Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 12

8
GRIPLA
Hekla, that will have changed a great deal. I need hardly mention
Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar. Then there were the eruptions in
Skaftafellssýsla 1783, which covered a large area with lava. It is inter-
esting to compare this area as it is now with what Njála tells us about
it before the eruptions; evidence of the changes is so plentiful that a
fairly clear picture may be obtained—and at the same time it can be
seen how well what the saga has to say about local features agrees with
information from other sources. For instance, from the saga we learn
that Kringlumýri in Meðalland was once surrounded by lava; a fact
which was unknown in modern times up to 1947.
A brief glance at Þingvellir in the light of what Njála has to say about
it shows that the author appears to have known every detail of the
landscape like the back of his own hand. Only the islet in the river
Oxará has changed, of course, owing to the action of the river.
We are now at Hlíðarendi, and it is clear that the view from where
we are standing must have been much the same in the days of the saga-
writer as it is now. There is Eyjafjallajökull; there is Fljótshlíð; we even
see the meadows newly mown as they were when Gunnar turned back
—and most years there are pale cornfields on the slopes too; though
of course for many centuries there were none. At our feet lie the Land-
eyjar, and from here we can see Bergþórshvoll near the coast, though
not so distinct as it was a few years ago, for the hill there has since
been changed by the hand of man.
But if you ask whether the Landeyjar area is unchanged, the answer
must be, no. When I travelled for the first time through Rangárvalla-
sýsla, or Rangárþing, a great river, Þverá, ran below here, constantly
eroding the foot of the slope. This river has since been dammed and
redirected into Markarfljót, which flows to the east of Dímon, or
Rauðaskriður, just as one may suppose to have been the case in the
days of the saga-writer. At that time, too, Þverá was a clear-water river
(not glacial) with its source to the west of Hlíðarendi, and it flowed
into Rangá.
The late Professor Ólafur Lárusson, who was one of our greatest
jurists, but had studied natural sciences for a time in his earlier years,
once pointed out to me the fact that during the period when all water
flowed into Markarfljót there was a chieftain’s residence at Hlíðarendi,