Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.06.1988, Blaðsíða 3

LÖGBERG CENTENNIAL YEAR, FÖSTUDAGUR 3. JÚNÍ 1988-3
Lángavatnsdal mountain people
In Iceland there were periods
when the population increased to the
point where land was at a premium
and people were forced to seek a spot
up in the mountains even though the
land was ill suited for settling. There
was no choice and for various rea-
sons they would seek out a spot in
isolation and suffer dismal poverty.
They were known as mountain peo-
ple. Their isolation and poverty kept
them apart from the mainstream of
people along the more productive
coastal areas. They were known to
exist, but individually they were
unknown.
The following translation covers a
period about 100 years before our
people came to this country.
Some people are travelling up the
valley. First there is a man who leads
a pack horse and holds the hand of
a child at his side. Back of the pack
horse there is a cow tied with a line
to the horse. Trailing is a woman rid-
ing a horse on a felt saddle holding
a child.
All the travel equipment indicates
these people are poor. All their home-
spun hand-woven clothes are thread-
bare and patched. The knitted items
are heavily mended.
On the pack horse there is a collec-
tion of items, of pots, skin bags, farm
tools, and wooden twigs. Tied to the
pack saddle is a pot containing em-
bers in ashes. These are the worldly
possessions of the people that move
up the valley and move in the direc-
tion of the heath. There are probably
somewhere a few sheep, which they
have acquired.
There is one thing we do not see,
for it is neither tied to the pack sad-
dle nor carried visibly and that is the
stamina and a small glowing opti-
mism, which will not diminish nor
die out in their breasts, which their
worn-out clothes hide.
A now spring is on the heath, gild-
ed and strong juicy plants in the
swamps, small luscious grass on
modest slopes and in dells. There it
must be suitable for farming.
The ember of hope glows with a
warm gentle breeze which was felt
through the man's beard and hair.
The woman does not as easily sway
away from the heavy concerns she
has about these mountains. She is a
Icelandic excerise
Society of Older Citizens Holds
a Cake Bazaar
Society of old citizens in Reykjavík
and neighbourhood will hold a cake
bazaar in Goðheimum Sigtúni 3 in
Reykjavík Sunday, March 27 com-
mencing at 2 p.m.
The bazaar is being held to raise
money for the society's home fund.
Presently there is being put into
motion a large fund raising effort to
purchase a home for the society's ac-
tivities. The society membership in
FEB is slightly over 6200 and the lack
of housing hinders the activities, so
far they have had help at Goðhei-
mum, Sigtúni 3, in Reykjavík, where
barely 200 people can meet.
News Notice.
Félag eldri borgara heldur
kökubasar
Félag eldri borgara í Reykjavík og
nágrenni gengst fyrir kökubasar í
Goðheimum, Sigtuni 3 í Reykjavík,
sunnudaginn 27. mars og hefst hann
kl. 14.
Basarinn er haldinn í fjáröflunar-
skyni fyrir félagsheimilissjóð
félagsins.
Nú er að fara í ;ang umfangsmikil
fjársöfnun til kaupa á félagsheimili
fyrir starfsemina Félagsmenn í FEB
eru rúmlega 6.200 og stendur hús-
næðisskortur staifseminni fyrir þri-
fum, en sem stendur hafa þeir að-
stöðu í Goðheimum, Sigtúni 3 í Reyk-
javík þar sem rúmast tæplega 200
manns í einu. (Fréttatilkynning)
Courtesy the Morgunblað
borgari — citizen
kökubasar — cake bazaar
félag — society
goðheimur — home of pagan gods
sigtún — low home field
hefst — commences
fjáröflunarskyni — in a fund raising
effort
félagsheimilissjóð — society home,
fund
umfángsmilkil — large effort
fjársöfnun — fund raising
félagsmenn — society members
rúmlega — a little more than
húsnæðisskortur — lack of housing
starfsemina — activity
þrifum — unable to perform
en sem stendur — up until now
aðstoðu — assistance
rúmast — accommodate
tæplega — barely
Close escape
The Morgunblað carries a short
news item in the May 4 issue, about
a close call with falling rocks in Reyk-
hólahreppur Iceland.
Twice each week during the winter
months, milk is brought in from
Búðardal to Miðhúsum in Reykhólas-
veit. Recently Kristján Jóhannsson a
truck driver was hauling milk. When
he came to Mávadalsá in Gilsfjörð
there was a large rock on the road,
which prevented traffic from moving
past this point. It is estimated the
weight of the rock to be about one
ton.
Milk truck drivers are accustomed
to solve their own problems. Kristján
wrapped a cable around the rock and
was going to drag it away with his
truck. As he was struggling with the
rock he heard movement from
above, and a second rock came down
from the mountain and hit the rock
he was about to move off the high-
way. It was a close call. Luckily he
escaped what could have been a seri-
ous injury.
Translated from the Morgunblað.
child of the lowlands. She has grown
up in the lower areas and does not
have the same experience with the
mountains as her husband.
Who are these people which wend
their way up the valley?
We do not know them. These are
nameless people we see through the
mist, Icelandic people in search of
land. Hundreds of people have left
for the mountains in this manner
during past centuries, built habita-
tions on heaths and out-of-way val-
leys, conquered and lived at a lower
standard. Few of these people we can
name and in a lesser manner how
they fared. But widely here and there
over the land are old broken walls
and remains bearing witness to the
efforts of these people, who searched
the heaths with few supplies and
short on food, depending on moun-
tain grasses, roots, trout in lakes, and
scarce vegetation that was to main-
tan life in the domestic animals.
For a thousand years the settle-
ments in the country moved back
and forth, similar to a wave on the
seashore which rises on the sand and
pulls back. When difficult years
swept over the land, and plagues
struck down the populace, the moun-
tain people moved down onto the
more fertile lowlands, if they had not
lived out their lives on the heaths and
in mountain valleys. But as soon as
the population increased, the new
settlers from the lowlands moved
into the mountain areas with their
frugal belongings and the ember pot
tied to the pack saddle. Forward they
moved with wife and children a half
or whole days travel from the areas
occupied by people. Habitation after
habitation rose on various mountain
heaths.
All over the same story repeated it-
self. Some spring people with a pack
horse,unloaded their belongings in a
dell, or on a knoll and commenced to
erect an abode. These were the peo-
ple we had seen proceed up the val-
ley. The man in worn-out shoes, the
wife on the felt saddle, with their
children. They remained nameless,
and never allowed themselves to be
given advice, never rowed to sea, and
pretended to be holding the hand of
heaven, if they owned a sod shelter
in some poor valley, or beside a lake,
on a heath and owned domestic
animals equivalent to two goats.
Note regardless the mountain peo-
ple had great difficulties barely main-
taining life, but there was no alterna-
tive, it was a hostile world in which
they lived. It makes one wonder how
in the world they were able to pass
on the rich cultural heritage our peo-
ple have inherited.
Translated in part from Islenzkt
Mannlíf, by Jón Helgason.
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