Jökull - 01.12.1960, Page 5

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Fig. 1. “There ar? also ice-cold streams whch flow from underneath the glaciers with such
violence that earth and rocks tremble” (King’s Mirror). — The glacier river Austurfljót wells
up in front of the margin of HofféÍlsjökull.
„Þar eru og ísköld vötn þau er falla undan jöklum svo stór að berg og jörð er hjá liggja
þá skjálfa“ (Konungs skuggsjá). — Austurfljót i Hornafirði byltast frarn undan jaðri Hof-
fellsjökuls. Photo S. Thorarinsson, Aug. 1936.
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outlet of the river Jökulsá suddenly sank deep
down. On April 15 the following year both
man and horses were found near and on the
surface of the glacier. It is an olcl savmg in
these districts that „jökullinn skilar sínu“, viz.
that the glacier gives back what it takes. This
is partly due to the rotational movement about
which the Icelanders had told Saxo rnore thán
7 centuries before rotational slipping was put
forward by W. V. Lewis and others as one of
the ways in which glacier move.
Konungs skuggsjá or The King’s Mirror
(quoted here, with a few corrections, from L. M.
Larson’s translation in Scandinavian Mono-
graphs, Vol. III, New York 1917), one of the
rnost important Old Norse works, was written
in Norway, apparently about the middle of the
13th century. It has a good deal of didactic
philosophy and good advice, but this work de-
rives most of its importance, however, from the
information it contains on subjects of geo-
graphy and natural history. Among other things
it contains an important chapter on the nature
of Iceland, most of whicli is probably derived
directly or indirectly from Icelanders. The Nor-
wegian scholars F. Paasche and D. A. Seip have
advanced strong arguments in favour of the
view that the author of the King’s Mirror was
an ecclesiastic, Einar Gunnarsson, who became
the Archbishop of Nidaros in 1255 and died
in 1262. Apparently the author of King’s Mirror
never went to Iceland or Greenland, but he
most likely was personally acquainted with
both Icelanders and Greenlanders of his own
class, as well as with seamen who had sailed
to these countries. Many of the things he has
to say about glaciers, drift ice and weather
conditions in Iceland and Greenland was prob-
ably common knowledge among farmers and
seamen in Iceland and Greenland at that time
and also among those in Western Norway,
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