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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : June 17th 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:17:02 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankIt was another early start this morning, but unlike yesterday I didn't
mind. No dreams of exploding volcanoes or the like but a very contented
sleep. When we get back to Germany, I am going to ditch my matresses for
moss (listen to me, when we get). Anyway, we thanked our host and after a
little disagreement between my uncle and said host he accepted a few coins
as compensation for our stay.

Now, up to this point I had found Iceland to be akin to Denmark and the
northern parts of Germany (i.e moderately agricultural with land suitable
for crops and cattle), however no sooner had we left our resting point than
we encountered a bog and not just one either. The whole landscape was
covered with them. On our right the chain of mountains was indefinitely
prolonged like an immense system of natural fortifications, of which we were
following the
counter-scarp or lesser steep; often we were met by streams, which we had to
ford with great care, not to wet our packages and having fallen into a ford
when I was a child, it was not something I intended to do again!

As you might imagine with Iceland being the size it is you would expect
there to be not that many people, and to a point you would be right but that
said we did encounter some people (but to be perfectly honest I wish we had
not) as this part of Iceland was home to several leper colonies. Now, I know
what leprosy is, I know the causes and I have a moderate idea of the
symptoms but even so having encountered one face to face it did leave a
nasty taste in my mouth, but I will say this it didn't prevent Hans from
greeting him with a friendly "Saellvertu". As my Icelandic is more than a
little rusty, I had to consult this box of tricks which informed me that
Hans had said "Be Happy". To which I thought was polite, but how on earth
could someone be happy with that condition.

After having forded two rivers full of trout and pike, called Alfa and Heta,
we were obliged to spend the night in a deserted building worthy to be
haunted by all the elfins of Scandinavia. The ice king certainly held court
here, and gave us all night long samples of what he could do, and it wasn't
helped by this box of tricks giving me reams and reams of information about
the legend of a Norweigan called Peer Gynt!

Received on Tue 17 Jun 2008 - 18:17:12 IDT

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