Laufskalavarda stacks of stones
by RicardMN Photography
Title
Laufskalavarda stacks of stones
Artist
RicardMN Photography
Medium
Photograph
Description
Laufskálavarða is a lava ridge just off the main Ring Road #1 in South-Iceland.
Almost at the very end of Mýrdalssandur vast glacial outwash driving east, you will notice a sudden change in the landscape; a field of countless small stone cairns opens up - this is Laufskálavarða - the Cairn of Laufskálar.
In the old days traditionally everybody passing by Laufskálavarða for the first time added a stone to a cairn at Laufskálavarða for good fortune on their journey through this dangerous area. What makes this area dangerous are the massive glacial floods which take place here from time to time.
These stone cairns have piled up for the past millennia.
The Icelandic Road Administration saw to it that there was always a good supply of rocks so that first-time travellers could build their own small cairn for luck. This old tradition no longer applies.
An information sign by the car park tells you about this area and the dreaded Katla volcano.
If you look further up north then you will see Mýrdalsjökull and Kötlujökull glaciers.
The name Laufskálavarða derives from the big Viking farm Laufskálar, which was located in the vicinity but was destroyed in a Katla eruption in 894, which is the first recorded eruption in Katla after the Settlement of Iceland in around year 874.
The story goes that there were 24 doors on iron hinges on the Laufskálar farm, so just imagine how big this Viking farm must have been! A lava ridge was formed in the volcanic eruption and got this name Laufskálavarða or the Cairn of Laufskálar.
On the neighbouring farm to Laufskálar farm, Dynskógar, the great Viking settler Hrafn hafnarlykill lived. Landnámabók - the Book of Settlement of Iceland - tells us that Hrafn moved his farm to Lágey because of the volcano. When the Vikings settled Iceland they did not know about the dangers lurking in this area.
The same happened at Hjörleifshöfði promontory in South-Iceland, where the old farm was moved up on the promontory for safety from the massive glacial outburst floods. (Description from guidetoiceland.is)
Uploaded
March 2nd, 2021
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