Drangey, seen from Reykjaströnd on the west coast of Skagafjörður.
Once upon a time there were a pair of trolls living in Skagafjörður. They were night trolls, the kind who turn to stone when exposed to sunlight, and therefore they only venture out at night. They had a huge cow which provided them with milk. The cow came into season, and since the nearest bull was on the other side of the fjord, they had a long way to take the cow. At sunset they started wading across the fjord, the old man pulling the stubborn cow behind him, and his wife pushing after it. The going was slower than they had expected, and at dawn they still had some way to go. When the sun's rays struck them, all three were turned to stone and became the island of Drangey, and two pillars of rock at either end of the island, after which it was named. (Drangey means "Island of the rock pillars"). The pillars were given the names Kerlingin (the old woman) and Karlinn (the old man). Karlinn collapsed into the sea in the 18th century, but Kerlingin is still standing.
These photographs were taken on two visits to the
island,
in the summers of 1998 and 2000.
Approaching the island by boat. In the summer there are regular guided boat trips to the island.
The only way to get to the top of the island is a steep ascend up from this small jetty. The final part of the way must be climbed up a hanging iron ladder.
Young kittiwakes (at least I think they're kittiwakes) in the cliffs of Drangey. The island is a nesting colony for thousands of sea-birds, including puffins, fulmar, shearwaters, gannets, kittiwakes and guillemots, plus a pair of ravens.
The guide offers a short prayer before ascending the island. The cliff wall he's standing by is called Gvendaraltari. According to legend, Guðmundur the good used it as an altar when he visited the island (see the story below).
A chain railing helps the visitors pull themselves up the final slope, before climbing the ladder. The vegetation bears witness to the fertile soil of the island.
"Even the evil need a place to live"
A legend goes that Drangey was once the abode of evil beings,
trolls or some such. Men who sought to pick eggs and hunt birds
in the bountiful cliffs of the island, fell to their deaths,
their climbing ropes mysteriously cut. Finally, people almost
stopped going to the island to hunt birds. Then Guðmundur became bishop of
Hólar, which was at that time the
bishop's seat for the northern part of Iceland.
Guðmundur, or Gvendur, as he was sometime called, was a good,
kind man, and very holy, thus earning the nick-name "the
good". The poor flocked to Hólar, because Guðmundur was
know for feeding beggars. It sometimes became hard for him to
find food for all those people, especially at the end of a long
winter. So Guðmundur decided to send his men to Drangey to hunt
birds and pick eggs. Several of the men were killed when they
attempted to pick eggs in the cliffs. When the good bishop heard
this, he decided to do something about it.
He went
to the island with several priests and a barrel of holy water,
and began blessing the island, descending down the cliffs by a
rope, singing hymns and splashing holy water as he and his
priests wended their way around the island. He had almost gone
all the way around the island when a huge, hairy hand or paw came out of
the cliff face, holding a big, sharp knife, and began cutting
the rope. The rope was three-ply, and the creature was able to cut through two of them, but the third held,
because it had been soaked in holy water and blessed before the
rope was made, and it could therefore not be destroyed by evil
forces.
When the
creature saw that it couldn't kill the bishop, it said "Stop
your blessing, bishop Gvendur, even the evil need a place to
live". (Evil beings cannot say "Guð" or
"God", and so the creature called him by a nick-name).
Guðmundur stopped the blessing and asked to be pulled up. He
then declared that this part of the cliffs should be a refuge
for the evil creatures to live, and people should not try to
descend that cliff. Ever since, there have been fewer accidents
in the island, and bird hunters and egg gatherers have been left
alone. The place Guðmundur left unblessed came to be called Heiðnaberg,
or "Heathen Cliff", and it is said that nowhere on the
island are there as many nesting birds, because no-one dares to
try to pick eggs or hunt there.
After
this successful blessing, Guðmundur began doing regular
blessings. He blessed places where evil was supposed to dwell,
always leaving "a place for the evil to live". He also
blessed springs and wells, purifying the water with his
blessing. There are several Gvendarbrunnar (Gvendur's
wells) around Iceland, and the main water supply for Reykjavík
even comes from one of those.
Drangeyjarskáli, a hut on the island. It is mostly used by bird hunters and egg gatherers. If you ever visit the island, remember to stop by the hut and sign the guest-book.
The massive bird population has made the island a very fertile place, and a variety of plants and grasses grow there. In past centuries, grass was cut there in the summer and sheep were kept there, often year round. They sheep proved a boon to Grettir the strong and his companions (see story below).
Grettir the strong.
Grettir is the most famous outlaw of the Icelandic
Sagas. As a young man he made a name for himself by his great
strength, and got the nick-name "the strong". As the
story goes, he fought and killed a powerful ghost, who put a
curse on him before it died (can ghosts die?), saying that
everything he would do thereafter would turn out bad, that he would have no
luck and that he would become a killer and an outlaw. The curse
came true, and Grettir was outlawed, following a series of
killings and mishaps. After sixteen years of roaming around
Iceland and hiding in various places, he finally found refuge in
Drangey, where he lived with his brother, Illugi, and a slave,
Glaumur. They lived on the pickings of the island, including
birds, fish and sheep that had been put there for the summer, occasionally going ashore for food.
To get water, they had to climb down to a ledge where there was
a hole that usually contained some water. It is called "the
Well", and is the only place on the island where you can
get water.
Grettir and co. lived in the island for three
years, and during that time there were numerous attempts made to
climb the island. Finally, Grettir's enemies were able to ascend
the island when Glaumur the slave, who was supposed to be
guarding the rope ladder, fell asleep due to a magic curse. Grettir was ill, perhaps
dying, and unable to defend himself, so it fell to his brother
to fight the intruders. Finally, Grettir was killed, and his
brother and slave were executed.
There are numerous places in Iceland, especially the north, that
are named after Grettir. There is a Grettir's pool (a man-made
pool with water from a hot spring) on the western shore of
Skagafjörður, at least two Grettir's Shirts (earth formations
of a colour different from the surrounding rock), and numerous
Grettir's Rocks, huge stones that he would amuse himself by
lifting and carrying around as if they were pebbles. Indeed, the
term grettistak has entered the Icelandic language as a
name for big rocks that stand alone, often far away from their
place of origin.
One of the most memorable things Grettir did, was when the slave
let the fire in the island go out. They had no boat, and Grettir
swam to shore to get fire from a farm up on the shore. He rested
and bathed in Grettir's pool on the shore after his swim. The
remains of the shelter Grettir and his companions used is still
said to be visible on he island. Since he lived in the 11th
century, it is likely that others must have used it since then,
thus keeping the ruins visible.
The visitors relax by the remains of Grettir's hut, while the guide tells the story of Grettir and companions. As you can see, there isn't much left of the hut, only a hole in the ground. It may always have been like that - it has been suggested that the outlaws put balks of driftwood across the hole, and covered it with turf or skins.
