Jökull - 01.12.2003, Page 4

Thorvaldur Thordarson
eruption rely heavily on information contained in the
contemporary accounts, call for a critical evaluation
of the Eldrit’s written by Steingrímsson and the oth-
ers.
Here, I present an analysis of the consistency
and reliability of the accounts written by Reverend
Jón Steingrímsson, along with an inspection of other
chronicles that provide significant information for as-
sessing the sequence of events during the eruption.
A comprehensive re-construction of the sequence of
events during the Laki eruption, as it is revealed in the
historic chronicles, is presented in the second part of
this study (see Thordarson et al., this issue).
ACCOUNTS OF ERUPTIONS IN
ICELAND
Records of eruptions in Iceland date back to the times
of early settlement, or almost eleven hundred years.
Many of these eruptions were disastrous (Finnsson,
1796; Thorarinsson, 1979; Thorarinsson and Sæm-
undsson, 1979). Initial records are limited to brief ac-
counts of major eruptions. By the 17th Century Ice-
land was fully dependent on the Danish economical
and political system. In order to obtain support from
the Danish authorities during difficult times, Icelandic
officials had to report the cause and the effect of these
hazards. By the time of the Laki eruption, complete
descriptions of several eruptions were in existence and
in general Icelanders had a good understanding of the
nature of volcanic eruptions (Thordarson, 1990).
NATURE, QUALITY, AND RELIABILITY
OF THE ELDRIT
STEINGRÍMSSON’S DESCRIPTIONS AND
OBSERVATIONS
Reverend Steingrímsson served the farming commu-
nity in the Síða district from 1778 to 1791 and resided
at his farm, Prestbakki, located 40 km south of the
erupting fissures (for location of geographic place
names see Figures 1 and 2 in Thordarson et al., this
issue). Being directly exposed to the ferocious nature
of the Laki eruption and the desolation that followed
Steingrímsson kept a detailed register of the course
of events during the eruption, preserved in three sep-
arate Eldrit (Table 1); Lítið ágrip um nýja eldsupp-
komu í vestariparti Skaftafellssýslu [Eldrit 1], Einföld
og sönn frásaga um jarðeldshlaupið í Skaftafellssýslu
árið 1783 [Eldrit 2] and Fullkomið skrif um Síðueld
[Eldrit 3]. Furthermore, Steingrímsson wrote a num-
ber of letters to authorities, wherein he discussed the
progress of the eruption and its social impact. Unfor-
tunately many of these letters are lost, but letters con-
taining replies from authorities give some information
on their original content (Rafnsson, 1984).
The latest Eldrit, Fullkomið skrif um Síðueld, is
the only one containing complete coverage of the
eruption. Like the first two, it is written in the form of
a diary and follows the progress of the eruption. The
first three months are described almost daily but later
descriptions are more intermittent and less detailed.
Steingrímsson was familiar with volcanic erup-
tions and their effects before witnessing the Laki erup-
tion. He was acquainted with the descriptions of
the Mývatn Fires 1724–1729 written by Reverend
Jón Sæmundsson (Sæmundsson, 1729). He also wit-
nessed the 1755 Katla eruption, which prompted him
to collect information on the eruptive history of the
Katla volcano and publish his work in an essay titled
Um Kötlugjá (About the Katla fissure; Steingríms-
son, 1757). The origin of ash layers preserved in Ice-
landic soils was also clear to Steingrímsson as is ev-
ident from this passage in Eldrit 3: “Ash-falls from
volcanic eruptions have effected this area variably, be-
cause some soil profiles contain 5 ash layers but others
have up to 11 ash layers.”
He was a keen observer as is evident from his de-
scriptions of the flowing lava and the explosive activ-
ity (see Thordarson et al., this issue). The following
quotation from Fullkomið skrif um Síðueld where he
describes the occurrence and shape of spatter bombs
is a good example of his perspicacity: “There [in the
vicinity of the Skaftá River gorge] we found here and
there fire-blobs, which had fallen down from the air
and burned the grass around them as they solidified.
Some of these were half buried in the ground, shaped
like cow-dung. Others were shaped like twisted bun-
dles that pierced into the ground from the force of the
fall and had broken up on impact. These fire-blobs
2 JÖKULL No. 53, 2003