Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 6

Jökull - 01.12.1960, Blaðsíða 6
sailors and others, who had the closest contact with these countries. But the clever Norwegian author o£ the King’s Mirror has the honour o£ being the first to commit this knowledge to writing and he may have added something to it. On tlie Icelandic glacier rivers the King’s Mirror lias this to say: “There are also ice-cold streams which flow from underneath the glaciers with such violence that earth and rocks tremble; for when water flows with such a swift and furious current, the rocks will shake because of its vast mass and overpowering strength. And no men can go out upon these river banks to view them unless long ropes be brought to be tied around those who wish to explore, while farther away others sit holding fast the rope, so that they may be ready and able to pull them back if the tur- bulence of the current shoulcl make them dizzy” (pp. 130-131). These words are indeed of greet interest. Here we do not only have a fairly accurate description of the sources of some of the Ice- landic glacier rivers, where an enormous mass of water wells up almost vertically in front of the ice margin (Fig. 1). The last passage quoted also may indicate that during the latter part of the Commonwealth period there were men in Iceland who were so curious about the natural phenomena of their country that they went out of their way or even ran some risk in order to investigate them. And this activity took place at a time when scholasticism was firmly enthroned in most parts of the Continent. In another passage the author of the King’s Mirror says: “It is in man’s nature lo toish to see and experience the things that he has heard about and thus to learn whether the facts are as told or not” (p. 142). These words coulcl be chosen for a motto for all na- tural science. On the reasons for glaciers in Iceland the King’s Mirror lias this to say: “As to the glaciers that. are found in Iceland I am inclined to believe that it is a penalty which the land suffers for lying so close to Greenland; for it is to be expected that severe cold would come thence, since Greenland is ice-clad beyond all other lands. Now since Ice- land gets so much cold from that side and re- ceives but little heat from the sun, it necessarily has an overbundance of ice on the mountain ridges” (p. 126). This is most likely the oldest climatological explanation o£ glaciers met witli in any litera- ture. The same opinion is met with in a semi- mythological Icelandic Saga, Bárðarsaga Snœ- fellsáss, probably written down in the late 13th or the early 14th century. It begins with the following passage (Nordiske Oldskrifter XXVII, Kiöbenhavn, 1869, pp. 1—2); “Dumbr (“The Aíisty one”) was the name of a king who reign- ed over the gulfs that lie to the north of Hellulancl and which is now called Dumbshaf, named after King Durnbr......... Frorn Ivvæn- lancl he took with him by force Mjöll (“Fresh Powdery Snow”), the daughter of Snær (“Snow”) the Old, and made her liis wife..... But when they had been together for one year Mjöll gave birth to a boy. He was sprinkled with water and given a name, being called Bárdr. This boy . . . took after his mother, be- cause she was so beautiful and fair of com- plexion that the snow which falls in calm weather and is whiter than any other is named after her ancl called mjöll”. Bárdr Snæfellsáss is a kind of personification of Snæfellsjökull, but Dumbr, his father, is here a personifica- tion of the North wind and the drift ice fog that comes to Iceland frorn he North-West. We also have here a sound meteorological explana- tion of the formation of Snæfellsjökull, al- though its presentation is in a figurative garb. The author of the King’s Mirror states what is quite correct in connection with the drift ice, i. e. that it can also drift against the wincl (p. 139), and he also makes the sensible com- ment “if the earth were wholly without warmth or heat it would be one mass of ice from the surface down to its lowest foundation. Like- wise if the ocean were without any heat it woulcl be solid ice frorn the surface to the bottorn” (p. 152). The author gives the fol- lowing graphic account of the climate of Green- land: “In reply to your remark on the climate of Greenland, that you think it strange that it is called a good climate, I shall tell you sorne- thing about the nature of the land. When spells of rough weather come, they are more severe than in most other places, both with respect to keen winds, hard frost and snowfall. But usually these spells of rough weather last 4

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