Jökull - 01.01.2021, Page 81

Álftaver’s experience of the 1918 Katla eruption
Vilhjálmur Bjarnason coming helter-skelter with news
of the eruption. Sigurður rushed away to the sheep
sorters, and the people at the sorting pens managed to
cross the Skálm river at the Skógarvað ford just 1–2
km away ahead of the floodwater front, shortly before
the flood reached the river. Vilhjálmur, who had rid-
den in distress for seven kilometres, crossed the Skálm
and parted with Sigurður. He and the sorters who
were located at the Fossarétt sheep sorting pen made
the crossing just before the flood entered the river
(Bjarnason, 1985). Other sorters who were not by the
sorting pen had to go a long way to cross the river
Skálm and rode towards Skálmabæjarhraun. When
the sorters had crossed the river Skálm they saw the
flood wall, in an estimated 10-minute travel time from
their location (Jóhannsson, 1919).
When news of the flood reached the herders in the
Upphagar pastures they rode as fast as they could by
Nátthagasker, and when they approached the rocks
north of Ljósavatnaháls they became aware of the
flood that streamed across the outwash plain west of
Laufskálavarða (Figure 3), and so they headed straight
for Skálmarbæjarhraun lava field and Skálmarbæjar-
hraun farm (Figure 4).
The men herding the flock in Upphagar, between
the rivers Leirá and Skálm (Figure 3), first noticed
that something serious was happening. When they
were some distance south of Laufskálavarða, they had
heard increasing thudding and crashing but could not
see the flood, as they were in a sandy hollow with
ridges on both sides which obscured the view to the
west. They continued towards the Fossarétt pen. But
when “we were far south of Laufskálavarða and north
of the grassland we could see that some are leav-
ing the sheep-sorting pen and crossing Skálm, and
just then we saw men [from Upphagar] riding as fast
as they could from the west and crossing the Ljósu-
vatnaháls and heading to the east towards the pen
(Figure 4). And we had only a short distance to the
grassland, but as the sheep became tired from all the
travelling, we walked with the sheep and towed the
horses behind” (Oddsson, 1968, page 6). During this,
one of the lambs became separated from the flock.
One herder, Jón Gíslason from Norðurhjáleiga, turned
around to get the lamb into the flock, and Brynjólfur
Oddsson from Þykkvabæjarklaustur is quoted as say-
ing that when Jón had turned round he said: “So it’s
Katla!” (Oddsson, 1968 page 6–7). Brynjólfur esti-
mated that the flood was not over 100 metres away
from them (Oddsson, 1968).
Jón Gíslason’s description of events is as follows:
“What I saw will stay with me for a long time. Be-
hind us was raging an enormous, terrifying flood
which tore along the depression between the two lava
ridges... We moved as fast as we could, heading south
to Ljósavatnaháls. When we got there, we saw that
the flood was spreading eastwards out of the river
Skálm, to the south of us; so, it was not possible to
continue that way. We changed direction then and
carried on towards Skálmarbæjarhraun. We galloped
the horses at the depression which lies between Ljósa-
vatn and the lava field and tore straight across ditches
and streams. It was touch and go whether we or the
flood would win. Still, we reached the edge of the lava
before the flood hit it, but it was so close that it broke
over our trail 40–50 metres from the edge of the lava
field.” (Gíslason 1919, page 35)
Once they were up on the lava field, they contin-
ued towards a rock islet in the western part of the lava
field, where the other herders from the summer pas-
tures and the sheep sorters who had been unable to
cross the river Skálm had congregated. People kept
together and watched the flood (the branch of the out-
burst flood that emerged on the outwash plain west
of Laufskálavarða, Figure 3) as it raced with tremen-
dous power and speed, sweeping along icebergs and
flowing over everything in its path (Gíslason, 1919).
The leading edge of the flood pushed up soil and veg-
etated land (like rolled-up pancakes), which then be-
came mixed with the glacial water and was destroyed
(Gísladóttir and Margrétardóttir, 2004, p. 7). The out-
burst flood was dark brown and formidable, according
to their description, with a strong stench of sulphur.
The men did not think it was advisable to stay on the
rock, with their many horses and no vegetation. The
flood was heading around the islet west of Skálmar-
bæjarhraun (Figure 2), so they made for the Skálmar-
bæjarhraun farm which was the northernmost farm in
Álftaver and the only farm north of Skálm (Gíslason,
1919).
JÖKULL No. 71, 2021 79