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67

CHAPTER IV.

THINGVELLIR.

The Plains of the Council-The Almanna-gjá-The Hill of Laws-History of Althing-Lava Broth-Icelandic Food - Butter - Curd -LichenSunday-The Burning of the Hostel: a Saga.

THINGVELLIR,* or the Plains of the Council, have been already described fifteen times, and, if it were not that my journal would be incomplete without some account of this remarkable spot, I should decline giving one. As it is, I shall only put the leading characteristics of the scene before the reader, as briefly and concisely as possible.

The plain forms a rough parallelogram, eight miles long by six broad; two of the opposite sides being determined by the parallel Allmen and Raven rifts. On the south-west, the plain dips into the Thingvalla lake, and on the north-east, terminates at the base of some low hills, between which open glens lead to the glacier volcano Skjaldbreith.

The Almanna-gjá (pronounce gjá like gee-ow), or Allmen's rift, is a split in the lava extending nearly four miles, to the roots of Armanns fell: the river Öxerá shoots over the northwest verge, and flows for a quarter of a mile through the chasm, then breaks through a gap on the other side, rolls down to the plain, and pours into the lake close to Thingvalla church. The Hrafnagjá (pronounce the f like p), or Raven

Thingvellir is the nominative, the genitive Thingvalla, the dative Thingvöllum. The word is pronounced as though the ll were written dl.

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