlement within a few hours drive.
A bit more
on trolls and elves, since you see mention of them a lot. Right next to the puffins in every tourist
shop, you will find an assortment of trolls and elves. This is from www.icelandtravel.is which is where I gathered most of the details in this blog: “According to Icelandic folklore trolls live
in the mountains and only came down from them to forage for food. Trolls can
only survive in the darkness of night and if they were caught in the sunlight
they would immediately turn to stone. The best-known, and perhaps most feared
troll in Icelandic folklore is without a doubt Gryla. Gryla is the mother of
all thirteen Santa Clauses and she is known to eat naughty children, which is
why all Icelandic children are exceptionally well-behaved in December.”
Allegedly
80% of Iceland’s population believes in elves. In reality it’s more like most
don’t really BELIEVE believe, they’re just not ready to say they don’t exist
(you know, in case they do). Stories of elves or Hidden Folk have been around
in Iceland for centuries. Their origins are thought to be from the bible story
of Eve’s dirty children. Preparing for God’s visit to the Garden of Eden, Eve
washed and cleaned her children. However, she didn’t have time to get to them
all and tried to hide the unwashed ones. God found out and cursed them to be
forever invisible to man. The Hidden Folk live in rocks and hills and
Icelanders are very respectful of their homes, often going as far as curving
roads around rocks that are believed to be elf houses. In any case, it doesn’t
pay to piss off the Hidden Folk. They are known to be vindictive and there are
plenty of stories of them taking revenge on humans that have wronged them. One
of their favorite tricks to play on humans is stealing their babies and leaving
an old, cranky elf changeling in their place. There are a few nights a year
where they are especially powerful. If you sit at a crossroads on Midsummer’s
Night, the Hidden People will approach and offer gold and jewels. If you resist
the temptation, your wishes will come true.
If you give in, you will be driven mad. They also used to visit people
who stayed at home on Christmas Eve instead of going to church; trying to tempt
them or drive them mad. However, New Year’s Eve is when the Hidden People move
house and it’s thought to bring good luck to leave a little food out for them
to have on their travels.
Ring road is
next to Vatnajökull National Park and you can see
dramatic glaciers for many miles. Vatnajökull
glacier is the largest in Europe, covering 8% of Iceland’s landmass. I couldn’t
tell if I was seeing parts of the one giant glacier or many small ones, but it
made for a scenic drive either way. I
had a few more stops on my list, but as with most roads in Iceland, it took
much longer to get around than I had planned. I was forced to skip a few
waterfalls and a glacier lake visit in order to make it to my next hotel in
time. It stays light this far north till
late at night, which makes it great for sightseeing, but bad in terms of
realizing how late it really is. Most of
the small guesthouses I stayed in didn’t have 24 hours check in; I had to be
there by 8 or 9 or risk sleeping in my car.
I spent my 2rd
night in the small fishing village of Höfn and paid a whopping $178 for a room
with a shared bathroom and no kitchen.
That was actually the only room available for hours in either direction
and I counted myself lucky to get it. I thought it was only $158, but as with all the properties in Iceland,
they add taxes and fees separately and those were $20. Yes folks, Iceland is VERY expensive!
My 3rd
day was just a very long driving day, with no real sightseeing stops. There were a few remote fishing villages, but
the entire countryside uninhabited. The
landscape was barren of most life, but there were some hardy grasses and as I
saw everywhere in Iceland, free range sheep.
You see small groups of them everywhere, 3 or 4, just grazing beside the
road. They do look up and run when they
see a car, but since they are few and far between, these sheep seem pretty
undisturbed. The only real predators
might be the artic fox, and I’m not sure they eat sheep. I also saw many, many rugged little Icelandic
ponies. These are smaller than your
average horse and are apparently built to withstand the harsh weather. Horseback
riding is very popular with tourists in Iceland.
My drive
took me from the middle bottom half of the island, up the rugged east
coast, and midway through the north part of Iceland. Because the entire center of the country is a
glacier, you really have no choice but to drive the long way around. Imagine going from Mississippi to Illinois by
way of Maine, but it only took about 8 hours and of course the scenery was
breathtaking. Not in a beautiful way; to
be fair, I thought most of Iceland was not particularly beautiful, rather the
geography and landscape were what I might expect of the moon or Mars. There were lots of mountains and lava fields. You can never forget that
Iceland is a volcanic Island.
My 3rd
night I stayed in Akureyri, ‘The Capital of the
North’. It’s the 2nd largest
city with about 17,000 residents. It
sits at the base of Eyjafjörður fjord and is surrounded by mountains. Akureyri is a good base to explore the area
nearby, including Lake Mývatn. This popular region has natural beauty,
geothermal activity, whale watching, and plenty of bird life. And of course, waterfalls. My first
visit was to the waterfall Goðafoss, which means either waterfall of the gods
or waterfall of the 'goði' (i.e. priest/ chieftain). The reason for this is its
interesting history. According to www.guidetoiceland.is:
When Iceland
was first settled in the 9th and 10th Centuries, the vast majority were
Norwegians who followed the Old Norse religion, worshipping deities like Thor,
Odin, Loki, and Freya. When Commonwealth
was established in 930 AD, Europeans began pressuring the people to convert to
Christianity. By 1000 AD,
Norway was set to invade if the country didn’t convert to Christianity. The elected ‘president’ or lawspeaker had to
make a decision. He prayed to the Old
Gods for a day and night before deciding for the good of the people
Christianity would be the official religion, but he allowed pagans to still
practice in private. As a symbol
of this decision, the threw idols of the Old Gods into what is now known as Goðafoss.
Goðafoss is
a beautiful waterfall; 39 feet tall and 98 feet wide. The water pours from the Skjálfandafljót
River down several breaks in the rock face to form Ásbyrgi Canyon. Its near perfect horseshoe shape gives rise
to the story that it was formed when Odin’s eight-legged horse stomped his
foot.
Comments
Post a Comment