Iceland review - 2016, Page 50

48 ICELAND REVIEW
a day,” states Þórir. Many monasteries
were established in Iceland around that
time. “They were the aluminum smelt-
ers of the day. Spiritual power plants.”
Burials were part of the monks’ duties,
as place names on Viðey indicate, such
as Þvottahóll (‘Washing Hillock’) and
Líkaflöt (‘Corpse Plain’). “Bodies were
brought over to the island to be buried
in the monastery’s graveyard. They wer-
en’t always in coffins; sometimes only
in sheets, and would get wet on the
ride over. This is where the bodies were
carried ashore, washed, laid out and pre-
pared for burial.”
The monastery also cared for the poor
and ill, and served as an education center.
Wax boards from 1450-1600 have been
found on Viðey. “They were used for
writing before copying the text onto calf
skins, because after that, you couldn’t
make changes,” explains Þórir. Important
visitors were invited to Viðey. Þórir
believes that Christopher Columbus may
have been one of them. Sources indicate
that Columbus came to Iceland in 1477.
Þórir reasons that if Columbus was seek-
ing information about the Viking expe-
ditions to America, it’s almost certain
that he would have found them in the
monastery on Viðey.
The monastery was closed after
Catholicism was abolished in Iceland in
1550, but a nursing home continued to
be operated on the island.
PLACE FOR A PALACE
In 1749, Skúli Magnússon was appointed
treasurer of Iceland by the Danish King.
He made Viðey his residence and had his
manor, Viðeyjarstofa, built there in 1753-
1755. The grand white house with an
elegantly-decorated interior—Iceland’s
oldest stone building—was dubbed slotið
(from the Danish ‘slot’ or ‘palace’). The
adjacent Viðeyjarkirkja church was inau-
gurated in 1774. Þórir’s first task as Viðey
curator in 1988 was overseeing the res-
toration of Viðeyjarstofa and the church
to their old grandeur in celebration of
the 200th anniversary of Reykjavík. A café
and restaurant are currently operated in
Skúli’s old manor.
On the doorstep of Viðeyjarstofa, Þórir
takes me back to the past: “Imagine
you’re the farmer at Arnarhóll [in
Reykjavík]. You’re a poor tenant and
have to toil to support your family and
pay your dues. You have to bend down
to enter your little turf hut. There are
no glass windows, maybe just an amnion
from a calf, and your house has never
been painted. You take your products to
Skúli fógeti on Viðey and place them on
the paving stone outside Viðeyjarstofa.
Out comes Skúli, greets you and thanks
you for being a reliable tax payer, and—if
he’s in a good mood—might invite you
inside to have coffee. Coffee! An almost
unheard of luxury product. With a high
ceiling, painted interior and heating, to
you, Viðeyjarstofa is a palace.”
In the four decades Skúli reigned on
Viðey, he turned the place from a farm-
stead to the country’s greatest residence.
He revived the old eider down indus-
try and experimented with agriculture.
Behind Viðeyjarstofa is his Tóbakslaut
(‘Tobacco Patch’). “Skúli was a heavy
smoker, as can be seen by the remains
of clay pipes found—the cigarette butts
of the time. He attempted to grow
tobacco here and in several other plac-
es on the island without luck,” says
Þórir. Skúli succeeded in growing cara-
way, though, which now grows wild on
Viðey. Organized caraway picking takes
place there once a year, a tradition Þórir
established.
In 1793, the King’s governor, Ólafur
Stephensen, moved to Viðey and made
Viðeyjarstofa his residence. Grudgingly,
the now old Skúli relocated to the loft
with his daughter Guðrún, but died the
following year. Þórir shows me the room
H I S T O R Y
Rev. Þórir Stephensen with the Viðey church
and Viðeyjarstofa in the background.Columnar basalt on Viðey.