Iceland: Horseback tours in saga land

by W. S. C. Russell

With stench and smoke.”

—Milton.

From Galtalaekur we turned towards the sea. All the long day we traversed the sands of Hekla and the bordering marshes. In the latter there is an abundance of the sand reed, Elymus arenarius, growing to a height of four feet or more with heavy panicles nodding in the wind. In times of famine the seeds of this plant have often been ground and used to make bread. Innumerable trails cross each other in these plains and exact knowledge of the locality is necessary in order to avoid wandering.

We overtook a girl of fourteen on the back of a pony. To the tail of the pony was tied a string of ponies, nose to tail in the Icelandic fashion. Each pony carried two huge cans of milk, one on either side in a bag suspended from a peg in the pack saddle. The girl made the long ride to the creamery and back each day and alone. She, like the lad at Hruni, was improving her time in study. As the ponies always walked to avoid churning the milk, she had ample time to read. In ways like this the youth of Iceland, deprived of modern educational advantages, employ their time in study for the pleasure it gives. When study is a pleasure, ignorance is baffled. The milk establishment being near our trail, we entered it to compare it with the fine institutions of this character in other lands. The comparison was wholly favorable to Iceland. Within the building extreme cleanliness was manifest in the spotless floor, the white aprons and caps of the dairy-maids and the glistening implements of the industry. The Icelandic creamery is on a sound scientific basis and conducted on a strictly coöperative plan. Modern machinery is employed which is operated with water power. A laboratory opens out of the weighing and sampling room and it is well equipped for expert testing. The maid in charge showed us the lists of the coöperating farms, the fat percentages and butter yields. The milk is received on the basis of the yield of butter fats and the skim milk from the separators is returned to the farmers. The butter is shipped in great casks to England and successfully competes with the fine product of Denmark. In the best grazing centers there are several of these creameries under the general supervision of the Agricultural College.

Iceland could produce many more tons of choice butter from the abundance of the nutritious grass which clothes the summer pastures, if the hay crop were of sufficient quantity to warrant the keeping of extra cows through the long winter. Grass grows in abundance but the low temperature and the short summer prevent it from coming to full maturity so that the home fields are cut long before the grass is ripe and often before it forms the seed heads. Frequently it is only six inches high at the time of cutting. Given a little warmer summer to produce more grass and Iceland would become a flourishing dairy land.

Favorite Ponies, Sunlocks and Greba.

Mountains of Sulfur, Solfataras, at Krisuvik.

These grassy plains border two places of historical importance in Iceland. This is the margin of the Njal Country. At the foot of the trifingered mountain in the fertile plains of the Markarfljót is Hlíðarendi, Grass-Slope, the home of Gunnar of Saga fame. In his day Hekla had wrought but little of the present desolation and the land was rich in flocks and herds cared for by numerous thralls. The ice-capped mountain rose behind the farm and towards the sea sloped the productive meads. Gunnar and his friend, Kolskegg, were exiled for three winters for the part they had taken in a blood feud. As they rode down to the Lithe on their way to take ship to foreign shores, Gunnar’s horse stumbled and threw him. As he rose to his feet he looked towards his pleasant home and exclaimed,—“Fair is the Lithe; so fair that it has never seemed to me so fair; the corn fields are white to harvest, and the home mead is mown; and now I will ride back home, and will not fare abroad at all.”