Jökull - 01.12.2003, Side 12

Thorvaldur Thordarson
ers the Úlfarsdalur Valley. Pálsson also notes that fires
were seen in the direction of the Grímsvötn volcano in
the years 1783–1785.
OTHER DESCRIPTIONS
The Eldrit written by Svendborg, Sünckenberg and
EiríkssonII (Table 1) provide little additional infor-
mation about the Laki event and their descriptions
of the eruption are taken from other sources and not
based on their own observations (Table 1).
The work of Pétursson (Table 1) is now lost. Ac-
cording to comments and critiques on its content writ-
ten by Stephensen in 1786 (Rafnsson, 1984), the work
was mainly concerned with the haze produced by the
eruption and its effects in Northern Iceland. Being a
physician, Pétursson conducted investigations on how
the haze affected humans and animals and described
the results in his Eldrit.
A wealth of official documents, personal letters
and newspaper clippings concerning the Laki eruption
have been compiled by Gunnlaugsson and Rafnsson
(1984). They are commonly concerned with specific
aspects of the eruption or how it affected local areas
in Iceland. The key sources are a letter written by
EiríkssonI at Ljótarstaðir in Skaftártunga, the only ac-
count which describes the earthquakes in May 1783,
as well as short accounts by Einar Björnsson, Árni
Thorarinsson and Ólafur Stephensen (Table 1). These
authors provide important information on the precur-
sor earthquake swarms and developments of the fire
fountain activity and associated eruption columns.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The analysis presented here shows that the reliabil-
ity and consistency of the contemporary chronicles
describing the Laki eruption is highly variable. The
accounts written by the observers, e.g. J. Steingríms-
son, E. Björnsson, J. EiríkssonI , Á. Thorarinsson, Ó.
Stephensen, and S. Pálsson (Table 1), contain the most
accurate descriptions and are thus the most reliable
source of information for reconstructing the course of
eruptive events. On the other hand, compilations by
authors that did not witness the eruption, e.g. S. Hólm
and M. Stephensen (Table 1), are riddled with erro-
neous information regarding the nature and timing of
events and thus of no practical use.
The last Eldrit compiled by the Reverend Stein-
grímsson, contains the most thorough description of
the Laki eruption. However, it includes a few sig-
nificant mistakes but fortunately other eyewitness ac-
counts supply complementary information needed to
correct them.
The “true” eyewitness accounts give a remark-
ably accurate and detailed description of the eruption-
related phenomena and provide a unique and invalu-
able source for studies on the physical volcanology
of flood lava eruptions. These chronicles are the key
building blocks for reconstruction of the sequence of
events during the eruption, because they provide in-
formation on the nature and timing of events oth-
erwise unobtainable (see also Thordarson and Self,
1993 and Thordarson et al., this issue).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was originally conducted as a part of the
authors Masters thesis. I thank the University of Texas
at Arlington and Professor Stephen Self for their sup-
port during that time, Leó Kristjánsson and Olgeir
Sigmarsson for helpful reviews and the editors Áslaug
Geirsdóttir and Bryndís Brandsdóttir for their assis-
tance.
ÁGRIP
Margar samtímaheimildir eru til um Skaftárelda og
umbrotin þeim samfara, en umfang og gæði þessara
heimilda er mjög misjafnt. Upp úr standa lýsingar
Jóns Steingrímssonar, sem nú eru varðveittar í þremur
eldritum og geyma nákvæmustu upplýsingarnar um
gang gossins og aðra nátengda atburði. Til samans eru
eldrit Jóns án efa merkilegustu og ítarlegustu lýsingar
sem til eru af íslensku eldgosi fram að 20. öldinni.
Þó gætir nokkurs ósamræmis milli eldrita Jóns og þá
einkum milli þess yngsta sem hann lauk við 1788 og
hinna tveggja eldri (skrifuð árið 1783). Þetta misræmi
kemur helst fram í dagsetningu einstakra atburða og
í flestum tilvikum skeikar aðeins degi til eða frá. Af
þessum sökum er auðvelt að leiðrétta ósamræmið og
það hefur lítil áhrif á heimildagildi eldritanna.
REFERENCES
See reference list in Thordarson et al, this issue.
10 JÖKULL No. 53, 2003