Náttúrufræðingurinn

Volume

Náttúrufræðingurinn - 2020, Page 60

Náttúrufræðingurinn - 2020, Page 60
Náttúrufræðingurinn 280 Ritrýnd grein / Peer reviewed ABSTRACT Records on routes across Vatna- jökull glacier to Skaftafell as well as to fishing stations at the south coast and the reasons for its facing out from 1600 on The first of the three articles of this series was published in this magazines 90th year no. 2–3 2020. There the author reflected on sources about routs across the Vatnajökull glacier, changing coastline and vegetational cover. In this, the second article, we further trace the effect of the advance of Vatna- jökull and its valley glaciers from about 1300 on and describe how it resulted in subsidence of the land, eroding the coastline and spoiling beaching sites for boats along the southern coast. This is attested in records, e.g. from Hálsa- höfn in the property of Borgarhöfn in Suðursveit, where there are remains of seasonal fishermen’s huts said to have been used by men from the Northern quarter. This area was also visited by fishermen from the eastern region of Fljótsdalshérað, including the monas- tery of Skriðuklaustur, which owned a share in Borgarhöfn; this was probably a source of stockfish for the monas- tery. – In a mayor accident at sea near Hálsahöfn in 1573 more than 50 men were drowned; after this event the use of the eroded harbour came to a close. The route east of Vatnajökull contin- ued to be used for some time longer, on into the early seventeenth century by men travelling to the fishing stations of Austur-Skaftafellssýsla; this is attested by old placenames. Written sources from the sixteenth century also record journeys made between Skaftafell and Möðrudalur and the rights that each of these properties had to exploit resources pertaining to the other’s land. The third and last article will resume the account about two hundred years later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, describing the search for a route linking the Eastern and South- ern quarters on the north side of the glacier (Vatnajökulsvegur), ideas about the location of Grímsvötn as a volcano and the role played by foreign travel- lers in exploring Vatnajökull glacier until Icelanders in the twentieth cen- tury resumed the leading role in glacier travel and research. 23. mynd. Ragnar Stefánsson þjóðgarðsvörður og samverkamenn við Selbæinn í Skaftafelli 1975: Árni Reynisson framkvæmdastjóri Náttúru- verndarráðs, Hrafnkell Thorlacíus arkitekt og Bragi Þórarinsson verkstjóri. – Ragnar Stefánsson, head of Skaftafell national park, with co-workers in front of the old Sel farm, 1975. Ljósm./Photo: Hjörleifur Guttormsson.

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