Just west of Hengifoss, there is an ogress’s stairway, leading to the high country and off to Myvatnsveit.
She is not absent from it. Every ledge on the mountain has a name. Each is a separate sheep pasture. Talk about trusting ancient forces with one’s sheep (the “hidden people” just seems wrong, given how visible she is), or what.
Amazingly, he has no story and no name. I think this is because he’s a pretty friendly guy overall, although during my week beneath him, I couldn’t help but wonder just how much his scree slope had moved onto farmland over the last 1100 years, and how many hundred metres the sea had eaten away the fields to the right.
That Finnish smiths chained a dragon to the bottom of the lake in olden times, is well known.
That it gets out and flies through the air above the water from time to time is something rarely talked about. But it did last July 1. Here it is.
Buðahraun
Around 10:30 pm.
This is Eldborg, “Fire Mountain.”
It used to lie on the main road to the East.
Now it’s out of the way and forgotten in a barren land.
But don’t drive past. It’s beautiful on Fire Mountain.
At Midsummer, the mountain erupts again.
And comes to life.
Or life comes to it.
Hard to say which.
Both at once, perhaps. Note how just for a couple weeks, every glob of stone develops a body and lives.
It is a fantastical riot of life. Everything is alive.
And then the mountain goes back to solemnly watching the Grindavik Road.
All kinds of people.
All kinds of watching.
Note that the light is off in the distance, over Midhúsavatn and Knarrartunga, but with its darkness Gatklettur hides it.
Tricky old rock!
Here on the trail along the Selfljót, this rock stopped me in my tracks. Is it not an old story from the sagas or some old folk tale?
A bearded man (or elf? or dwarf?) on the left, and a fox on the right? There are a lot of rocks along the trail, but this one was unique.
It’s a hard one, but is it better to drive up to Dettifoss and get close to a wall of water, or park five kilometres away and walk along to goroge until you’re ready to see the falls from a new perspective?
Dunno, but when I got this far, I didn’t want to go further, and turned around, to the forest. It was hiding behind a rock and taking on human form.
It was a message. Iceland is full of messages like that.
Could this motherly nudge be why some maps call this “Whale Bay”?
Öxarfjörður in June
This fledgling thrush last summer was, like all thrushes, social and curious. I had one at Skriðuklaustur that perched on the window daily: a small house god, eating insects that came to the glass and knock knock knock knocking on the pane. It’s best to consider thrushes, like trees, as magical creatures from the world of the Huldúfolk, visiting his with messages. Their bodies are doorways. In this case, the bird was caught between fear, and defensive freezing, and curiosity.
Intriguingly, its mother was nearby, keeping an eye out. Like its relative, the American Robin, these little guys get to spend some time alone with the world. I had a robin nest in my apricot tree here in Canada for about five years. Every year, when her hatchlings got too big for the nest and fell out, she would leave them for an entire day and night, and only if they survived that would she return to feed them.
I hiked once out to the Easter Cave in Neskaupstaðir, with a thrush leading the way along the path. Thrushes make good guides. The Earth is strong in them. When you meet one, pay attention. They come with a message.
A Farm in Iceland 