Lögberg-Heimskringla - 30.04.1999, Blaðsíða 3

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 30. apríl 1999 • 3
ICELANDIC NEWS
Continued from page 1
anywhere except at his nest,’'
said
Icelandic Culture Centre to open next year
Jóhann Öli. He added that as far as we
know a falcon has only once before
been attracted to people by food offer-
ings. “That was done by a chicken
farmer at Álftanes who has now died,
who brought him dead chickens in the
winter.”
Sigríður Einarsdóttir first
Icelandic female captain
This is like changing a workplace,
the equipment is different, the sur-
roundings, destinations, and the staff.
But I look forward to this,” Sigríður
Einarsdóttir said in an interview with
Morgunblaðið the day before her first
flight as a jet pilot, but she is complet-
ing her captain’s training on
Icelandair’s Boeing 757-200 jet.
S i g r í ð u r
became Iceland-
air’s first female
pilot when she
began work there
in 1984 on a
Fokker F-27
which was then
used on internal
flights. “My
tenure has since
been traditional
like that of other pilots with Icelandair.
After two years on the Fokker I spent
two years on a B-727 jet and then six
years on B-757 jet—and went from
there to Fokker as a captain on the new
Fokker 50,” said Sigríður. That has
been her workplace for the last few
year,s until now.
Presently Icelandair employs five
female pilots, including Sigríður, three
of whom are captains or about to
become captains; Guðrún Olsen has
recently received a captain’s licence on
a Fokker, and Geirþrúður Alfreðsdóttir
is about to begin her training on a B
737-jet. Altogether Icelandair employs
230 pilots.
Left to ríght: Guðmundur Magnússon, Davíð Oddsson, and Salome Þorkelsdóttir.
Davíð Oddsson, Iceland’s Prime
Minister, was recently given a
copy of an information booklet on the
new Icelandic Culture Centre, and at
the same time opened a homepage at a
ceremony in the Safnahús old reading
room.
Þjóðmenningarhús (Icelandic
Culture Centre) is a new name for the
Safnahús at Hverfisgata. Guðmundur
Magnússon, historian and manager of
the house, and Salome Þorkelsdóttir,
Chairman of the Board, introduced the
future use of the house which will open
again on April 20, 2000, after undergo-
ing thorough renovations. All opera-
tions at the house will be in keeping
with its heritage house status, both
inside and out, and in harmony with the
artistic and historic value of the house.
All changes were made in congruence
with the Heritage House Society, but
the building is over ninety years old.
However, the house will be adapted for
the reception of guests and visitors and
their safety. An elevator will be
installed to ensure access for all and
computers and screens will be in place
in the show rooms, where the nation’s
historic and cultural heritage will be on
display in a realistic way. On the main
floor space will be allocated for a
restaurant, and a shop where books,
works of art, and souvenirs appealing to
both Icelandic and foreign visitors will
be offered.
Cultural and historic displays, both
permanent and shows with special
themes, will be set up at the Culture
Centre. As well, rooms and halls will be
rented or loaned out for public func-
tions, meetings, lectures and artistic
events. On April 20, 2000 a special
show will open featuring the sailing and
land discovery of our ancestors in the
Middle Ages, with emphasis on the
Greenland settlement and the discovery
of Vínland. The show is a joint project
by the Cultural House and the Leifur
Eiríksson Millennium Commission of
Iceland.
On June 17, 2000 another show will
open, focusing on the effects
Christianity has had on the Icelandic
Nation over the 1000 years from its
adoption. That show is sponsored by
the Icelandic Archives and the
Christianization Committee of the
Icelandic Church as well as the Culture
Centre. Icelandic book publishing, liter-
ature, the nation’s poets and scholars
will be displayed. The Icelandic mint
and other symbols of state will also be
displayed, as well as the minutes of the
historic National Meeting in 1851.
On the Culture Centre’s website,
opened by Davíð Oddsson, information
will run on the progress of the renova-
tions of the building and the prepara-
tions for its new operation. The website
is: www.kultur.is

The Múlakollur is one continuous
perpendicular rock up to mid-
mountain with intermittent sandslides
and cliffs, more or less impassable to
people and animals alike. Yet it has a
grassy strip called Ófæratorfa. It slants
to a huge overhang in the cliffs and is
surrounded by cliffs on all sides except
for a narrow path from above. It is too
steep to walk upright on without wear-
ing picks, even in summer. I came there
once and had to touch down with my
hands, as the lush grass was slippery
and damp as if with grease. Almost
every year some sheep got stranded on
this grass-strip, especially lambs.
Guttormur from Eyjasel managed to
reach them; no one knew how, but he
did that often even after snow and frost
was on the ground.
A large cave was located below the
grassy strip, at mid-mountain. Two
eagles built their nest there all the years
I was familiar with it. I assume they
were a couple, but I never saw any
chicks; and they were old and greying.
Guttormur remembered them with
chicks when he was younger. The
eagles often hunted at the river delta, at
times catching new-bom seal cubs who
had crawled ashore.
The Múla-peak had split at one time
like the outer peak, as there is a crack in
it at the middle close to the top, but this
one has not filled with lava and is most-
ly open. It is called Sæbjamar-gorge. I
am not familiar with the story behind it,
but undoubtedly some Sæbjöm lost his
life there. A few daredevils had crossed
the gorge further up in the peak and
they got enough.
To the south of these precipices are
three grassy points called Geldingsnes.
They can be accessed without going all
the way up to the mountain and the
mountain is lower there; they cannot be
reached from the shore, neither from
Múla-harbour nor Landsendi. Yet at
times we walked the shore to the ness at
low tide but it cannot be called pass-
able. Above the nesses or the grassy
spots lies a rocky ridge at the edge of
the mountain and in one place there is a
single, peculiar cliff, called Geldingur,
but I do not know why it was called
that. To the south of the nesses is a large
hollow into the mountain, called
Móvík,
a n d
above it
are per-
pendicu-
lar clififs
all the
way to
the top,
c a 11 e d
“Móvík-
urflug.”
M i d -
way up
the cliffs is a high “gablehead of a
house,” called Standur. Perhaps a state-
ly elf house.
To be continued in the next issue.