Suppose that Iceland is the island Pytheas the greek sailor landed on and called Thule. Then suppose it was inhabited by happy and healthy people. At least it was extensively forested. In the late 12th century it was described as "forested from mountain to sea shore".
Where would he have harbored ? Probably, he reached the island from the south, and the most southern area of Iceland is around the village of Vík (Vík Í Mýrdal).
How does it look like there ? Take a look.
Skógafoss waterfall
Vík in a sunny spring day
The hamlet, at the mouth of 'Vík' brook, near the black volcanic seashore.
Vík Í Mýrdal, in pristine icelandic landscape
Coordinates: 63°25′N 19°00′W
Population ~ 300
The village of Vík (or Vík í Mýrdal ) is the southernmost village in Iceland, located on the main ring road around the island.
Despite its small size, it is the largest settlement for some 70 km around and an important staging post, thus indicated on road signs from a long distance away.
Some wooden houses in the town center - these even managed to grow small trees.
Deforestation in Iceland during the Little Ice Age and overgrazing by sheep caused a loss of topsoil due to erosion. A reforestation plan is now in course.
Halldór's café - in the year 1895, a merchant moved to Vik by ship ! Freshly baked bread, and permanent art exhibitions.
The village аnd the surrounding countryside аre іn constant danger оf a large flood resulting frоm а potential eruption of the dormant sub-glacial volcano Katla.
Katla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes, and has on average erupted twice a century. The eruption would melt the glacier and cause a massive water torrent. The town's church, located high on a hill, is believed to be the only building that would survive such a flood .
Thus, the people of Vík practice periodic drills and are trained to rush to the church at the first sign of an eruption.
The uphill Vík Church, like a sentinel over the large bay.
The sea around Vík is most of the time wild and stormy, waves cаn be big:
There is no land mass nearby to ease the Atlantic Ocean currents that hit the coast in full strength.
Offshore lie basalt stacks remnants of a once more extensive cliffline now battered by the sea.
Dyrhólaey (Door Island) is Iceland's most southerly tip.
This unique rock arch is a 120m high promontory, a small peninsula, formerly known as Cape Portland by English seamen.
Many puffins nest on the cliff faces of Dyrhólaey.
The distinctive profile of this volcanic seashore, with sharp basalt cliffs and stacks and a wide panorama, makes it the most spectacular beach in Iceland, and in recent years touristic demand is increasing, though its stretch of black basalt sand is also one of the wettest places in Iceland.
Skógafoss, the most frequented attraction in Vík.
Hotel Lundi
Centrally located in Vík
Icelandic appetizer at Lundi:
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Well, this post is mere fiction. Pytheas could not mean Iceland when he wrote 'Thule' - because there was not even any agriculture there by the time he sailed to the unknown North. No honey, no nuts, no bread. Sorry. But Vík is a fabulous place anyhow, right ?
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I've reached the 200000 visitors just minutes ago !!
I'm soooo Happy !
Of all the areas of the beautiful earth that my flesh and its shadow exhausted you are the remotest and most intimate, Ultima Thule, Iceland of the ships, of the tough plow and unwavering rudder, of the sailormen's outstretched nets, of that curious afternoon motionless light that the vague heaven pours out at dawn, and of the wind seeking for the lost sails of the Viking. Sacred Earth, you that fled from the memories of Germany and rescued its mythology from an iron forest and from its wolf and from the ship that the gods fear fabricated by the fingernails of the dead, For long I've dreamed of you Iceland, since that morning, when my father to the child who I am and is still alive gave a version of the 'Völsunga Saga', that my penumbra is now deciphering
with the help of a slow dictionary.
When the body comes tired of the man, when the fire is declining to ashes, welcome is the resigned learning of an infinite enterprise; I choosed your language, the Latin of the North that reached the steppes and the seas of one hemisphere and echoed in Byzantium and on America's virgin shores. I know that I won't know, but in wait lie the possible gifts of the search, not the fruit unattainable by knowledge. Likewise feel those who quest the stars or the series of numbers ...
Only love, love the ignorant, Iceland.
2.
Nostalgia for the present
At that precise moment the man told himself: - Oh what would I not give for the joy of being at your side in Iceland in the great unmoving daytime and of sharing this now the way one shares music or the taste of fruit.
At that precise moment the man was with her in Iceland.
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(to be continued, after the '200 000' th visitor comes to Ultima Thule)
The Orkney Islands played an important role in the "Ultima Thule" northwards rush in the Victorian era. They were by the time 'discovered' as an important step in Pytheas's trip to the far north.
Pytheas of Massilia visited Britain probably sometime between 322 and
285 BC; he described then a northern tip called Orcas. Somewhere further north, he found a heavenly land he called Thule. Maybe he only made it to Norway or the Shetland islands, or did he go really far into the Arctic ? Anyway, the Orkneys were an important call in his arctic demand.
Three centuries after, writing in the 1st century AD, the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela is the first to name the Orcades, which he finally defines and locates correctly.
'Old Man', Hoy, Orkney Islands
Stromness, the second largest town in mainland Orkney, is charming with fine unique architecture and winding streets.
Coordinates: 58.9°N, 2.9°W Population: ~ 2 200
A distinctive seafront - piers and a forest of chimneys over terraces of houses, enclosing spaces and sheltering from the wind. Two buildings emerge above the rest - the Town Hall tower and the Parish Church.
Typical houses are rectangular with gables looking towards the sea or the harbour. Many had a private pier, or 'noust' - some still do.
The port's sandstone jetties follow the shoreline:
Houses and shops nestle beside each other as they have for centuries.
The best view is from the ferry, as he approaches Hamnavoe harbour.
Quaint closes and narrow old streets, lanes and alleys huddled between stone buildings - so is Stromness.
The main street changes name as it winds and waves along the shoreline, often just one dwelling off the water’s edge - Victoria Street, Dundas Street, Alfred Street.
Victoria Street, the Town Hall tower in the distance.
'Northlight Studio' blue art gallery, on meandering Dundas Street.
Melvin place
View from the Royal Hotel, Victoria Street.
House with 'noust'
The old North Church is now the Town Hall.
Stromness Hotel, on pierhead.
On the right side, the Lifeboat Station.
The safe harbour of Hamnavoe
Houses clustered tightly on the shores of Hamnavoe harbour.
By 1590, Stromness had established itself as a seaport. In the 17th cent. most of the people were in some way connected with the ships and the sea.
The 'Hamnavoe' ferry docks at Stromness, his home port (from a window of the Piers Art Centre).
The Piers Art Centre
This was the most important architecture project in Stromness waterfront in recent years. The old Hudson Bay "Haven" outpost was renovated, together with another old gabled house; and both received company of a new building. The Piers Art Centre was born, and changed also Stromness cultural life.
The Centre is housed in two 18th century
buildings. Now a contextual building joins these gable ends facing onto
the harbour. The complex is a modern and interesting art gallery.
Stromness hosts a number of artists and craftspeople; the now famous Pier
Arts Centre offers a substantial gallery for artwork.
This centre displays a permanent art collection, but it is also used for itinerant exhibitions,which change during the seasons.
Some Shopping...
Stromness Books & Prints, 1 Graham Place - just books.
A precious shop: Waterfront Gallery, Dundas street
A Waterfront Gallery window's decoration; at left, a rectangular glasswork pictures the winding main street...
Argo's Bakery, since 1940
Stromness can evidently be a feast for the eyes:
In the warm morning light
Some History
As late as 1642, Stromness still consisted of five or six houses and a few thatched huts. From the earliest habitation of Orkney, the sheltered Hamnavoe would
have been a favoured fishing spot for fishermen from the nearby farming
communities. Norsemen named the bay Hamnavoe (hamna meaning small islands; voe meaning inlet). The modern name of Stromness reflects the meeting of sea and land: strom meaning tidal stream and ness, being the peninsula of land which protrudes to the south, creating the sheltered bay.
Stromness flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of increased trade with the New World. From around 1702 the Hudson's Bay Company began recruiting in Stromness, and by 1791 had appointed a Stromness merchant as their local agent. By the end of the 18th century, three-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's workforce in Canada was made up of Orcadians.
In the Napoleonic era (19th cent.), Stromness strengthened its position as an international trading and
servicing port from a safe harbour to the Americas and mainland Europe. Distilleries, shops and taverns boomed, establishing a thriving main street. The ships of the Hudson's Bay Company watered and took on stores in Stromness until the early 1900s.
The buildings crowded around the harbour. Most of the houses were built gable end
on to the street and the sea, with narrow closes in between. The larger houses were built above the town by wealthy merchants and sea
captains in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The song: Farewell to Stromness
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NEXT: hopefully, a celebratory post, as 'Ultima Thule' reaches the 200 000 counted visits !
