Garðarshólmi – ‘The Isle of Garðar’
Garðarshólmi is a project North-Sailing has been working on for years and aims to set up a non-profit educational centre, located in Húsavík, where settlement of Nordic men first started in Iceland. Garðarshólmi will be dedicated to the Swedish explorer Garðar Svavarsson and his travel companion Náttfari which sailed to Iceland in 870 AD.
Garðar was the first to sail around Iceland and discover that it is an island. He took land of the Northeast coast and named the bay Skjálfandi, built a house and named the region Húsavík. He stayed in Húsavík during the winter but returned to Sweden in the spring, named the island Gardarshólmi and praised it highly. Náttfari remained in the area along with two slaves and was the first settler in Iceland, but due to his low social status he was never recognised as such.
In Gardarshólmi the story of settlement in Iceland will be presented. It was in the early ninth century that the Nordic people started exploring beyond the mainland. It is interesting to find out why they ventured out to such exploration, discover how developed their boat building techniques were and find out more about the sailing techniques. Everything indicates that Iceland was untouched by man when Garðar arrived, his story is therefore and ideal starting point to explore the interaction between culture and nature.
It is also interesting to explore how an unique society and culture grew quickly in a land that had plenty of resources to offer. And then how such a rich and plentiful ecosystem diminished after man started making use of the land and its recourses.
North Sailing and the municipally of Húsavík are behind the development of the Garðarshólmi project. This weekend a the project became one step closer to becoming real when a contract was signed to formalize a cooperation between Garðarshólmi and Viking World in the Reykjanes Region. It was the mayor of Húsavík, Reinhard Reynisson and the mayor of Reykjanesbær, Árni Sigfússon who signed the contract on behalf of the two projects.
This cooperation aims to work towards an mutually beneficial solution on the content for of two exhibitions, especial with the multimedia part that can be much the same for both of the exhibitions. Both partners believe that this cooperation will result in a more ambitions exhibitions and better promotion and marketing on the fascinating history of Iceland and its settlers.
The mayors Árni Sigfússon and Reinhard Reynisson sign the contract of cooperation on behalf of Garðarshólmi & Viking World.
The people behind Garðarshólmi & Viking World.
Report issued to promote Garðarshólmi earlier this year.
Sóley Stefánsdóttir designer has taken an active part in the Garðarshólmi-project and she has e.g. designed the look for the exhibition as well as the report shown above. The exhibition will largely be built on multimedia, that will make it interactive and interesting for people of all ages.
Nordic Culture will have its place in Garðarshólmi and will this part be developed in cooperation with the Historiska Museet in Stockholm. Among the subjects displayed are; family life, household, diet, women in a mans world, slavery, religion, runes, handicrafts, life onboard when sailing and the reasons for the exploration of the Nordic men.
Another part of the exhibition is the development of boat building, from ‘Knörrinn’, the boat Garðar Svavarsson arrived on, to our modern days. The ideas is to display this story on a timeline and ad known events from the world history to the line to make it easier for visitors to identify where on in time they are.
