Going to Iceland's Beginnings

     Started the day with a drive around to the northwest today. Saw another nifty waterfall and tried to get to a lava tube. The road went bad and was listed as off limits for rental cars. We gave up on that idea.

     We headed back near Geysir to visit the site of the original settlement called Thingvellir. It is spelled differently as it uses the Icelandic alphabet that has a few more characters than ours. The pronunciation is also a challenge. I thought that German had some long words, but they have nothing on the Icelanders. We saw a sign that had obviously been marked up by a tourist. See the photo for a chuckle and get a feel for what it’s like to drive around Iceland. 

     Anyway, Thingvellir was the site of the first governmental gathering of Icelanders in about 800 AD.  The actual Icelandic spelling of the name is the letter that looks like a pregnant "I" followed by "ingvellir" (see the bottom left corner of the sign below). The pregnant "I" has a "TH" pronunciation. The "ll" has a hard "T" sound and the "ir" has a "ish" sound. So the pronunciation is close to "Thingvetish." 

There was no written language yet, so the rules were read aloud to the assembled crowd from a prominent point. 

The announcement hill

Those with grievances presented their claims and judgements were handed out. Interesting to note is that initially, enforcement of the decision was in the hands of the wronged party. Several hundred years later, the magistrate established a system whereby the enforcement of legal decisions were handled by government. The death penalty was not used but for serious offenses; rather they banished the person for up to three years. This meant that they did not get any assistance and could not live around anyone for the established period. Some made it, some didn’t. 

     Also located here is a meeting of two tectonic plates. The North American and European plates meet here. The difference is that instead of one running under the other these two are moving away from each other (to the tune of 8 cm a year). The European plate is also dropping. Hence in the photo above you are walking between two plates. It's an interesting geologic formation.

    So that was our adventure. The next day we boarded a plane and headed back to Denver. We saw some fantastic waterfalls, geysers, and of course the aurora. We spent our last night there going to a thermal pool which had five hot tubs of various temps and a large lap pool. It was -5 C outside but we were running around outside in just a wet swimming suit!! We sat in the hot tubs and had great conversations with the locals. Everyone we met were friendly and loved to talk with us. There is an intense national pride and the love to share their history with foreigners. The weather was fantastic considering our latitude and the time of the year and in fact was better than many places in the lower 48 of the US! The tourists haven't found out about this place yet, but I don't think it will be long before they do. If you have a chance to go there, any time of year, I'd highly recommend it! I want to go back during a spring/summer and see the differences.