#Eyjafjörður

[nikonstudio]

The sight of Iceland greeted the guests onboard, as the ship enters the 70-km long Eyjafjörður fjord that connects Akureyri to the vast Norwegian Sea.

Temperature naturally dipped to around 10 degrees celsius as the morning breaks while I get myself ready to pick up the rental vehicle. The fjord surely resembles those found in Norway and Alaska, just so much wider in overall breadth.

A much needed breadth of fresh air...

[ndav1d42]

Izland 7. nap /1. (szept6. sze)

(Közben hazaértünk, itthon minden szar (jó, nem minden, mert vannak cicák!), se hegyek, se fjordok, csak utazás utáni letargia és depresszió... de nézegetem a képeket, lélekben még itt járok)

hú, ez is egy mozgalmas nap volt. nagyjából 270km utazás volt a terv jónéhány megállóval, úgyhogy haladni kellett. a reggelt azért nem kapkodtuk el, főztünk reggelit a Mývatn tó melletti kempingben, pakolásztunk, aztán indultunk a közeli Hverfjall vulkánhoz.

2500 éve tört ki, egy km átmérőjű a tufagyűrű kráter, és kb. 100km/h-s szél fújt a tetején, de úgy, h tényleg ledöntött a lábunkról és közben ugyanezzel a sebességgel fújta a hamut is a szemünkbe (meg az összes nem takart testfelületre). gyors körülnézés volt, jöttünk is le hamar.

köv gyors megálló a Mývatn fürdő túloldalán lévő szolfatáramező, amit előző este a fürdőhöz sietés miatt kihagytunk. a fumarolák tolják ki magukból a kénes mindenfélét, elég menő a táj. színes, büdös és persze itt is szeles volt.

aztán jött 60km után Húsavik, ami az északi bálnaközpont. innen (is) indul rengeteg bálnanéző hajós kirándulás, és itt van A bálnamúzeum. a múzeum izgi, tele van csontvázakkal, meg infókkal, tetszett (kivéve a bálnavadászós rész, de hát az is hozzátartozik sajna)

múzeumozás után ebédeltünk, megnéztük a kikötőt, meg úgy a város parti részét, nagyon szép. bevásároltunk, aztán innen már végülis a kemping jött, ami 200km-re volt még (muszáj volt lenyomni nagy távot, h haladjunk a szigetkörrel). de azért amit útba lehetett ejteni, ejtettük, így meglestük a Geitafosst, aztán megálltunk lábat nyújtani az Eyjafjörður partján, ami után keresztül kellett menni Akureyri városon, aminek nem örültem túlzottan, a városi vezetés azért leizzasztott. majd mesélek az izlandi kétsávos körforgalmakról...

Öxnadalur is megért egy kis pihenőt, majd 6 után befutottunk Varmahlíð kempingjébe, ami a legjobb kempingünk volt a sok nap alatt! de erről majd a köv részben.

[redgriffinsphotos]

The North Atlantic Voyage (Part 17) Eyjafjörður, Iceland

[ignacionovo]

¡Hola, buenos días, humanidad! 🌍 ¡Feliz viernes! Hoy os dejo la panorámica de Akureyri. Conocida como la “Capital del Norte” de Islandia, es una joya en el corazón de la Región Nororiental.

Con una población de alrededor de 20.000 habitantes, esta ciudad pintoresca ofrece experiencias únicas tanto en verano como en invierno. Desde avistamiento de ballenas en el fiordo Eyjafjörður hasta esquí en las montañas circundantes, Akureyri tiene algo para todos. Además, puedes relajarte en los Baños Naturales de Mývatn, explorar las islas cercanas, visitar la Akureyrarkirkja y pasear por la calle comercial Hafnarstræti. 🌟

Vida consciente 🌟

El mejor tipo de personas son como el sol: cálidos y alegran tu alma con su luz. Aman incondicionalmente, son suaves y gentiles con tu corazón y su alma. Te hacen sonreír con solo su presencia y saben cuándo algo no está bien sin que tengas que decir nada.

Asumen la responsabilidad de sus comportamientos y respetan a otros humanos. Son amables, te dejan ser tú mismo y te aceptan tal como eres. Perdonan a los demás en lugar de buscar venganza, y son pacientes con tus luchas. Están ahí para ti sin importar la situación, haciéndote sentir seguro, amado y comprendido.

¿Tienes alguien así en tu vida? ¡Enhorabuena! 🌞❤️

[sinni-ok-sessi]

The Deacon of Dark River

Hello friends, spooky season continues and I am here once more with a translation of one of my favourite Icelandic ghost stories, this time The Deacon of Myrká. This one is also a Christmas story! A gift for all seasons. This one also comes with a song version: Djákninn á Myrká by Rósa Ingólfsdóttir. And apparently there was a ballet too, which sounds cool as fuck and if anyone has a recording, hmu. The music for that, by Alex Cook, Hlér Kristjánsson and friends, can be found here on Bandcamp.

As with Bjarna-Dísa, I am translating the text from Snerpa here.

There are some notes for people unfamiliar with Icelandic placenames and folklore conventions at the end of the story - these will give added context to some events, but are also mild spoilers. There are also content warnings.

The Deacon of Dark River

In earlier times, there was a deacon at Myrká in Eyjafjörður; no mention is made of what he was called. He was courting a woman called Guðrún; according to some accounts, she lived at Bægisá, on the other side of the Hörgá River, and she was a serving woman to the priest there. The deacon had a grey horse, and rode him often; he called the horse Faxi. One time, a little before Christmas, it happened that the deacon went to Bægisá to invite Guðrún to a Christmas party at Myrká, and he promised her that he would meet her at the appointed time and accompany her to the party on Christmas Eve. The day before the deacon had gone to invite Guðrún, there had been a heavy snowfall and it was icy out: but the same day that he rode to Bægisá, there had been a rapid thaw, and as the day passed, the river became impassable because of the rushing water and ice floes, while the deacon was delayed at Bægisá. When he left there, he thought little of what had happened during the day, and expected that the river would still lie as it had before. He crossed over Yxnadalsá by bridge; but when he came to Hörgá, the river had burst its banks. He therefore rode along the bank until he reached Saurbær, the next farmstead over from Myrká; there was a bridge over the river there. The deacon rode onto the bridge, but when he came to the middle, it collapsed beneath him and he fell into the river. The next day, when the farmer at Þúfnavellir rose from his bed, he saw a horse in riding gear at the far end of the hayfield and thought he recognised Faxi, the horse of the deacon of Myrká. He was surprised at this, because he had seen the deacon leave the day before, but was not aware he had returned, and so soon suspected what must have happened. So he went down to the end of the hayfield; there, as he had thought, was Faxi, all wet and in a sorry state. Then he went down to the river, out along the point called Þúfnavallanes; there he found the deacon washed up lifeless on the farthest point of the promontory. The farmer went immediately to Myrká to tell them the news. The deacon was badly injured in the back of the head from the ice floes when he was found. Like this, he was brought home to Myrká and buried the week before Christmas.

From the time that the deacon went to Bægisá up until Christmas Eve, no news passed between Myrká and Bægisá about this event, because of the thaw and the flooding. But on Christmas Eve, the weather was calmer and the river had gone down in the night, so that it seemed a good idea to Guðrún to go to the Christmas party at Myrká. As the day wore on, she went to get herself ready, and when she was well on the way with that, she heard a knock at the door; another woman went to the door, which was next to her, but saw no one outside, and it was neither bright outside nor dark, because the moon waded through the clouds and drew them back and forth. When this girl came back inside and said she hadn’t seen anything, Guðrún said, “The game must be for me, and of course I will go out.” She was then entirely ready, except that she had yet to put on a cassock. Then she took up the cassock and put on one sleeve, but flung the other over her shoulder and wrapped it about her like that. When she came outside, she saw Faxi standing in front of the doors and a man next to him that she thought must be the deacon. It is not said that they exchanged any words. He took Guðrún and set her on the back of the horse and he himself sat in front of her. They rode like this for a while, not speaking. Now they came to Hörgá, and the river was high in its banks, and when the horse plunged forward off the edge, the deacon’s hat lifted up at the back, and Guðrún saw his bare skull. At that moment, the clouds drifted away from the moon; then he said:

The moon rises, the dead ride; can’t you see the white mark in the back of my skull, Garún, Garún?

And she was startled at this and fell silent. But some say that Guðrún lifted up his hat at the back and saw the white skull; then she had had no choice but to say, “I see that which is there.” No more is said of their conversation, nor of their journey, before they came home to Myrká, and they dismounted there in front of the lychgate; then he said to Guðrún:

Wait here, Garún, Garún, while I bring my Faxi, Faxi up to the yard, the yard.

Having said this, he went with the horse; but she looked into the churchyard. There she saw an open grave and became very afraid, but to save herself, she grabbed hold of the bell-rope. At that moment, she was seized from behind, and it was fortunate for her that she had not had time to put on more than one sleeve of the cassock, because so mightily was she gripped that the garment split apart at the shoulder-seam of the sleeve that she had on. And the last she saw of the deacon’s journey was that he flung himself with the torn cassock, which he was still holding, down into the open grave, and gravedirt from both sides was swept in on top of him.

And there is this to tell about Guðrún, that she rang the bell continually until the inhabitants of Myrká came out and found her, because she had become so afraid from all this that she dared neither leave nor stop ringing the bell, because she was almost certain that she had encountered the revenant corpse of the deacon there, though she had not previously heard of his death, and she was later certain of it, when she got word from the people of Myrká, who told her the whole story of the deacon’s death, and she in return told them about the journey of the two of them. That same night, when everything was over and the lights had been extinguished, the deacon came and sought out Guðrún, and there were so many wicked tricks that everyone was woken up, and no one slept that night. Half a month after this, she could never be alone, and needed a watch kept over her every night. Some say that the priest had to sit by her bedside and read psalms.

Now a sorcerer was summoned from Skagafjörður in the west. When he came, he had them dig up a large stone from the end of the field and roll it back to the main hall. During the evening, when it grew dark, the deacon came and wanted to get into the farmstead, but the sorcerer forced him south in front of the hall, and settled him there with many great wounds; then he rolled the stone down on him, and there the deacon rests to this very day. After that, all the hauntings at Myrká ceased and Guðrún began to be more lively. A little later, she went home to Bægisá, and it is said by people that she was never the same as before.

~

Notes: There are some ~potentially significant~ names that appear in this narrative. They’re not suspiciously apposite, but it might be nice for the reader to know that the deacon’s home of Myrká means Dark River, with many of the other placenames in the story also containing the river suffix -á, and that the first syllable of the name Guðrún refers specifically to the Christian god (as opposed to goð for other gods). The undead and other unholy creatures are generally held to be unable to pronounce the name of God. This is perhaps because, somewhat unintuitively, it's pronounced Gvuð. It's also worth knowing that Christmas Eve is generally considered a deeply haunted time in Icelandic folklore and many supernatural events occur on it.

Content warnings: death by drowning, the undead

[viagginterstellari]

Nordic people - Eyjafjörður, 2020

[beersandbeans]

Mein erstes Nordlicht sah ich weiss, nicht grün ...

Meine erste Erfahrung mit den Nordlichter war anders – anders als ich es erwartet hatte. Mein erstes “Nordlicht”, welches ich am Himmel über dem Eyjafjörður (Island) mit eigenem Auge sah, war ein schwacher, weisser, grauer Schleier am Himmel. Gleichzeitig hatte ich die Kamera schon in Position und wollte eigentlich nur eine Testaufnahme machen. Um so grösser war die Verblüffung, als das gleiche…

[innervoiceartblog]

The Landvættir of Iceland

Iceland is said to be protected by four guardians known as the Landvættir, or land wights…

According to the Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason in Heimskringla, King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson of Denmark, intending to invade Iceland, had a wizard send his spirit out in the form of a whale to scout it out for points of vulnerability. Swimming westwards around the northern coast, the wizard saw that all the hillsides and hollows were full of landvættir, "some large and some small." He swam up Vopnafjörður, intending to go ashore, but a great dragon came flying down the valley toward him, followed by many snakes, insects, and lizards, all spitting poison at him. So he went back and continued around the coast westward to Eyjafjörður, where he again swam inland. This time he was met by a great bird, so big that its wings touched the hillsides on either side, with many other birds large and small following it. Retreating again and continuing west and south, he swam into Breiðafjörður. There he was met by a huge bull, bellowing horribly, with many landvættir following it. He retreated again, continued south around Reykjanes, and tried to come ashore at Vikarsskeið, but there he encountered a mountain giant (bergrisi), his head higher than the hill-tops, with an iron staff in his hand and followed by many other giants (jötnar). He continued along the south coast but saw nowhere else where a longship could put in, "nothing but sands and wasteland and high waves crashing on the shore."

Text taken from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landv%C3%A6ttir

Source: W.K. Greyling

The photo was taken in Iceland by Hoom Noon

[dfroza]

A day like Winter

(in Autumn)

the 27th of november 2023 (the 88th day of meteorological Autumn as a mirroring of the 88 keys of a piano)

and a song

the 3rd track of [8] on the 2016 album Island Songs by Ólafur Arnalds

A 7-week journey across Iceland to record a series of compositions

Watch Raddir, where he collaborates with Hilmar Örn Agnarsson and Georg Kári Hilmarsson, father and son, featuring the South Iceland Chamber Choir

Raddir (Icelandic for “voices”)

it will never really matter how many cars are out driving, since i simply need to keep writing to invite into the instrumental womb of silence

(the inner room of thought)

where music is playing…

this is my True “calling”

And track #4 (with Atli Örvarsson, SinfoniaNord)

Öldurót

Watch Öldurót, where he collaborates with Atli, a composer who has returned to his home town after many years in Hollywood writing film scores, and the orchestra SinfoniaNord. The video is directed by Baldvin Z.

Barely 100km south of the arctic circle, the city of Akureyri nestles into Eyjafjörður. Snow capped mountains shelter the city from the harsh winds, where forest and botanical gardens flourish. This is the place composer Atli returned to, after many years in Hollywood writing film scores.

I am joined by my dear friend Atli, who has recently returned to Iceland after living and working as a film composer in Hollywood for the last 20 years. Also in collaboration with the wonderful SinfoniaNord, the recording took place in Akureyri at the newly built concert hall by the harbour. I was inspired by the huge windows on the side of the building that overlook the fjord. Öldurót is one of several Icelandic words we have for ocean waves.

Collaborator / Atli Örvarsson

Composer

“It’s that basic understanding you have with your own people, the little unspoken things which are so hard to define and quantify but constitute what we call a culture.”

[schorschidk]

Akureyri - Islands charmante Stadt am Polarkreis

Akureyri, auch bekannt als „Die Perle des Nordens“, ist eine bezaubernde Stadt in Island, die am Fuße des Fjords Eyjafjörður liegt. Mit einer atemberaubenden Landschaft, einer reichen Kultur und einer Vielzahl von Aktivitäten ist Akureyri ein beliebtes Reiseziel für Touristen aus aller Welt.

[storiearcheostorie]

SCOPERTE / Il capo, la spada e il cane: trovate in Islanda tre sepolture vichinghe inviolate

© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA – PERCEVAL ARCHEOSTORIAFOTO: ©Auðunn / IcelandMag Sono due, forse tre le sepolture vichinghe emerse in questi giorni a Dysnes nel fiordo di Eyjafjörður, nel nord dell’Islanda, non lontano dalla città di Akureyri. Si tratta delle classiche “ship burials” in cui il corpo del capo veniva sepolto con la sua nave e il suo corredo.  Ancora inviolate, stanno restituendo reperti…

[nordnews]

Rescuers in Eyjafjörður were called just after 2pm today after a canoeist fell out of his canoe east of Hrísey. According to Jón Þór Víglundsson, information representative of Lan...

[stefankarlfanblog]

Stones in his Pockets on a tour

Article written for Morgunblaðið on the 26th of June 2001: https://timarit.is/page/3399549#page/n56/mode/2up

Hilmir Snær and Stefán Karl received a standing ovation. Photos credited to Billi/Brynjar Gunnarsson

IRISH comedy Stones in his Pockets by Marie Jones has been staged at the National Theater for the year now drawing to a close, to huge acclaim. On Friday, a milestone was reached that is always considered significant in the theater world, when the 70th performance took place in front of a full house of guests. It was also the third and last performance of the work at the National Theater this year, but the actual last one will be on Wednesday. Then it is time to go on a two-week tour through the north and east of the country with the popular play.

A tradition has been created for such tours, since there can be a very special atmosphere created around them. It won't only be a little strenuous journey for the actors Hilmir Snær Guðnason and Stefán Karl Stefánsson, because in 15 days they will take the stage 14 times in 12 places, and not only that, they will have to play the roles of 14 characters in the show.

It's hard but fun to be an actor.

The trip will start on June 30 and the first show will be at Blönduós on July 1, then on July 2 in Miðgarðir in Varmahlíð, on July 3 in Tjarnarborg on Ólafsfjörður, on July 4 and 5 in Freyvangi in Eyjafjörður, on July 6. and July 7 in Samkomuhús Húsavíkur, July 9 in Miklagarð in Vopnafjörður, July 10 in Herðubreid, Seyðisfjörður, on July 11 the game will be played in Valakjálf, Egilsstaðir, July 12 in Egilsbúð in Neskaupsstaður, July 13 in Skrúd in Fáskrúðsfjörður and on July 14 in Mánagard in Hornafjörður. The tour then ends on July 15 at Kirkjubæjarklaustri, where it will be shown in Kirkjuhvoli.

The director of the show is Ian McElhinney, but the translator was Guðni Kolbeinsson.

[redgriffinsphotos]

The North Atlantic Voyage (Part 18) Eyjafjörður, Iceland

[travelew]

Why travel to Akureyri? Exploring Iceland’s Northern Gem unveils a world of breathtaking landscapes and captivating experiences. Nestled in the picturesque Eyjafjörður fjord, Akureyri boasts a unique charm that beckons travelers seeking adventure and tranquility alike. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and cascading waterfalls, this vibrant town offers a gateway to Iceland’s untamed wilderness. From whale watching in the North Atlantic to soaking in geothermal hot springs, there’s no shortage of wonders to behold. Indulge in local delicacies, explore colorful streets, and embrace the warmth of Icelandic hospitality. Akureyri isn’t just a destination—it’s an invitation to discover the heart of Iceland’s northern beauty.

Why travel to Iceland without experiencing the charm of Akureyri?

Enjoy your travel to Europe.

[davidstanleytravel]

Iceland's second city Akureyri is at the bottom of Eyjafjörður, a 70-km-long fjord on the north side of the country.