Hörgárdalur () is a valley in north Iceland, the valley of the river Hörgá. It is long and extends southwest from

Eyjafjörður Eyjafjörður (, ''Island Fjord'') is one of the longest fjords in Iceland. It is located in the central north of the country. Situated by the fjord is the country's fourth most populous municipality, Akureyri. Physical geography The fjord is ...

, which it meets inland. It is now part of the municipality of Hörgársveit. The valley is wide and fertile at its mouth until its intersection with Öxnadalur; the area on the east side of the river here is known as Þelamörk (Thelamörk). The rest of the valley is narrow and has little flat land, running between high mountains. On the west side they reach , and in the Drangafjall ridge dividing the valley from Öxnadalur, the pointed peak of Hraundrangi (lava column) stands out. The main intersecting valleys in the interior are Barkárdalur and Myrkárdalur. West of

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nickn ...

, the Ring Road follows the valley for and then continues through Öxnadalur.

Flögusel

Flögusel was the first farm in the valley; south of that point, the valley turns more to the west. A road up from there west across the heath was previously a common route to Hólar, which is in Hjaltadalur.

Grjótá

The farm of Grjótá was the birthplace in 1161 of Bishop Guðmundur Arason.

Möðruvellir in Hörgárdalur

The historical main settlement in the valley is Möðruvellir , at its northeastern end, which was the site of an Augustinian monastery, founded in 1296,"Möðruvellir"
Christian Nowak, Hans Klüche and Odin Hug, ''Baedeker Reiseführer Island'', 5th ed. Ostfildern: Baedeker, 2005, and of one of Iceland's first academic secondary schools, founded in 1880; the school moved to Akureyri after a fire in 1902 and is now

Akureyri Junior College The Akureyri Junior College ( is, Menntaskólinn á Akureyri , regionally also ; la, Schola Akureyrensis) is an Icelandic gymnasium (academic secondary school). It is one of the oldest educational institutions in Iceland. The Menntaskólinn ...

. There is a church built in 1865–67 and an agricultural research station. Möðruvellir was the birthplace of Jón Sveinsson and of Hannes Hafstein, and also of Valtýr Stefánsson (1893–1963), the editor of '' Morgunblaðið''.Several farms and settlements in Iceland have been called Möðruvellir; in particular, Möðruvellir in Hörgárdal should be distinguished from the nearby Möðruvellir in Eyjafjarðarsveit, after which the manuscript Möðruvallabók was named.

Skuggi

Skuggi is the site of a

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

tenant farm that has been investigated by archaeologists in association with the Icelandic Archaeological Institute (Fornleifastofnun Íslands) for information on economic relationships in that era, in particular with Möðruvellir and the trading settlement of Gásir, in Eyjafjörður."Fundu merki um búsetu á Skugga"
,

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

, 21 July 2009, updated 15 January 2010

Flögusel

Grjótá

Möðruvellir in Hörgárdalur

Skuggi

Notes

References

Further reading