Author Description

In the late summer of 1925, Emil Artin, a young professor at the University of Hamburg and rising star of mathematics, organized a group of six other young men to travel to Iceland to explore the natural wonders of this still exotic and far-off land to the north. Iceland (before the transforming presence of American and British forces stationed there during WWII) was still a primitive country in 1925, with a thinly scattered population and virtually no transportation infrastructure. The group set out by steamer from Hamburg, first to Norway, where they boarded a second steamer that took them to Iceland, stopping at several of the small east fjord ports before arriving at their initial destination, Husavik in the north of the island. Here the Wandervogel group disembarked, their goal, trekking down the Laxá River to Lake Mývatn. They made a circuit of the large, irregular lake, staying in farm houses, barns, and occasionally a tent as they went. When they slept in barns, it was often on piles of wet straw or hay. On those lucky occasions when they slept in beds, it could be almost as damp on account of the rain trickling through the sod roofs. Their tent leaked as well.Artin kept a meticulous journal of this trip, making daily entries in a neat, minuscule hand. He and several of his companions had brought cameras, and documented the trek in nearly 200 small photographs, many of which are reproduced in this book. Artin's journal attests to his overarching interest in the geology of this mid-Atlantic island, situated over the boundary of two tectonic plates whose shifting relation makes it geologically hyperactive.In keeping with the Wandervogel ethos, Artin and his companions carried music with them wherever they visited. The young men had packed guitars and violins, and Artin played the harmoniums common in the isolated farmsteads where they found lodging. The group regularly performed for their isolated Icelandic hosts, whose access to any kind entertainment was sev