AI trip Page 4

Hestur Experimental Station was notable in that many of the finest rams in Iceland are raised there.  At Hestur, they are breeding specifically for the greatest muscling possible with this breed, with the least amount of fat, and experimenting with feeds, forage, and housing/flooring.      Haafelli farm has the last remaining polled Icelandic goats in existence.  Joanna the goatherd combed the island, buying up every last one of the polled goats in existence, which are very close to extinction.  She also has about 20-30 horned Icelandic goats, a few Icelandic sheep, and Icelandic chickens.  However, before we visited any of the farms, Mundi took us to a place very sacred to the Icelanders...Thingvellir.  A valley in which the Northern Atlantic tectonic plates are being formed.  The western side of Iceland is getting closer to North America, and the Eastern side, towards Russia at the rate of about one inch per year.  As you shall see, Thingvellir's beauty is breathtaking!  100 mostly dormant volcanos are to be found in the valley which  was recently formed by violent primeval forces.  This vast lava plain is filled with numerous deep fissures, and the land is constantly sinking due to the landmasses splitting apart, forming a huge rift valley. The only surface river running through the valley runs into lake Thingvallavatn after tumbling in a beautiful waterfall into a canyon.  Thingvellir is an important Icelandic historical site; people were sent out to search for a fitting place to hold the Icelandic parliament meetings in the early 900's, and Thingvellir was chosen, in part because of the natural ampitheater that was formed by a high volcanic cliff wall.  The president of the Parliament would stand on a nearby lava projection with his back to the people, and would speak to the lava wall in front of him, which would bounce his voice backwards to the people, who could hear him better because of the magnification of his voice by the accoustic properties of the lava wall.  Upon discovering this unique location, parliament was founded there in 930 and met there until 1845.

Thingvellir Sunrise, 9:30 AM

The lava wall that the Parliament speaker bounced his voice off of.

Panaramic veiw of where the Parliament speaker would stand.

Thingvellir was a seat of power and authority, and also a place of judgement.  Consider how we think of Hell...a place of great heat, burning and misery.  Surely in the medieval mind a place of 100 volcanos would also carry that connotation, but beyond that, Thingvellir was indeed a place of Judgement, where those who committed sins or crimes against other individuals or society would have their sentences pronounced by the Court, then carried out with terrible swiftness.  At the end of the path you see in the panaramic veiw is the drowning pool, where women were dunked to prove their innocence or guilt.  If they floated, they were considered guilty and were then executed.  If they sank and drowned, they were pronounced innocent.  A lose-lose situation!  Men were not put in the drowning pool, but were beheaded there instead.  In the 1500's Lutheranism was taking dominance over Catholicism, and who was beheaded at the drowning pool but the Catholic bishop and his two sons while his mistress and his two daughters watched!   We can be thankful that we live in the present instead of back then!

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