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Laugarvalladalur

Region: East Iceland
Coordinates: 65.033333° N 15.716667° W

About Laugarvalladalur

This valley is one of the Bruar Valleys, mentioned separately on the web.

Sagas of Iceland At the turn of the 19th century, a young, married couple built a farm there near the geothermal area. The valley looked very promising, well vegetated with good meadows for haymaking. However, no one had ever built a farm there before.

The young couple worked hard and managed to increase their livestock of sheep somewhat. The woman gave birth every year until 1906 and only two of the children survived as was usual at the time. In the spring of that year, a sudden blizzard drove their sheep and a number of other sheep they had been taking care of into the nearby glacial river. The young farmer went out to try to gather the sheep and drive them back to their sheds. He did not succeed and committed suicide by eating strychnine.

His wife and her mother found him too late to do anything to prevent this tragedy. The young mother had to leave her children with the grandmother to fetch help. She walked 20 km to the nearest farm, Bru. The family then moved away from the valley and no one has lived there since.
The farmer at Bru claims, that anyone, who stays alone in the refuge hut in the valley, cannot escape noticing the young farmer still roaming about.

Maps

Laugarvalladalur in Icelandic

East Iceland Saga