Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1936, Side 11

11
From the above quotations one cannot but conclude
that Grímsvötn are ”in tbe jökull to the east“ (i. e.
Vatnajökull) and that near them there are centres of
volcanic activity which erupted occasionally. But we
have yet other authorities who give more precise de-
tails of the situation of these volcanic areas. In the un-
printed1) ”Islandslýsing“ (11) by Þorlákur Markússon
(d. 1736) there occurs, after a description of the move-
ments of Skeiðarárjökull, a statement that Grímsvötn
lie 2) ”not very far, maybe 6 or 7 miles, farther inland
and more to the south of the country“. There appears
to be some inconsistency in this account, which can
most likely be attributed to the writer’s ignorance of
the south of the country. It is impossible for the place
to be both ”farther inland and more to the south“ if the
reference is to the southern margin of Skeiðarárjökull,
as the author most decidedly seems to intend it to be.
Neither do I consider it likely that we have here a scri-
bal error to deal with, though this is not impossible.
”Farther inland“ is, from the point of view of an inhab-
itant of the north of the country,3) farther south, and
I think it possible to explain the inconsistency in the
sentence about the position of Grímsvötn by saying that
the writer had not considered the difference in situa-
tion between the north of the country and the south
sufficiently well. In this connection it may be mention-
ed that the manuscript gives in some ways the impres-
sion that it is merely a rough draught of a description
of Iceland, which it was the author’s intention to aug-
ment and correct later.4) He may therefore be correct
as to the distance of Grímsvötn from the southern mar-
1) A short chapter of this ”íslandslýsing“ is printed in Blanda,
V. I. 1932.
2) ”Ekki mjög langt, sem vera kann 6 eður 7 mílur frá þessum
jökli, upp betur og sunnar í landinu“.
3) The writer of this ”íslandslýsing“ was resident in Skaga-
í jörður.
4) Cf. the opinion of Dr. Hannes Þorsteinsson in Blanda V. I.