Jökull - 01.01.2021, Page 82

Gísladóttir et al.
By now the flood was travelling incredibly fast
along the Kúðafljót river and more than filled the river
course between the lava field and Leiðvöllur and was
approaching the Skálmarbæjarhraun farm (Figure 2).
People began to move everything portable northwards
from the farm up onto the edge of the lava field, and
the farmers, herders and sorters (about 30 people)
spent the night in sheep sheds in a more elevated po-
sition on the lava field. People could not sleep that
night because many things were now unusual; there
was constant thunder and crashing, a heavy sound of
unseen water, falling tephra and total darkness, except
when lightning flashed and illuminated the sky (Gísla-
son 1919, Oddsson 1968).
By morning of 13th October, the wind was from
the east, so the tephra cloud no longer hid the view.
Water had encircled the farm and there was a waist-
high crest of ice by the farmhouse. People realised
that the flood had receded but all around were enor-
mous icebergs across the outwash plain where the
flood had passed and the area looked like a jagged
new lava field. It was impossible to travel around
the area on horseback, and the herders and sorters
who were on Skálmarbæjarhraun the night of the flood
(12/13 October) decided to leave the horses behind
and scramble over the ice fields, across the Skálm
river and home to Álftaver (Figure 4). It was a week
later that the horses were collected from Skálmarbæj-
arhraun (Gíslason 1919, Oddsson 1968).
Experience of those on the farms in Álftaver
The day of the eruption, it was mostly women, chil-
dren and the elderly people at home on the farms in
Álftaver, although after the eruption began, some men
returned from the Fossarétt sheep sorting pen. The
farms stood at various elevations and some were at
risk of flooding.
Two of the sorters, Gísli Magnússon from Norður-
hjáleiga and the aforementioned Sigurður Jónsson
from Þykkvabæjarklaustur, who managed to cross the
river Skálm, rode as fast as possible towards their
farm area locally known as Sunnanbyggjaratorfa (this
area included the farms Þykkvabæjarklaustur, Norður-
hjáleiga and Hraungerði, Figure 4). With the flood
entering the river Skálm just behind them (approxi-
mately 167 m), they arrived at the farm Herjólfsstaðir
from where they could see how the flood was spread-
ing to the west. As they reached the farm Hraunbær
the flood was about 400–500 m away from them. With
the flood that tore across the mudflats west of Hraun-
bær hard on their heels, they rushed as fast as possible
all the way to their farms and when they arrived the
flood had just reached Norðurhjáleiga and Hraungerði
(Loftsson, 1930).
It was obvious by those who stayed at the farms
that Álftaver was being flooded, and people had be-
gun to gather at the farms. A woman from Hraun-
gerði had reached Norðurhjáleiga with her six chil-
dren, and Gísli directed people from the farms south to
the Virki sheep sheds on higher ground (Figure 4). Jón
Brynjólfsson, from Þykkvabæjarklaustur rode east to
Mýrar, where a widow with two children and a servant
girl were at home (Magnússon, 1919). Guðmunda
Oddsdóttir (age 12) from Þykkvabæjarklaustur was
among those who fled to Virki. She clung to her hand-
icapped brother who had difficulties walking and was
very worried that she would lose him. Their journey
was horrific; across from them the flood with huge,
hurtling icebergs had arrived between the farms and
filled the marshes surrounding Þykkvabæjarklaustur,
reaching the churchyard.
The people from the farms at Sunnanbyggjaratorfa
made it to the sheep sheds and spent the night there,
but it was a terrifying experience. It was pitch dark
from the tephra and people could hardly see their own
hands, but lightning lit the sky and thunder crashed
endlessly, with barely a break and in the darkness they
could hear the floodwaters which were close by but
not visible.
At Holt there were three farmhouses and fami-
lies with many children and elderly people (a total of
32 people (The National Archices of Iceland (Þjóðsk-
jalasafn), no date) out of which two were herders), but
two men from the sheep sorting pen made it home to
Holt before the floodwaters entered the Skálm river,
and they knew that the flood was not far from the
farms. Holt is 1–2 km from the Herjólfsstaðir farm
which stands higher, and the men instructed all the
residents to flee to there; and so, they walked along
a strip of grassland towards Herjólfsstaðir. When
they were about halfway, one woman realised that
80 JÖKULL No. 71, 2021