Tungusveit is a district in

Skagafjörður Skagafjörður () is a deep fjord and its valley in northern Iceland. Location Skagafjörður, the fjord, is about 40 km long and 15 km wide, situated between Tröllaskagi to the east and the Skagi, Skagi Peninsula to the west. Ther ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and may have previously spanned the majority of

Lýtingsstaðahreppur Lýtingsstaðahreppur was a hreppur, an old Icelandic municipality, in the interior of Skagafjörður County, Iceland, located to the west of the Héraðsvötn. It was named after the Lýtingsstaðir farm in Tungusveit. The spanned from the K ...

, but now only covers the spit of land between the

Héraðsvötn Héraðsvötn (), whose name is often shortened to Vötn or Vötnin (and was called Jökulsá in previous centuries) is a glacier river in Iceland. It is formed by the confluence of Austari-Jökulsá and Vestari-Jökulsá. The Héraðsvötn is ...

and

Svartá The Svartá river ("Black River") is a spring creek on the inner, western side of Skagafjörður, Iceland. A considerable amount of spring water runs in the river up to the highland where it then begins to resemble a direct run-off river as it f ...

rivers, from

Vallhólmur Vallhólmur, also called Hólmurinn, is a flatland area in the middle of Skagafjörður, Iceland, formed from sediment from the Héraðsvötn river—it is in fact an old seabed. The area's eastern boundary is the Héraðsvötn and Húseyjarkví ...

up to the mouth of the

Svartárdalur Svartárdalur is a valley deeper into the interior of Skagafjörður, Iceland. It was previously a part of Lýtingsstaðahreppur Lýtingsstaðahreppur was a hreppur, an old Icelandic municipality, in the interior of Skagafjörður County, I ...

and

Vesturdalur Vesturdalur ("west valley") is a valley that runs from the head of Skagafjörður, Iceland and cuts far into the central Highlands of Iceland, highlands. Austurdalur valley runs parallel to it. The valleys are surrounded by tall, steep mountains ...

valleys. The area is often called Reykjatunga, after the church site Reykir í Tungusveit. The region is long and narrow, with a large number of farms.

Reykir í Tungusveit

(Reykir in Tungusveit) is a farm and church site in Tungusveit, located on the bank of the Svartá river. The farm was the location of a manor early in Iceland's settlement. There is

geothermal heat Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ o ...

widely available on the Reykir estate and the neighboring properties belonging to , as well as more broadly throughout Reykjatunga, so much so that finding cold drinking water has often been a problem. There are many warm springs all around the farm in Rekyir and there is even geothermal heat in the grave yard, which is said to be one of the only heated cemeteries in the world. Various historical sources mention the warm springs. The ''

Sturlunga saga ''Sturlunga saga'' (often called simply ''Sturlunga'') is a collection of Icelandic Norse saga, sagas by various authors from the 12th and 13th centuries; it was assembled in about 1300, in Old Norse. It mostly deals with the story of the Sturlun ...

'' states that

Gissur Þorvaldsson Gissur Þorvaldsson (; Old Norse: ; 1208 – 12 January 1268) was a medieval Icelandic chieftain or '' goði'' of the Haukdælir family clan, and great-grandson of Jón Loftsson. Gissur played a major role in the period of civil war which is ...

, Kolbein ungi, and their men soaked in the and springs before the

Battle of Örlygsstaðir The Battle of Örlygsstaðir was a historic battle fought by members of the Sturlungar family against the Ásbirningar and the Haukdælir clans in northern Iceland. The battle was part of the civil war that was taking place in Iceland at the t ...

Sveinn Pálsson Sveinn Pálsson (25 April 1762 – 24 April 1840) was an Icelandic physician and a natural history, naturalist who carried out systematic observations of Icelandic glaciers in the 1790s. He also observed volcanoes and wildlife throughout his hom ...

, doctor and natural scientist, who was born in in 1762, described Reykir's warm springs in 1792, "Just to the east of the church in Reykir is a cold spring, which has been adapted as a bathing pond. The water can be warmed to anyone's desired temperature by adding water from a hot stream which flows by it." A wooden church was built in Reykir in 1896 and rebuilt in 1976. It is a protected site.

Steinsstaðir

is a farm in Tungusveit. It was an old manor and the settlement of Kráku-Hreiðar Ófeigsson. Farming was abandoned in in 1943, but the property was then distributed into several new farms and a small urban area has now built up there. There is a lot of

available in and the neighboring property of . There has long been an old washing pool there called , which almost all of the area made use of.

, a doctor and natural scientist who was born in in 1762, described the pool in 1792, stating "A short distance south from Reykir is the enchanting , which is was not so hot as to be uncomfortable to bathe in. Therefore, it has become a washing and

fulling Fulling, also known as tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelt waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate ( lanolin) oils, ...

location for just about the whole area." Páll Sveinsson,

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

in and father of Sveinn, built a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

by the stream leading to the pool. In 1822, Jón Þorláksson Kærnested began offering swimming classes that would have been in , although others say that these may have taken place in Reykir. It is very probable that the authors of the journal ''

Fjölnir Fjölnir ( ) is a List of legendary kings of Sweden, legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and F ...

'', or at least some of the authors, had been among Jón's students there because

Jónas Hallgrímsson Jónas Hallgrímsson (16 November 1807 – 26 May 1845) was an Icelandic poet, writer and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal ''Fjölnir'', which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The magazine was used by J ...

and

Brynjólfur Pétursson Brynjólfur Pétursson (15 April 1810 – 18 October 1851) was an Icelandic lawyer and government official. He was one of the ''Fjölnismenn'', a group of Icelandic intellectuals who spearheaded the revival of Icelandic national consciousness an ...

were studying in

Goðdalir Goðdalir is a town and church site in Vesturdalur valley in Skagafjörður, Iceland. According to the ''Landnámabók'', the name encompassed a much wider area, even including all of , Vesturdalur, Austurdalur, and Svartárdalur, however, this ...

and Konráð Gíslason's home was nearby. After that, swimming lessons were offered sporadically, then every spring starting in 1890. The pool in was finally lined with stones and became the first public pool in Skagafjörður County. In 1925, work began on lining the pool in concrete, and it became the county's first concrete pool. The current pool was came into use in 1980. In 1949, a school was built in to serve the area and, until 1976, it had a dormitory as well. Instruction there was stopped in spring 2003 when the students began moving to the school in

Varmahlíð Varmahlíð () is a small village in Skagafjörður, northern Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and E ...

. Now the school building is used for tourist services. The community center was inaugurated in 1974. Many new farms, industrial farms, and residences have been built on the original property, including the service tourist center in Bakkaflöt. There are also a number of summer homes.

Citations

References

* {{Authority control Populated places in Northwestern Region (Iceland) Skagafjörður Farms in Iceland Churches in Iceland Hot springs of Iceland