The Great Geysir of Iceland

The Great Geysir of Iceland by Esther Singleton

"The Great Geysir of Iceland" by Esther Singleton presents a close observational account of the geothermal field at Geysir in southwestern Iceland, drawing substantially on Sir Richard F. Burton's firsthand record of visiting the site. The text opens by deflating the romantic mythology surrounding the Great Geysir. Burton argues that the physical reality of the site is modest and almost anticlimactic — a small patch of pyritic formation on an eastern slope — and that the spectacular imagery disseminated by earlier travelers such as Sir John Stanley and Sir Henry Holland belongs to an era of exaggerated wonder rather than sober observation. Illustrations depicting towering white shafts and thunderous eruptions are contrasted unfavorably with what the eye actually encounters on the ground. Burton then proposes a taxonomy of seven stages of geyser activity, arranged as a human life cycle: dormant steam escaping from clay (infancy), vigorous breathing and minor spitting, impatient simmering, boiling over (youth), full eruption in the manner of the Great Geysir at its height (mature manhood), the tranquil and spent hot pool or "laug" (old age), and finally the empty red pits of dead springs (second childhood and death). This structuring device gives the geothermal field a narrative coherence and organizes what might otherwise be a disordered catalog of features. A historical section traces the Geysir's origins. The silence of Ari Fródi and the Landnámabók in the eleventh century suggests the spring did not exist then, while Saxo Grammaticus's thirteenth-century notice confirms it had emerged by that point. The volcanic upheavals of 1294 are generally credited with producing the current spring system. Forbes's study of silica deposition on the tube lips established the Geysir's approximate age at around 1,060 years, with a mature productive life of roughly six centuries. Crucially, the eruption frequency had declined dramatically: from eleven times daily in 1770, to every six hours in 1814, to once or twice per week — or less — by 1872. Visitors before Burton had already wasted days and even a fortnight waiting in vain for an eruption. The account then surveys the four distinct geothermal zones of the field. The northwest area is dominated by extinct and dying springs, their clay deposits ranging through extraordinary color gradations — white, yellow, mauve, violet, pale green — produced by alum, sulfuric acid, and decomposing iron bisulfide. The most notable feature here is the Blesi, a reniform hot-water pool of deep azure blue, 160 feet north of the Great Geysir, which ceased erupting abruptly in 1784 following the Skaptár volcanic convulsion. Its vivid coloration draws comparison to the Blue Grotto of Capri, though Burton views such raptures with characteristic skepticism. The Great Geysir itself proved deeply uncooperative during Burton's visit. Attempts to provoke it — throwing in hundredweights of stone hoping the silica would act as turf — produced nothing more than a rumbling sound and a shiver. Brief nocturnal activity around midnight yielded only a large bubble half-veiled in vapor and some minor overflow down the basin sides. The once-impressive eruptions described in travelers' accounts — shafts of water to ninety-four feet — were entirely absent, the spring seemingly in its terminal decline. By contrast, the Strokkr, lying 275 feet south of the Great Geysir, proved more responsive, though it too required coaxing rather than erupting naturally as it once had. Its name, Burton notes, means "hand-churn," a reference to the churning column of water. Earlier visitors had reported jets of 100 to 150 feet; what Burton found was a mean replica of its famous neighbor, its saucer only seven feet in outer diameter and too well-drained to remain full. The southern zone, the Thikku-hverar ("thick caldrous" or thick hot springs), proved the most active and varied. At least fifty individual features were in operation across this area, ranging from infantile puffs of steam to gushing jets and pools of blue-green water rimmed with opaline sinter. The sensory environment is rendered vividly — the sounds of flip-flopping, fizzing, grunting, and growling, and the colors of red-water springs, brown jets, and white and green predominating. The "Little Geysir" and "Little Strokkr" of earlier travelers had both diminished or gone entirely silent. Throughout, the text is shaped by a posture of skeptical empiricism: received wonders are measured against direct observation, travelers' illustrations are exposed as embellished, and the field's ongoing decline is treated not as disappointment but as natural geological process. The Great Geysir emerges as an icon in irreversible senescence — still capable of inspiring careful attention, but no longer the spectacle that had captured European imagination.

By Esther Singleton · First published 1906 · Genre: Travel Literature, Natural History, Geology · 2,359 words

First lines

SIR RICHARD F. BURTON

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travel literature · geography · natural history · geology · geothermal activity · hot springs · volcanic landscapes · Nordic culture · European travel · descriptive nonfiction · historical travel writing · landscape description

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