Day 65-Reykholt

   March 9-After the kids went to school today, the adults set off for Reykholt.  On the way, we
visited the Deildartunguhver.  The wind and the snow made it a different experience from the visit we made with the kids last weekend.  Nonetheless, Bill and Jean enjoyed the quick stopover and Jean is now worried that the kids will be underwhelmed when they visit Yellowstone someday in the future.

   We had been a little worried that Snorrastofa and the church at Reykholt would be closed
due to the blizzard conditions, so we were relieved to find that it was open when we arrived a little before noon.  In fact, the weather turned out to work in our favor, since we were the only guests at the museum the entire afternoon.  Consequently, the minister and his wife gave us
their full attention.  She made us coffee, while he gave a two hour lecture about Snorri Sturluson mostly to Jean, although the rest of us listened in for much of it as well.  Snorri was a powerful chieftain in western Iceland in the early 13th century and is a well-known figure in Icelandic history.  He wrote Egil's Saga, Heimskringla, and the Eddas, which
describe the settlement of the Borgarnes region, the history of the Norwegian kings, and the style and Nordic mythology of traditional Norse poetry and prose, respectively. 

   The minister presented us with a detailed history of Snorri, whose primary residence was Reykholt in the latter half of his life.  He also gave us an abridged version of Egil's Saga.  Our tour of the exhibit about Egil's Saga at the Settlement Center the day before allowed us to follow his rendition much more easily.  He also explained the importance of the Eddas in recording details of the Nordic mythology, which would otherwise have been lost.  Finally, he led us through the library and explained that the church and the museum had been financed in large part by money from Norway.  The reason for this largess was the central role of Snorri's Heimskringla in modern Norwegian history.  As subjects of the Danish and Swedish crowns from the 15th century onward, Norwegians lost much of their sense of national identity.  The distribution of modern Norwedian translations of the Heimskringla during the 19th century helped spark a resurgence of nationalism during the contemoraneous

independence movement, which was ultimately successful in 1905.

   We toured the church and finally tore ourselves away from the font of knowledge to head for home.  We stopped briefly in Varmaland so Bill and Jean could see it, before arriving back at Bifröst a few minutes after the girls' bus.  Bill and Jean picked up Spencer from Hraunborg and we all decided to head to Borgarnes to go swimming at the pool.  Since the temperature was hovering around freezing, the water slides were not running.  So, we mostly just sat in the hot pots while snow showers came through in waves.  The snow would have been nice, but the wind was not, so we left after an hour to go eat supper.  We ate at Hyrnan, which feels like a food court in a mall, and then we split up and headed our different ways.  I took
Joslyn and Spencer home and we had a quiet evening before they went to bed.
   Sally took her folks and Alex back out to Reykholt.  The minister's wife had told us that a male choir from northern Iceland would be singing there and that they were one of the best singing groups in Iceland.  We had also heard that the church's acoustics were excellent, so the Easleys were very interested in hearing the performance.  Snow showers continued to blow through as mini-blizzards throughout the evening, but that was not as problematic for them as parking at Reykholt, where they got stuck.  Since they were in the parking lot at that point, they just headed into the church.  They all enjoyed the choir, which sang some traditional Icelandic songs and some translated Johann Strauss pieces.  The
choir sang in a very staccato manner, belting out each sound with very little harmonization.
At one point, the female conductor and one of the men sang an operatic duet as well.  When the performance was over, Sally had everyone hurry out to help push the car out, hoping that someone would stop to help.  Someone did and they drove home without any more problems.