Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 5

Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 5
f > 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. L f ý* ! j 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, 3

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Jökull

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