Author Archives: Harold Rhenisch

Unknown's avatar

About Harold Rhenisch

www.haroldrhenisch.com

A Short Mountain Identification Guide

Leave a reply

This is not a mountain. It is a plateau above Grundarfjörður, cut away by ice. It is, in other words, a fall, or a fjall in Iceland.

Similarly with Kirkjufell below, just west of town. Not a mountain either.

However, the one below, in Berserkerjarhraun is a mountain. Fire has heaped it up. It mounts.
The one below at Glitstaðir is tricky. Neither mountain nor fjall, it’s a fell (Skálafell). Behind the farm it rises to 225 metres.

But this is just a glacier: langjökull, seen from Reykholt.

There just aren’t many mountains in Iceland. Lots of places where you can fall down, though.

Iceland, Land of Mighty Forests

Leave a reply

Iceland is renowned for being barren of trees. This popular image of Kirkjufell, for instance, shows this characteristic of the country well.

See? No trees. Here is is again:

Got that? Horses, but no trees. Trouble is, it’s a plot. Iceland has forests galore. That you don’t see them is just plain weird, because, well, look:

Looks good, right? So the next time, you see this…

…just realize you’ve been put into a script. The Icelanders hang out in the trees.

 

Icelandic Trails Are Improvisations in 5-Dimensional Space

Leave a reply

Here at the head of the Hvalfjörður the old trails leap off across country. The old cairns remain, to still mark the way in bad weather, or good. As you can see, there’s a chasm between cairns. No amount of scrambling is going to make that worthwhile. You’re likely to break a fetlock, or worse.

Reading these cairns is not a matter of following straight lines. Obviously, the rock, the cleft and the sky are part of the trail, too, and the reading is a way of orienting oneself in multi-dimensional space, not map space. If you’ve ever read an Icelandic novel, you’ll recognize the pattern!

Maria of the Elves

2 Replies

Women were put to death for visiting elves here on Viðey in Reykjavik Old Harbour. Now there is a shrine to Maria made out of cut glass in their honour and in honour of birth and motherhood in general.

On the other side of the island is the John Lennon Peace Tower, which beams light up into the winter darkness.

Iceland. Giving Peace and Light a chance since 870.

Plus picnics.

Worlds Within Worlds

Leave a reply

 

Light tells its own stories in Þingvellir. We are here to witness. It’s no surprise the Icelanders first called Christ “White Christ.” He was the north, that place from beyond the world. Who nonetheless came, physically, as this Earth, in a harsh and beautiful mercy.


Oxarárfoss

Icelandic Art v. 1.0, with a bonus app thrown in: Ravens

4 Replies

Pattern, volume, mass, surface, light, line and shade. These expressions make up art. They are also representations of the human body.

Hrafnabjórg

(Home of ravens, too.)

Which is a creation of the earth’s body. Iceland feels like home because it is: whether on the veldt of Africa, the steppes of Asia, the prairies of North America or the glaciers of Europe, Asia and Canada, these basic forms, of our bodies laid out for us to walk through under the sky, are our oldest map. Wherever we are going, we are already there.

Leprechauns in Iceland? Yes!

Leave a reply

So, here it is, Gulfoss, translated as “Golden Falls.”

The water, as you can see from its colour, comes from the glacier. No gold there.

And the gold? Well, at settlement 55% of Icelanders were Irish women dragged along against their will and making the most of it. I suspect a leprechaun or two came along, because leprechauns like to hide a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, and, well…

You are virtually promised to see a rainbow at Gulfoss. Don’t try for the pot of gold, though. It’s dangerous down there where the river disappears into the earth. Fairyland, they call that.

Maybe a trip to the glacier? Much safer.

Langjökull

And what is a glacier? Why, just look at it: white gold, of course.