July 5, 2018
9:45 PM Iceland Time
This morning I slept in a bit since we stayed up so late
last night. I took it easy and then went into work for a few hours. I have been
working on helping them with their website. They let me leave work a bit early
so I got home around 3pm. Since I had the rest of the day with no plans, Þora
and I decided to do something. Hrafnhildur had mentioned that there was a cool
art museum I should check out downtown, so Þora and I decided to check it out.
It was called Marshallhúsið, which was a “living art museum.” It had some interesting
exhibits including some pieces by the famous Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson.
It didn’t take us too long to go through the museum, so Þora and I decided to
check out the Saga museum that was right down the road. We had a lot of fun in
that museum. They gave you a headset which narrated 17 stories from the Viking
Sagas which guided you through an exhibit of wax figures and scenes. The wax
figures were very realistic; so much so that it was even a little bit creepy. There
were lots of interesting stories, but the one that stood out to me the most was
the story of Freydís. Here is a little synopsis about her from the museum’s
website:
“In The Saga of Eric the Red we learn how Freydís
accompanied her husband to Vinland on an expedition led by Þorfinnur Karlsefni
and his wife Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir. When they reached Vinland they soon
encountered the native people and begun to trade with them. However, during
such an exchange of goods a bull owned by Þorfinnur went on a rampage and the
natives who had never seen such a beast before immediately took up their
weapons. A skirmish ensued in which natives appeared to have the upper hand and
Þorfinnur and his party begun to flee. Freydís reprimanded the men in no
uncertain terms for their cowardice and tried to encourage them to make a stand
but they ran as fast as they could into the cover of the forest. Freydís
eventually followed the men but since she was pregnant she soon begun to slow
down and lose sight of them. She ran past the body of a certain Þorbrandur
Snorrason who had been slain by a blow to the head with a rock, and then saw
the natives preparing to attack the Viking party with a battery of rocks and
stones. As they pursued the Vikings the natives suddenly came across Freydís
and surrounded her. Fearlessly, she seized hold of Þorbrandur’s sword which lay
beside his body, opened her tunic to reveal one of her breasts and held the sword
tightly against it. This bold gesture seems to have frightened the natives and
they ran of terrified by what they apparently thought was an evil omen.”
After we walked through the Saga
museum, when we walked outside we saw some sun and blue sky! So we decided to
go find a coffee shop to have some coffee outside. We walked down to the
Reykjavik harbor and stopped at one of the little cafes there and talked. After
enjoying some good coffee, we headed back home. Þora made some fish for dinner,
which was great as always. She is a pretty good cook! Afterwards we decided to
take advantage of the good weather where we walked along the coast for a while.
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