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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : June 16th 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:48:31 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Blank5.00am!!!v Five o'clock in the morning!!! That's when I was woken up
this morning (after the most dreadful night's sleep I have had in a long
time) thanks to Hans! Now don't get me wrong, I am very pleased that he
managed to find us some horses as the idea of walking from here to Sneffels
didn't exactly please me but after last night I needed a lie in.

I mean, it was a nightmare in every literal sense of the word. First I
dreamt that Sneffels ereupted whilst we were asleep on the crater, then I
dreamt that we all fell down what I think is called a lava tube, then I
dreamt that we would come across come unidentified species of life that was
akin to a rock clad gladiator who breathes fire on us and if that wasn't
enough to scare you witless, I then dreamt that we managed to survive all
that only to be killed by a meteorite falling from space! As I said not the
most condusive way to spend your last night in a bed. But, that said, once I
got into the saddle, I actually started to enjoy myself. As we left
Professor Fridrikssen's house, he said goodbye to us with some latin by
Virgil, "Et quacumque viam dedent fortuna sequamur" which translates as
"Therever fortune clears a way, Thither our ready footsteps stray" which was
not only apt of him, but I thought very kind as well.

It was a bit overcast when we started, nothing too much so no chance of rain
and thankfully not unbroken sunshine either as I can't stand long periods of
heat and it meant that I could finally start to appreicate this country that
we were now about to explore. I decided to see what this box of tricks had
to say about the island again and seeing as we were going to take at least a
fortnight to get to Sneffels knew that I could take in a bit more
information.

Iceland is one of the largest islands in Europe but only has about 16,000
inhabitants, which means that on average we can expect to see one person per
2½ square miles of land that we cover. Because the island is so big
geographers have divided it into four quarters, and we were crossing
diagonally the south-west quarter, called the "Sudvester Fjordungr" and it
doesn't take a master translator to figure out what that means! On leaving
the capital, Hans took us by the seashore. We passed lean pastures which
were trying very hard, but in vain, to look green. My personal feeling was
that yellow came out best. The rugged peaks of the trachyte rocks presented
faint outlines on the eastern horizon; at times a few patches of snow,
concentrating the vague light, glittered upon the slopes of the distant
mountains; certain peaks, boldly uprising, passed through the grey clouds,
and reappeared above the moving
mists, like breakers emerging in the heavens. In other words, absolutely
stunning.

About two hours after we left, we came to the burgh of Gufunes, called
Aolkirkja, or principal church. There was nothing remarkable here but a few
houses, scarcely enough for a German hamlet. Hans stopped here half an hour.
He shared with us our frugal breakfast; answering my uncle's questions about
the road and our resting place that night with merely yes or no, except when
he said "Gardär." Well, that was a mistake as this box of tricks instantly
produced a map of greater detail that the one we had been given and produced
a little flashing dot with Gardär labelled and a box appeared asking if I
wanted to place it on the map. I thought it might be a good idea as it would
give me an idea of how far we had travelled.

Three hours later, still treading on the colourless grass of the pasture
land, we had to work round the Kolla fiord, a longer way but an easier one
than across that inlet. We soon entered into a 'pingstaœr' or parish called
Ejulberg, from whose steeple twelve o'clock would have struck, if Icelandic
churches were rich enough to possess clocks. But they are like the
parishioners who have no watches and do without. There our horses were
baited; then taking the narrow path to left between a chain of hills and the
sea, they carried us to our next stage, the aolkirkja of Brantär and one
mile farther on, to Saurboër
'Annexia,' a chapel of ease built on the south shore of the Hvalfiord.

By late afternoon, we had reached the Hvalfiord and my uncle (in his usual
forthrightedness) wanted to carry on but his horse was having none of it.
Then followed strong language (which I decline to mention) and the whip; but
the brute answered these arguments with kicks and endeavours to throw his
rider. At last the clever little pony, with a bend of his knees, started
from under the Professor's legs, and left him standing upon two boulders on
the
shore just like the colossus of Rhodes and I have to admit I tried very hard
not to burst out laughing.

As you can imagine, after crossing the fiord it was now almost 12 hours
since we had started and the issue soon arose of where we would spend the
night (well, as much night as you get this far from the Arctic Circle). We
came across a small house and asked if we could spend the night there and
the owner had no problems with that at all and we were soon all huddled
around a fire (which I can tell you was gratefully welcomed). And we were
even asked to have dinner, not that it amounted to very much though, We had
a soup that was made of lichen and by no means unpleasant, then an immense
piece of dried fish floating in butter rancid with twenty years' keeping,
and, therefore, according to Icelandic gastronomy, much preferable to fresh
butter. Along with this, we had 'skye,' a sort of clotted milk, with
biscuits, and a liquid prepared from juniper berries; for beverage we had a
thin milk mixed with water, called in this country 'blanda.' Now, I am not
going to pass comment on this meal as I was so hungry I polished the whole
lot of within about 10 minutes. And suitably filled up, we were shown to our
rooms (the same place where we had just eaten) and are now lying down on
beds made of moss (and yawning our heads off as well). So if you will excuse
me, perhaps I might be able to get a better sleep tonight than last night.

Received on Mon 16 Jun 2008 - 18:48:44 IDT

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