"Skóg til eldíngar og kolgjörðar á jörðin i sinu landi"

There is a running joke in Iceland that asks "what should you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland?", to which the answer is "you stand up". The idea behind this is that forests are alien to the Icelandic landscape, that it is impossible to get lost in an Icelandic forests because there are none. Modern research, on the contrary, has shown on the basis of pollen analysis that forests were in fact once a part of the island's landscape. Not only this, but also inquiry into historical sources has helped paint a different picture of what a medieval Icelandic woodland actually was.

One such example is the Bláskógar (The Blue Woods), nowadays known as the Þingvallaskógar, a wooded area that generally extendes eastwards from Þingvallabær. Its original extent is unknown, however several sources mention not only the Bláskógar but also other woodlands surrounding sorrounded Þingvallavatn.

The following map compiles all direct mentions of the Bláskógar in the Sagas of Icelanders. While the accounts in these narratives are largely legendary, the setting of the stories was well-known to their authors. Even if it is true that there is a gap of at least three centuries between the chronology of the stories and the redaction of the Sagas, which undermines the credibility of the account, we can at least observe how the forest was likely percieved by the writers. There are a total of three direct mentions in all the Sagas, however the forest is mentioned multiple more times in several other stories, even though the word Bláskógar is not used.

The woodlands at Þingvellir are nowadays significantly reduced in comparison to what, it is thought, they used to be. The following picture shows a view of the Þingvellir area, looking towards the church. Contrary to what many people may think, at the beginning of the settlement period it is likely that the area was almost completely covered in birch(Betula pubescens) wood and that the forest extended greatly over the landscape.

The area of Þingvallabær and the Aliþingi itself has little woodland (althought this is changing). Nonetheless accounts from the Sagas and even from historical letters (compiled in Diplomatarium Islandicum) and the Jarðabók mention extensive forests nearby.

Skóg á staðurinn bæði mikinn og góðan, en mjög svo er skógurinn til skemda höggvinn og eyddur. (Jarðabók Árna Magnússonar og Páls Vídalíns)

The points on the map bellow mark relevant place-names associated with woodland within the present boundary of Þingvellir National Park. Some of the place-names are quite modern, and others date further back in time. However a comparison of place-names with the historical sources actually shows similarities as to where forests were located. The place-names shown are all words associated with skógar(forest). Furthermore, around the Þingvallavatn area there are also several place-names that contain words implying charcoal production was taking place, something that we can infer required the presence of trees. In this way, place-names can help locate areas which may have been covered by woodland.

The map below focuses on written sources. It reflects material from all the Sagas, all the Þáttur, Diplomatarium Islandicum, Biskupaannálar and Jarðabók, all of these texts ranging from short after the settlement period to around 1714. When observing the two maps, there is a high level of consistency between place-names and sites said to have had forests in historical sources.

One interesting thing to note is how sources show variations in the extension of the forests from the area. Furthermore, Ölkofra saga mentions a forest fire, as so does Biskupaannálar (1586), with yet another known from 1859/60.

The following is a brief summary of the state of woodland areas according to the sources during different time periods.

This timeline sheds some light into various aspects of Þingvallaskógar. Firstly, the area of Þingvellir had quite a few farms surrounding it, most of which obtained wood from the Bláskógar. Second, a number of accounts make reference to the fact that charcoal was being produced in various parts of the forests of Þingvellir. Charcoal production could be linked to iron smelting and smithing (as mentioned in Ölkofra saga). Charcoal production and ironworking may in turn explain the occurrence of forest fires at Þingvellir in the past. These changes can actually be noted in historical accounts, which give limited descriptions of the forests, but enough to understand that changes were ocurring.

As mentioned previously, Þingvallaskógar was an important source of wood, not just for the farms in the area but also for those in different localities. However, they are rarely mentioned in the historical record. Both Diplomatarium Islandicum and Jarðabók have repeated mentions of woodland in Þingvellir, but Biskupaannálar and Skálhot records barely name the area even though the estate associated with Þingvallabær was a beneficium of the diocese at Skálholt. This could be the result of a number o things. The area was clearly important as attested in Jarðabók, but maybe it was so taken for granted that everyone was aware of it and therefore there was no need to continuously mention it. There are in fact several Bláskógar place-names south of Þingvallavatn, in Þjórsardal and in other areas of the country. The places extending south of Þingvallavatn may have been part of the Bláskógar next to the alþingi as well, all of which could have been a big extension of woodland. It could also be the case that Bláskógar was a normal place-name for forests.

Moreover, the sagas, which were mainly written during the 12 ^th  and 13 ^th  centuries often do not mention the name of the forests (except for Íslendingabók and Lándnambók) , which could imply that the time period in which the forest was called “Bláskógar” may not have been the settlement period but rather during the authors timeframe. The place-name references seem to be in agreement with forests referenced in historical sources. Some place-names can give an idea of the extent of a forest or a limit to it (ex: Skógartögl or Skógarnef). However, rather than indicating the end of a forest, it may have indicated an administrative division based on farm rights. Overall, for such an important area, it is rarely mentioned in historical sources particularly in the oldest material of Diplomatarium, which contains letters from very early periods of time.

This brief survey of the historical sources that directly or indirectly mention Bláskógar shows how written sources are vital tools to understand the state of the landscape in Iceland over the centuries. From this, a dialogue emerges between geography and history where we can use both modern technology and medieval sources to find traces of woodland in the area of Þingvellir. The value of historical sources lies in the fact that these present us with the actual interactions of the inhabitants of Iceland with the landscape around them.

The potential in this kind of approach in mapping the medieval landscape of the island is to be found in the fact that historical sources, along with Saga narratives material and other documents can take us North and South of Iceland, from the West Fjords to the East Fjords, in order to discern what kind of physical reality the authors of all these texts were facing. This, of course, requires a level of cooperation with other disciplines and sciences that can corroborate or nuance the findings of historians.

The following institutions contributted to the development of this project:

The Þingvellir National Park

Rannsóknamiðstöð Íslands:

The University of Iceland: