Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Öxney
Brokey
Hvammsjörður
Stykkishólmur
Suðurey
Þingvellir
Ólafsey
Helgafell
Breiðabolsstaður
Setbergsá
Bjarnarhöfn
Hofstaðavogur
Bíldhóll
Skjöldur
Bjarnarhaf-
narfjall
Drápuhlíðarfjall
Berserkjahraun
Hraunsjarðarvatn
Baulárvallavatn
Hallkelsstaðahlíð
Oddastaðavatn
3
Hraunholt
Hlíðarvatn
Hólsfjall
Rauðamelsölkelda
Gullborgarhraun
Heggstaðir
Ytri
Rauðamelur
Hafursfell
Miðhraun
Gerðuberg
Hítarvatn
Ólkelda
Vegamót
Breiðablik
54
KOLBEINSSTAÐAFJALL
Laugargerði
Stakkhamar
Eldborgarhraun
Kolbeinsstaðir
Eldborg
FAGRASKÓGARFJALL
Snorrastaðir
Löngujörur
Barnaborgarhraun
Hítarnes
Borgarnes, Reykjavík & Akureyri
the period include
Þingvellir
, an assembly ground just south of the town; and the
nearby mountain
Helgafell
, the final resting place for Guðrún Ósvifsdóttir, heroine of
the
Laxdæla Saga
(see p.162). In fact, it was at the foot of Helgafell that the first settler
in the region,
Þórólfur Mostraskegg
, found his high-seat pillars; in true Viking seafaring
fashion he'd thrown them overboard vowing to settle wherever they washed up. He
named the
nes
(or promontory) where he found them after the god of thunder, Þór
- hence the name Þórsnes.
Norska húsið
Hafnargata 5 • June-Aug daily noon-5pm • 800kr
It wasn't until the beginning of the nineteenth century that things really got moving in
Stykkishólmur, when a man by the name of Árni Thorlacius (1802-91) inherited the
town's trading rights from his father. In 1832, he set about building
Norska húsið
(Norwegian House) with coarsely hewn timber from Norway, as was the tradition in
the nineteenth century - Iceland then, as now, had little timber of its own. The
building is still the town's most impressive today, and houses a
museum
that attempts a
potted history of Stykkishólmur; look out for the old black-and-white photographs of
Árni and his wife, Anna, with whom he had eleven children, on the second floor,
which has been reconstructed as their living room. Rather curiously, Icelanders
remember Árni not so much for his commercial success in drawing the town into the
modern age but for his pioneering
weather reports
from 1845.
