Iceland review - 2015, Page 52

50 ICELAND REVIEW
farmers from the region who carried out
the massacre.”
Not many sources exist about the killings
or other relations between Icelanders and
Basques in the 17th century, apart from Jón
lærði’s account—which this year was repub-
lished as Slaying of the Basques in four lan-
guages, along with a thorough introduction
by Már Jónsson—and a handful of cryptic
poems, annals and verdicts, showing anoth-
er perspective. Ólafur, who is also the direc-
tor of the Snjáfjallasetur Heritage Centre
on Snæfjallaströnd, has taken part in pro-
moting research on the subject and organ-
izing on behalf of the Icelandic-Basque
association and together with Basque insti-
tutions a program remembering the kill-
ings this year, their 400th anniversary. As
part of the program, a memorial to the slain
whalers was unveiled and a ceremony held
in Hólmavík in Strandir on April 22, to
HISTORY
which the Etxepare Institute in the Basque
Country, Center for Basque Studies in the
U.S., authorities in Gipuzkoa and Iceland
contributed. Ólafur says that subconscious-
ly, his curiosity about the history of the
Basques in Iceland may have been driven
by inherited guilt. “Knowing about the
killings, I decided to study in Spain, which
again raised new questions about what had
happened.”

FATEFUL AUTUMN DAY
In the early 17th century, after the over-
exploitation of great whales—which were
hunted primarily to make oil—in today’s
Newfoundland, Basque whalers headed
for new grounds in Svalbard and Iceland.
In 1613, they set up a whaling station
in Hveravík in Steingrímsfjörður fjord in
Strandir. Magistrate Ari from Ögur unlaw-
A typical Basque whaling station.

Opposite page from top:
Martín de Villafranca being stoned
by angry farmers as he tries to swim
away—while singing; The slaying in
Dýrafjörður.