Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 4

Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 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 2

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