SNORRI'S WORLD

Today we left the blue skies of the Snaefellsnes peninsula & went in land to grey skies & cloud.  It was time to leave the country areas & emerge into the Saga Lands of the South. It was also time to meet Vikings & hear about murder & mysticism, to accept that there was a fine line between myth & history & most off all, to learn about Snorri!

Snorri Sturluson was a poet, saga writer, chieftain & Law speaker (politician!).  He lived from 1179 to 1241 and is the most famous of the Saga writers because of the amount of written work he left behind.  It is because of him that so many of the sagas have been retained.
We first read about Snorri in the book 'Saga land' by Kari Gislason & Richard Fidler.  Consequently, there was no way that we were coming to Iceland without seeking him out.

One of his most famous written works is Eggil's Saga.   A reason that Snorri took this project on board, was possibly because he himself lived on the land that Eggil had grown up on, so his story was well known in the area, so Snorri had lot's of resources at his fingertips.

This all took place in the Borganes area, & it is there that a FANTASTIC Museum takes visitors through the events that led to the settlement of Iceland as a country & then through Eggil's story.  They used audio visual & a variety of art skills to make the settlement of Iceland interesting & to engage us in the time & events.  They even had a reproduction of the bow of a  Viking cargo boat, which we stood on as it rocked to the movement of waves. It wasn't hard to imagine what it might have been like, searching for a coastline.

Eggil's story was also beautifully illustrated through wood carvings & as Eggil himself delivered his first poem when he was three, we .....under the influence of both Snorri & Eggil thought we'd give Viking poetry a try! We call it 'Jeff & Joy visit the Settlement Museum'

In Snorri's ancient day
A famous Saga he did write
Of Eggil, a Viking son.
In wood his tale is chiselled,
Pictures for a modern traveller.
History & Myth in equal measure,
His story afresh through Snorri's hand.

After a truly wonderful time at the museum, we drove on to Reykholt where Snorri lived out his last days.  They have a study centre there & open to visitors is an interesting display about Snorri.  One of the most precious ancient monuments in Iceland is Snorralaug, Snorri's pool. Reykholt is in a geothermal area & Snorri had access to a pool of naturally heated hot water.  Perfect for cleansing & general health.... although no one is allowed in it now!  Quite a few people seem to think it's worth throwing coins in instead!!

The plan was to then go to a very special place for lunch.  However, to our dismay, we discovered that some placenames in Iceland are to be found in more than one location!  That seems to be the case with Reykholt!  There is more than one!  Thank goodness we asked someone, before trusting ourselves to Mary Lou's (GPS) meanderings!!!

We didn't need lunch anyway, so we went on to the next place on our list, the location of two waterfalls in close proximity who happen to appear on the Top 10 waterfalls list!!!!!!!!!
The first was Hraunfossar, which proved to be about a million waterfalls all spread out over a relatively short distance.  The special thing about this waterfall, was that it came THROUGH the rock, not over it.

Within walking distance was Barnafoss, also known as 'Children's Waterfall'.  This is a cascading fall that is incredibly powerful & runs at a roiling speed. It is also a gorgeous bluey colour.
Anyway, the story is that once upon a time, a local family went off to Church, but for some reason left the two children behind at home.  When they got home the children were not inside the house, so they followed their trail & discovered that the children had fallen off the arch (bridge?) into the torrent of water below.  The Mother was so devastated that she took an axe to the arch & broke it down, so that no one would ever go on it again!
We wondered if the current bridge is located where the arch once was.

As it was wet & miserable, we still had an hour before checkin time at our Hotel and there was a café up the hill, we decided a cup of something hot was called for.

That was until we realised that the GAME was on TV!  The world Cup soccer has begun & Iceland are soooooooooo excited that their team is playing in it.  Today Iceland was playing Argentina, & everyone was glued to the TV.  We thought it a kindness to not bother the staff with the need for coffee & tea!!

Once checked in to our new abode, it seemed a good idea to dress up in rain gear again & try out one of the walking trails nearby.
I confess to being a teensy bit grumpy about this!  The rain was enough to drip all over the glasses, & then when the rain hood was up, the steam from my breathing steamed them up, so let's just say, with impaired vision walking in the rain was never going to be FUN!

That is until we came across a trail of artworks by Pall Gudmunddsson.  Pall is a local sculptor, whose work graces our hotel.  He uses stone from the Baejargil Ravine, which is literally metres from his studio, which happens to be the black tower in the photo above & he obviously has a hobbit house!!!!!

It's amazing how One's mood lifts when there is art to find!  We really enjoyed the fact that his work respected the rock & was minimal, it could only be seen if we were in the right position. It did prove to be a fun thing to do on a miserable afternoon.  Our plan had been to then soak ourselves in the Hotel's geothermally heated pool... but we saw that quite a few young & active children were occupying that space & we really didn't get a 'restful' vibe.

Nothing else for it, but return to the room & crack open one of those bottles of red we bought in Duty Free when we entered the Country!  What a delicious way to end a day!