Hornafjordur. It won’t notice when it kills you.
Someone lived here.
That’s the thing that boggled my mind, as I leaned into the wind, peering at the fuzzy shapes of dunes through the mesh of my cheap hooded shirt pulled across my face, hoping the sweatshop fibers would keep the black volcanic sand from scraping out my retinas.
And I’m not talking about living here nowadays, though that too is impressive, but back in the Xth century. Some Danish king told Bjorkylvörlakvirðerheim Þorlakhöslmangleson (or some such appropriately Vikingish name, I didn’t write it down):
“Hey, why don’t you move out to the eastern edge of that frozen and geologically genocidal island we found in the icy and ill-tempered seas? You’ll love it there. They have sand. And ice. Take your crusty wife and your crusty children too, they’ll thank you for it.”
I’m guessing the king didn’t like Bjorkylvörlakvirðerheim very much.
But he came here. In a frickin boat. Built a homestead, and didn’t die. Incredible. Named Hornafjörður, this area eventually grew into one of the larger settlements of Iceland, though it remained remote, isolated, and caustically severe for centuries. The isolation didn’t start to thaw until the late 1970’s, when the technology necessary to build bridges that could withstand the epic jökulhlaups, or glacial floods, was developed and implemented, completing the ring road around the island.
I shook my head, hearing the percussive scratch of sand whipped against the cloth covering my face, and walked deeper into the black sand dunes, veined with dry grasses as tenacious as any living thing on Earth. I stepped over a jaw bone, bleached white and completely stripped of flesh, the calcium already wearing away at the edges.
This is the sort of place that doesn’t even notice when it kills you.
To my right, white-capped waves off the Norwegian Sea hacked the backs of the waves before them into froth in their haste to assault the shore, outraged at sand’s impertinence in impeding their icily majestic sweep across the sea. Behind me an American-built weather station, nearly abandoned after the nation politely told us to remove out military presence in 2006, hunkered down in olive green desolation, waiting to die.
But in front of me…
Maybe the aggression of the waves had provoked volcanic obstinacy, a geologic temper tantrum, but whatever natural forces pushed up those mountains did so with a ferocious hand. Edges to break axes, ice-lined heights to turn blood to stone and shatter it with a feral grin, and loose rocky screes that could avalanche over a home in seconds to annihilate all trace of the temerity of mortals.
It was pretty.
I wanted to stare at it forever. Or at least until the brutal beauty either opened my mind or eroded it. But after a few minutes, fingers growing stiff as the ligaments steadily froze, I got back in the car, which rocked in the blasts of wind.
In the shower later that night, my downwind ear was empty but the side that had faced into the fury was lined with a layer of black volcanic grit that had pierced right through the cloth of my shirt. Cotton? That would last an hour out there. But that place, it will outlast us all.
(This place is so brutally beautiful that I’d like to remind y’all that these images are copyright, by me. If you fancy them, let me know, and I’ll share them with you.)
Reblogged this on monikcanama and commented:
let us always pray to god to have long life…
LikeLike
Some very nice images (the last one particularly caught my eye) accompanying a fascinating write-up. Can’t ask for more than that.
LikeLike
That one was my favorite too, though I confess I wish I had five more minutes at that site…there’s a couple angles I wish I’d tried. But ain’t that the way of it? (Especially when it’s freezing, with gale-force winds.)
LikeLike
Bleak, moody, harsh – I love such places. There’s always beauty to be found, though it jumps up and smacks you in the face in Iceland. (Literally, from your descriptions.) Especially love it when there are remains of life to be pondered.
Dammit, I want to go to there *now*!
LikeLike
hahaha Literally indeed. I highly recommend the Horn, just a day’s drive from Reykjavik. We met a photographer who showed us an image on his phone taken a few days before, when there were large pieces of sheet ice piled up on the water… That picture makes these ones look like rubbish. But the experience of the eye in situ blows them all away. Go!
LikeLike
One of your best articles I think, and gorgeous shots to boot. It’s amazing the places humanity has found a foothold.
LikeLike
Well thankee, friend! I wish I could have done a better job of showing the wind… (The longer exposure ones, to show the movement of the grass, showed movement of everything, as the wind tried to knock me down.) I can’t imagine how people survived there a generation ago, not to mention a couple centuries!
LikeLike
Your writing is so much more vivid when there’s travel in the wind.
LikeLike
🙂 I reckon you’re right. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep doing it then. 😉
LikeLike
Darn! 🙂
LikeLike
You are in Iceland! You never cease to amaze me, and this was a great read. All of your photos are gorgeous, but that final shot is stellar!
LikeLike
I’m having to pace myself a bit…since I have over a month until I can start posting about the next trip…I have to resist the urge to put just the top ones up. (Although to be honest, sometimes it’s hard to choose one, or four! That island is far too beautiful.)
LikeLike
Photos were stunning, & great read. Gotta love wind to enhance an experience. How much do we not even notice it’s presence?
LikeLike
So true. Fortunately, in that place, the wind was not about to be ignored! If the landscape had been any less stunning, the wind would have swallowed the sense of place entirely (and we wouldn’t have gotten out of the car!)
LikeLike
You were very inspired when writing this one. The phrase that rocked my boat is “I shook my head, hearing the percussive scratch of sand whipped against the cloth covering my face, and walked deeper into the black sand dunes. . . .” The photos are absolutely stunning. When I make it to Iceland, I will remember to check out the Horn. Thanks for exposing this to me.
LikeLike
Pingback: I had to come home to remember how to feel out of place. | Vagabond Urges
Pingback: Rein or shine, a dinner you’ll deerly love | Vagabond Urges
it is made by nature and i know that all things here on earth has it’s own life span…..
LikeLike
Pingback: Alone together in Tarifa | Vagabond Urges