An hour’s drive east of Húsavík is the norse god castle Ásbyrgi. What a place! A field surrounded on three sides by 100 m high cliffs, with a rocky island in between. The rock in the middle is called Eyjan (the Island). Seen from above, it all resembles a giant imprint of a horse’s hoof. Clearly this must be a track made by Odin’s horse Sleipner!
However, science interprets the Ásbyrgi geology somewhat differently. The lava rocks are formed by a volcanic eruption from Stóravíti some 10,000 years ago. The canyon was excavated later. 3,000 years ago, there were 3 active volcanoes under the glacier Vatnajökull, which created dramatic floods of meltwater northwards, and hence the Ásbyrgi cliffs.
At Ásbyrgi you will find nice hiking trails, and in the summer, guided tours are also organized in the area. Spend some time here!
Those who can see elves (and in Iceland a lot of people do), have said that inside these cliffs there are many elf homes, public elf houses and even an elf concert hall. There are several elf stories connected to the place, including the impossible love between the poor boy Huginn and Heiðbláina, who was the daughter of the landlord in Ásbyrgi. Because of the difference in status, they were not allowed to marry, and they were very sad. One night an elf came to them in a dream. She was very unhappy, because her beloved had been bewitched into a water monster. Now he lived in lake Botnstjörn, Ásbyrgi, and could only come up when the midnight sun shone on the cliffs. The elf said that Heiðbláina could break the spell if she confronted the Nixie and threw her most valuable things into its gap. So the girl did, the curse was broken and the elf woman paid back by arranging for Huginn and Heiðbláina to get married after all. It always pays back to help an elf!
If you hear crying in the elf’s home, it might be the elf Bjartmar mourning for the orphan Una, but that’s a long story that we won’t cover here. None of the Tobatheornottobathers have the ability to see or hear elves, so surely a bath in Botnstjörn could be a good idea? We have been to Ásbyrgi twice. The first time it was winter (April), and what could go wrong?
Well, it was this thing with ice on the water… We couldn’t swim in April. So then we just had to try again, in September. What could possibly go wrong in autumn?
When it comes to bathing, there is actually quite a lot that can go wrong. One classic problem: The water isn’t deep enough. Do you really want to have a bath when it will only be a small dip? No, a bath without getting your back wet is too stupid, so this bath became a ‘no‘. AND – by closer inspection: It is not allowed to go outside the path, so we had to conclude that swimming in Botnstjörn is in fact prohibited. Just as well Botnstjörn was too shallow, so we could let go of that temptation.
On the road between Húsavík and Ásbyrgi there is a small museum on a farm by the sea: Minjasafnið á Mánárbakka. It is well worth a visit! Here, among other things, they have found a pearl in the soil, a so-called ‘pearl of the eye‘. The pearl was professionally assessed in Norway, and we saw a letter from the Tromsø museum, which says that such eye pearls date from the late Viking Age (9th century), with a place of origin in Turkmenistan (!). In Norway, 55 eye pearls have been found, including Lofoten and in Troms (Kvaløya).
A visit to the Mánárbakka museum is just right on the way to or from Ásbyrgi. Even without cash to pay, we got a tour of the museum. The farm has belonged to the same family in an unbroken line since the Conquest period. As far as we can understand from the ‘Landnåmsboken’, this means that today’s residents are descendants of Bodolv, who emigrated from Agder, Norway, in the 7th century.
‘A man named Bodolv was the son of Grim Grimolvsson from Agder (Norway) and brother of Bodmond. He was married to Torunn, daughter of Torolv frode, and their son was Skjegge. They all went to Iceland, but their ship was wrecked at Tjörnes, and they were at Audolvsstad the first winter. Bodolv took all of Tjörnes between Tunguá and Os. He was then married to Torbjørg holmesol, daughter of Helgi magri. Their daughter was Torgerd, who was married to Åsmund Ondottsson.‘ Ref Landnåmsboken
P.S.: On our next Island trip, we sent cash to Mánárbakka, so we have settled our score!
Ref: ‘Landnåmsboken‘, ISBN 82-03-17753-0