[Sca-cooks] Iceland

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

>
> It is my understanding that this is so.  You need to remember that
Iceland's
> history from its settlement is well documented, continuous and a source of
> great national pride.

You can say that again ...

>  Additionally the portion of the island that is
> habitable, i.e. not covered with ice, barren rock or desert is relatively
> small, generally coast hugging and divided by distinct terrain features.
> Couple this with the fact that those terrain features are occasionally
> distinguished by presenting distinctive characteristics and often
> reoccurring dangers, i.e. active volcanoes, lava tube caves, "sand
storms",
> deep "bottomless" pits, glaciers which have sub glacial lakes that due to
> geothermal activity occasionally float the glacier and cause sudden and
> catastrophic floods.  Truth to tell the farmsteds and even the house sites
> mentioned in the sagas are apparently often quite well known and
> documentable.  Nanna have I erred?

No, this is correct. I would estimate that at least 80% of the place names
mentioned in the Settlement Book (and there are many hundreds of them) are
still in use, more or less unchanged. Most farmstead names have remained
unchanged for at least 800 years, and probably longer. I grew up on a farm
named Djúpidalur. It is not mentioned in the Settlement Book but Djúpá, the
small river that runs along it, is named, and so is the mountain above the
farm. The next farm is named, and again in several Sagas, as it was rather a
well-known place, especially in the 13th century.

That is not to say Iceland hasn't changed since the Settlement - indeed it
has, because the woods have almost completely disappeared and vast fields
that used to be green forests are now completely barren - nothing but dark
grey sand and rocks. I saw a program on the news a few days ago about
efforts to reverse this - they showed a valley that was nothing but dark
sand around 5 years ago. Its name is Fagridalur (Beautiful valley), which
indicates that it used to be green and lush. Now, after only five years,
large patches are green again - maybe there will be a forest there again in
20-30 years. Great, but there are hundreds or thousands of spots like this
in Iceland.

> Nanna, as the local expert, would you have documentation of this for
Stefan?
> I know that at various sites the water is reported to be hot enough but
not
> if it was actually done.

See my earlier message.

Nanna