rock – Energy and Time

Iceland day 14: Þingvellir to Reykjavík

Þingvellir National Park (still part of the Golden Circle) was next. This site has immense historical significance. In 930 AD, the first Alþingi (Icelandic Parliament) was founded here, the oldest still-existing democratic institution in the world. It’s a calm sheltered valley with abundant fresh water.

I was particularly interested to see the Lögberg (“Law Rock”), where speeches were made and new laws proclaimed. We don’t actually know for certain which rock was the Lögberg, but the flagpole marks the current best guess (there are two other good candidates though). Anyway, I though it would be an appropriate place to proclaim a new law. 🙂

Sometimes the Althing had to pass final judgement and execute people. Men were often hanged, but women were usually tied in a sack and drowned, in this calm deep pool by the side of a creek.

Elsewhere in the park is Silfra, a famous fissure that is often said to be “the” divide between the European and North American continental plates. The whole rift valley that it’s part of features hundreds of cracks, so that seems a bit overhyped to me. Nonetheless, it’s a popular spot for scuba divers.

Silfra with one of the diver entry ramps. Europe on the left, North America on the right.

The hydroelectric power station at Ljósafossstöð wasn’t far out of the way, so we made a short detour to see it. It started supplying electricity to Reykjavík in 1937, but has been upgraded several times since.

Hveragerði is the only town in Iceland to have been intentionally built on top of a geothermal site. At the visitor center, you can boil an egg in a hot spring, or taste bread slow-baked by steam heat.

Hey, you always *knew* I was an egg-head. 8 minutes to hard-boiled.

The bread was a dense flavorful dark rye (with no caraway).

The park includes a geyser and a small geothermal plant.

There was a deep depression that the town formerly used as its garbage dump, but one year the hole exploded and covered the town in decades worth of old garbage.

The Hellisheiði geothermal power station supplies electricity AND hot water to Reykjavík. The pipes to the city are so well-insulated that there’s only a 1°C temperature drop between here and the city storage tanks.

Our first stop after reaching the Reykjavík area was the Seltjarnarnes peninsula with its Bakkatjörn pond bird sanctuary.

In Reykjavík proper, it’s hard to miss the towering Hallgrímskirkja. This is said to have been modeled after the Svartifoss waterfall with its hexagonal basalt columns (which we saw on day 11).

Iceland day 11: Svartifoss to Heimaey

We had camped just outside Svartifoss, and Carol woke up early and wanted to hike there. But I was feeling a bit beat up and decided to skip it in favor of a leisurely breakfast.

Me eating breakfast next to our black Dacia Dokker camper

Svartifoss (“Black Waterfall”, probably from the same root as the English “swarthy”) is known for it’s black hexagonal basalt columns, which tend to break away before they can be worn smooth, leaving fairly jagged rock. This is the same kind of rock as seen in Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

another (unnamed?) waterfall on the hike

Then it was off for a long driving day.

There are tall thin waterfalls all over Iceland, in some areas one every kilometer or two.

Our next stop was Fjaðrárgljúfur, a canyon which is (sadly) most famous for Justin Bieber filming parts of a music video there, which increased the tourist load so much that it had to be temporarily closed in 2019.

I found two kinds of mushrooms on the way out.

This looked somewhat similar to a Liberty Cap (*Psilocybe semilanceata*), but I wasn’t about to ingest a foreign LBM to find out whether it was hallucinogenic or not. Also, the stipes seemed too thick and short, and there was no sign of blue or purple discoloration in the older specimens.

We stopped in Vík for lunch at Wok On Vík, an Asian fast food place.

Looking southwest. The 3 rocks in the distance are a famous landmark.

I had something in peanut sauce over brown rice, while Carol went for green tea noodles.

A delicate rock arch. Same 3 rocks in the distance, only this time east (behind us).

Onward to Skógafoss, a 60-meter falls (slightly taller than Niagara Falls).

Lots of spray. You get close, you get wet.

Seljalandsfoss, often described as the only Iceland waterfall you can walk behind, even though Kvernufoss also has that property.

Since we were a little ahead of schedule, Carol proposed that we visit Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands). So we took the short ferry ride to Heimaey (“Home Island”), found a nice campsite (more on that tomorrow), and had dinner at Tanginn.

Carol had the Reindeer Steak, which came with a mushroom sauce. Yes, there’s meat somewhere under those greens.

Antistrophes

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), from the appendix to the Duino Elegies
translated by Howard A. Landman

Gegen-Strophen

Oh daß ihr hier, Frauen, einhergeht,
hier unter uns, leidvoll,
nicht geschonter als wir und dennoch imstande,
selig zu machen wie Selige.

Woher,
wenn der Geliebte erscheint,
nehmt ihr die Zukunft?
Mehr, als je sein wird.
Wer die Entfernungen weiß
bis zum äußersten Fixstern,
staunt, wenn er diesen gewahrt,
euern herrlichen Herzraum.
Wie, im Gedräng, spart ihr ihn aus?
Ihr, voll Quellen und Nacht.

Seid ihr wirklich die gleichen,
die, da ihr Kind wart,
unwirsch im Schulgang
anstieß der ältere Bruder?
Ihr Heilen.

        Wo wir als Kinder uns schon
        häßlich für immer verzerrn,
        wart ihr wie Brot vor der Wandlung.

Abbruch der Kindheit
war euch nicht Schaden. Auf einmal
standet ihr da, wie im Gott
plötzlich zum Wunder ergänzt.

        Wir, wie gebrochen vom Berg,
        oft schon als Knaben scharf
        an den Rändern, vielleicht
        manchmal glücklich behaun;
        wir, wie Stücke Gesteins
        über Blumen gestürzt.

Blumen des tieferen Erdreichs,
von allen Wurzeln geliebte,
ihr, der Eurydike Schwestern,
immer voll heiliger Umkehr
hinter dem steigenden Mann.

        Wir, von uns selber gekränkt,
        Kränkende gern und gern
        Wiedergekränkte aus Not.
        Wir wie Waffen, dem Zorn
        neben den Schlaf gelegt.

Ihr, die ihr beinah Schutz seid, wo niemand
schützt. Wie ein schattiger Schlafbaum
ist der Gedanke an euch
für die Schwärme des Einsamen.

Antistrophes

Oh, that you here, women, walk 
here among us, sorrowful,
spared from no more than we, and yet capable
of blessing like the blessed.

Wherefrom,
when the Beloved appears,
do you take the future?
More than will ever be.
He who knows the distances
to the outermost stars
is astounded, when he beholds
the splendid spaciousness of your hearts.
How, in the crowd, do you save it for him?
You, full of wellsprings and night.

Are you really the same
as those who, when children,
in the school hallway, were roughly
shoved by their older brother?
You healed.

        While we as children already 
        grew twisted, hideous forever, 
        you were like bread before the Transformation 

The curtailment of childhood
was no tragedy to you. All at once
you stood there, as if
miraculously completed by God.

        We, as if broken off a peak, 
        already as boys often too sharp 
        at the edges, perhaps 
        sometimes felicitously hewn; 
        we, like pieces of rock, 
        that tumbled onto flowers. 

Flowers of the deeper soil,
beloved by all roots,
you, sisters of Eurydice,
always full of holy returning
behind the climbing man.

        We, offended by ourselves, 
        happily offend and happily 
        offend again out of need. 
        We sleep with our anger 
        under our pillow, like a gun. 

You, who are nearly protection, where no one
protects. Like a shady tree to sleep under
is the thought of you
for the swarms of the lonely.