Risin and Kellingin

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Risin and Kellingin
Risin and Kellingin, the petrified giants off the Faroe Islands

Risin og Kellingin [ riːsɪn oː ʧɛd̥lɪnʤɪn ] ( Faroese : "the giant and the woman") are two large stone pillars about 2 km north of Eiði off the north coast of Eysturoy on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic .

The two surf pillars are the most famous natural monument in the Faroe Islands. In front of the steep coast on the north coast of Eysturoy, the two basalt columns appear almost delicate, but Risin is 71 m high and Kellingin 69 m high. The cliff in front of it, the "mainland" with the mountain Eiðiskollur , is up to 352 m high.

There is a legend about the two cliffs that can be told in various versions by every Faroese .

Legend of Risin and Kellingin

Iceland intended to attract the Faroe Islands, which swim lonely in the North Atlantic.
So Iceland hired a giant and his wife to complete the project. Both are building the extreme north-western mountain Eiðiskollur as ordered. The giant stayed in the sea while the troll woman climbed the mountain to tie the Faroe Islands together and then pushed them onto the giant's back. Her first grip was so strong that the northern part of Mount Eiðiskollur split off.
Then she tried to attach the rope to another part of the mountain. But that too was fraught with difficulties. The mount base was firm and the islands were not easy to move.
It is further reported that the troll woman was still on the mountain at dawn. She feared the daylight and so she hurried to come down quickly to the giant who, still standing in the sea, was waiting for her. Unfortunately they had needed too much time for the preparations, because at the same moment as they started their way back, the giant in front and the troll woman behind him, the sun rose in full splendor from the sea and petrified them both.
Here they still stand today and look longingly towards their homeland without being able to reach it again.

A rarer version is as follows:

Many centuries ago, a woman is said to have lived here with her husband in constant strife. She had such an evil, quarrelsome character that the poor husband could not rest his life until finally a god had mercy on this unhappy family and turned man, woman and child to stone in the shape of two rocks. As a memorial against strife and malice, they still rise up into the vast Nordic sky like centuries ago.

Is the end of Kellingin imminent?

Faroese geologists estimate that standing on two legs, Kellingin will plunge into the sea in one of the winter storms sometime in the next few decades. Kellingin's "big belly" broke off as early as the beginning of the 20th century.

Directions

The best view from the typical perspective of most photographers is from Tjørnuvík on Streymoy . The sandy beach there forms a fitting foreground to the rugged coast of Eysturoys in the east.

Another possibility is the view from above to the other side of the two basalt columns on the way from Eiði to Gjógv in the north of Eysturoy, where you also pass the highest mountain of the islands, Slættaratindur . From this side the two cliffs have a considerably different shape.

If you come from Iceland with the Norröna , you will be “greeted” by the two pinnacles when the visibility is good.

Web links

Commons : Risin og Kellingin  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Topografisk Atlas 1: 100,000 , Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen 2007
  2. ^ VU Hammershaimb : Færøsk Anthologi . Copenhagen 1891 - Volume 1, p. 344 (Hammershaimb's own version in Faroese)
  3. “Risin and Kellingin” in: Neue Illustrierte Zeitung , Berlin, No. 51 of December 17, 1936, p. 1276 (with two photographs by Hilmar Pabel , page short picture stories of the “Neue IZ”)

Coordinates: 62 ° 19 ′ 23 "  N , 7 ° 6 ′ 13"  W.