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Iceland Chapter 3
Oh, dear, I’m getting behind and need to catch up. Last time, we had just arrived on the ship and had our first onboard dinner. That was Saturday. On Sunday, the ship was still docked in Reykjavik (on purpose). We had a lovely breakfast in our cabin, served by Adrian. Then we waddled downstairs to get on a coach for a tour of historic Reykjavik and environs. This was led by a schoolteacher from Reykjavik, and it was clear that he liked to expound and show off what he knew. (Read: he was a pompous so-and-so). Nevertheless, we learned a lot, like good little students.
We headed out of R. to the south, and stopped first at Krysuvikurbjarg (I dare you to pronounce that) where there are some cliffs down to the ocean. Then we headed north to the Seltún Geothermal Field, where there were several holes with bubbling hot, sulpheric water and steam and some interestingly colored rock formations. I was actually more interested in getting photos of the horses across the road. We’ve seen a lot of Icelandic horses so far, but Pompous Puss did tell us a few things we didn’t know. The Icelandic horse shares the same DNA as the Mongolian horse, and they are believed to be the original horses. They are smaller than most horses, but very sturdy. They have 5 gaits, and many people in Iceland love to ride them. Because they are unique, no other horses (or livestock of any kind) may be imported to Iceland to muck up the gene pool. Also, if you have one of these horses and you would like to show it outside of Iceland, you can do that, but you can’t bring it back home. So the horses stay pure. They seem to survive the winter fine outdoors, unlike sheep, which would freeze to death if left outside all winter. The sheep are allowed to roam free all summer, but then are gathered up in the fall and taken indoors. This is a big deal in Iceland, kind of like a jamboree, where everyone has a party while the sheep are being rounded up.
Our next stop was at Viking World overlooking Faxafloi Bay in Reykjanus. (You know I just put these names in here to challenge you.) This is near the international airport in Keflavik, southeast of Reykjavik. This museum holds the íslendingur ship (the Icelander), an exact replica of the Gokstad ship, a remarkable archaeological find of an almost completely intact Viking ship, excavated in Norway in 1882. This replica, built by hand the same way Viking ships had been constructed with overlapping oak beams, was sailed to New York in 2000 to commemorate Leifur (Leif) Eriksson’s journey to the New World 1000 years earlier. Scientists were able to date the original ship to 870 A.D. Around that time, a ship like the Icelander would have had a crew of about 70. This allowed for a double shift of rowers at the 32 oars. In the middle of the ship, there was a sandpit to support an open fire, and livestock such as lambs would provide fresh meals for a long voyage. On the replica’s trip to North America, the crew was only 9. Upon arrival in New York, it was stored in Westport, CT. for a few years. In 2002, the town of Reykjanesbær, with the help of some investors, bought the ship and brought it home.
This museum was near the International Airport, which we learned was built by the Americans after WW2, when they held a lot of troops here. Once George W. Bush pulled the troops out, it became the airport for Reykjavik, even though it is an hour from the city.
We were somewhat ahead of schedule, so Pompous Puss took us past the President’s House and the Prime Minister’s home. Neither has any armed police around, and neither is very showy. The Prime Minister’s house is on a little spit of land with only one road to and fro. Her office is in the old city jail.
A side bar on Icelandic names: Everyone uses first names here, due to the way names are assigned. If you are James’ son Tom, your name will be Tom Jameson. If you are Gunnar’s daughter Sally, you will be Sally Gunnardöttir. They tried to get rid of this system and use family names in about 1900, but in 1925 they switched back. Then sexism got in the way, and they decided to form the children’s name from either parent’s name, so you could be Gunnarson or Katarinason. Plus, there are only 3500 approved personal names, so you have to choose one of those as the first name. Egads. How does anyone know who anyone is? Well, they have an answer for that. As soon as you are born, you get a government ID number, a 10-digit number based on the date and time of your birth. They use this number to identify themselves on forms and documents.
After all this fun, we got back to the ship in mid-afternoon. Jim ran over to the corner H&M store for some tee-shirts, and I worked on my photos. The ship departed at 6:00 p.m., with the announcement system playing “What a Wonderful World” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as we left sailed out of Reykjavik.
We had a lovely dinner in the main dining room. They do a great job of not making the portions too large. You get enough, but there is little waste and you never feel overstuffed. I had prime rib and filet mignon, and was not too full to have a wee dessert.
Sunday, we got up a bit late and had breakfast in the dining room. Then we attended a presentation on how to get in and out of a Zodiac, something we have done many times. Apparently this was intimidating for some, as there were at least 25 inane questions. Then we had a talk on the history of the Vikings, which was very interesting. They spread out all over the world – much farther than I ever knew.
The word “Vik” means pirate. They travelled in search of treasure, land, and slaves. They came to Iceland in the 9th century, with some of the earliest settlers coming to the west coast, which was surprising, since the East coast was a lot closer for them. Within 25 years, they had wiped out all the trees in this once-forested country, to build their houses and other things. Each village had a chieftain, and he was the religious leader. (They were all pagans at this point.)
Norway cracked down on enemies of the king, so 30,000 people left Norway for Iceland. Eric the Red had killed three people in Norway, so he was one who came to Iceland. He didn’t stop his killing spree, however, so after 3 more killings he had to leave and go to Greenland. His son, Lief Erikison (now you know how he got his last name) is credited with discovering North America.
The Viking “alphabet” had 16 letters. They communicated largely in Runes – depictions from old Germanic languages. Here is what Wikipedia says about Icelandic Runes:
- Icelandic Runic was created by Alexander R. as an adaptation of the runic script for Icelandic. ... The script is based on medieval runes, although vowels from Elder Futhark were added to be used for the letters á, é, í, ó, ú and ý in order to give a unique look to as many letters as possible.
Don’t hold me to any of this – I report, you decide. The scholar who was speaking to us made the Icelandic Runes sound much older.
Anyway, the Vikings traveled south to the northern coast of Africa to where Libya is now, Russia, Constantinople, the British Isles, Normandy (land of Norsemen), Iceland, and Greenland. When they sailed north, they just kept the land on their right until they hit ice. Then they turned left, which led them to Iceland. Their ships were their secret weapon -- made of overlapping oak planking, and very fast, going as much as 11 knots per hour.
Relying again on the unreliable Wikipedia:
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries. To the west, Vikings under Leif Erikson, the heir to Erik the Red, reached North America and set up a short-lived settlement in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada. Longer lasting and more established Norse settlements were formed in Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Russia, Great Britain, Ireland and Normandy.
It is debated whether the term Viking represents all Norse settlers or just those who raided.
Our speaker thinks they might easily have got as far as Minnesota.
They especially focused on monasteries and churches for raiding, because that was where all the gold and silver were and they were unarmed. They took a lot of Irish as slaves, called thralls.
Odin was the top god of the Vikings. He is always depicted as having only one eye. The story is that he went to the serpent and asked for knowledge. The serpent asked what Odin was willing to sacrifice for knowledge, and Odin reached up and dug out his own eye and handed it to the serpent. The Viking scholar said that this was the origin of the wink – closing one eye while sharing secret knowledge.
In the 10th century, the Allthing conference decided to adopt Christianity. That brought an end to raiding the monasteries. The Vikings settled down and intermarried with English, Russians, and others. It is suspected that 1 in every 33 British men has Viking DNA.
So, bless (goodbye) for now. Isn’t that a nice way to say goodbye?
Photos may be found at:
https://www.mmemery.com/Iceland-days-34
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Radical Democrats want to control the SCOTUS, take away our rights to own weapons, want to control our speech and health care and when it comes to state's rights they want to control education and voting and now, through the infrastructure bill, most everything else:
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