Óskar Guðmundsson chronicles a thousand years at Holt

A new 400-page book by Óskar Guðmundsson traces the history of Holt, a historic farm and parsonage beneath Eyjafjöll. The book’s dramatic setting and varied characters are among the themes in an interview with the author published by mbl.is.

“I feared it might be difficult to handle a thousand years of history about male priests,” Guðmundsson says. “But once I started researching, that fear disappeared. There was more tenderness, and the lives were so varied. The landscape is imposing and nature unforgiving. Yet colourful people, both men and women, make their mark on the story.”

Guðmundsson says people from the region enriched stories over the centuries with tales of hidden powers and worlds. He believes Holt carries a sense of the supernatural.

Holt was a prosperous estate and a sought-after posting for clergy. Holtskirkja was one of the principal churches in Rangárþing, ranking behind Oddi and Breiðabólsstaður. The church owned extensive property, and numerous farms in the countryside belonged to Holt. Fishing boats operated from the shore, and at times the clergyman owned many of them. The fishing business continued into the 20th century.

“The sedge in the marshes and fields of Holt was considered rich and nourishing for the livestock, and in good years various material benefits came from the estate,” Guðmundsson says.

He drew on a range of sources, including the Book of Settlements, a collection of old charters and Njála. The first woman of the household at Holt was Ásgerður Asksdóttir, the grandmother of Njáll at Bergþórshvoll.

Guðmundsson also used a manuscript by Gísli Gíslason on the lives of Holt’s priests, as well as books and manuscripts compiled by Þórður Tómasson, a museum curator in Skógar. Guðmundsson recalls visiting Tómasson with the Rev. Halldór Gunnarsson when Tómasson was in his 101st year. He shared his knowledge and handed over notes he had prepared for the book.

Among the prominent priests Guðmundsson discusses is Þórarinn Böðvarsson, a hymn writer who held the post at Holt in the 19th century. He was a teacher and poet who enjoyed wide popularity and influenced Icelandic history. He is said to have had 20 children, 15 of whom reached adulthood. Guðmundsson says Þórarinn was grandfather to 12 men named Þorvaldur, who helped shape social development in the latter half of the 19th century. He also describes Þórarinn as an ancestor of numerous 20th-century politicians across the political spectrum and says today’s cultural elite has roots in his family.

Nature repeatedly battered the church at Holt, and it was blown from its foundations several times. The last church there was destroyed in 1888. Afterward, the church at Ásólfsskáli became the parish’s principal church.