Jökull - 01.12.1960, Side 4

glaciers. For instance, the routes from the inner-
most Eidfjorcl in Hardanger to neighbouring
clistricts pass near the Hardangerjökulen and
the glaciers on Hallingskarvet. The four words
for glacier found in Icelandic (íss, breði, fönn,
jökull) all occur in Norwegian glacier names.
It is impossible to say, however, how closely
the settlers knew glaciers before they came
to Iceland or what knowleclge of glaciers
tiiey really brought with them to Iceland. But
the fact remains that already in the settlement
period some of the immigrants set up their
homes in the vicinity of glaciers, particularly
those who settled along the southern margin
of Vatnajökull (the present Skaftafellssýslur,
especially Austur-Skaftafellssýsla). For instance,
the settler Thórdur Illugi settled at the foot of
Breidamerkuríjall near the margins of Fjallsár-
jökull and Breidamerkurjökull about 900 A. D.
His farmstead, Fjall, was buried by the advanc-
ing glaciers between 1695 and 1709. During the
settlement time people also settled near some
outlets of Mýrdalsjcikull and Drangajökull, and
travels through the inlancl passes between the
plateau glaciers in the interior soon became
frequent.
The Nordic people, mainly Icelanders, who
settled in the districts Eystribyggð and Vestri-
byggð in Southwest Greenland at the end of
the lOth century did not only learn to know
drift ice and its behaviour, but also glaciers
which stretched down into the settlements,
quite close to some of the farms. From written
records ancl from archaeological finds such as
the runic stone founcl at Kingiktorsuak, Lat. 72°
55' N, we know for certain that Nordic Green-
landers hunted at least as far north as Uper-
navik and even wintered there. And accounts
in Björn Jónssons Greenlandic Annals (com-
piled from old manuscripts and traditions that
had verbally survived) as well as some archaeo-
logic finds make it probable that they reached
much farther north, to the head of Baffin Bay.
Seafarers who sailecl between Norway, Icelancl
and Greenland gradually became acquainted
with the southern part of the E coast of Green-
land, between Mt. Forel and Kap Farvel.
But no Nordic people ancl hardly any Euro-
peans lived in so close contact with glaciers and
wrere so affected by them and the glacier
rivers as those who lived in Austur-Skaftafells-
sýsla. It is no wonder that this district became
above all others the cradle of Nordic glacio-
logy.
The oldest written account of Icelandic gla-
ciers is to found in Saxo Grammaticus’ famous
liistory, Gesta Danorum, which was written
about 1200 A. D. In the introduction to this
remarkable work there is a description of Ice-
land which is no doubt based on the accounts
of Icelanders. Having described the drift ice off
the Icelandic coasts Saxo writes:
„Est et illic aliud glaciei genus, montium
iugis ac rupibus intersertum quod certis vicibus
constat superioribus acl ima deiectis infimisque
rursum ad superna reflexis versili quadam mu-
tatione transponi. In cujus assertionis fidern af-
fertur, quod quidam, clum planum forte glaciale
percurrerent, in obiectas voragines hiantiumque
rimarum penita provoluti paulo post exanimes
fuerint, nulla glaciei rimula superstante reperti.
Quamobrem a compluribus existimare solet
quocl quos fundæ glacialis urna desorbuit, eos-
dem postmodum supinata reddiderit“ (Saxonis
Gesta Danorum Ecl. J. Olrik & H. Ræder.
Havniæ MCMXXXI, Tom. I, præfatio II, p. 8).
This is probably the oldest description of
glacier movement ever written. And although
somewhat confused it is in a way correct and
certainly based on experience. Such a rotating
movement as mentioned by Saxo, a movement
which moves the bottom layers of the ice to the
surface, is the rotational slippering along
„Scherfláchen" which really occurs in the fron-
tal parts of some of the southern outlets of
Vatnajökull when they move against terminal
„Aufschuttungs" moraines ancl sandur sediments
blocking their way with such a resistance that
thrust planes are formed in the ice along which
it moves. The story Saxo tells about people
falling down in crevasses and later found dead
on the surface of the ice is in all probability
basecl on real happenings, as such happenings
are rather common in Austur-Skaftafellssýsla
where people sometimes have to cross the
glacier snouts in order to get from one farm
to another. Saxos story is strikingly like one
that happened on Breidamerkurjökull in 1927.
On Sept. 7 that year the postman Jón Pálsson
and four horses were killed while crossing the
glacier when a small strip of ice above the
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