times change

In olden times drowning was widely used as a method of execution. People were drowned in marshes, in fresh water and in the sea. In Iceland, provision was made in law for execution by drowning from 1281, but written sources make no reference to such executions until after the Reformation in the 16th century.

 

At þingvellir, women were drowned in Drekkingarhylur, but one case is recorded of a woman being drowned in the Öxará river below the meeting-place of the Law Council. No reliable accounts exist of drownings at þingvellir, but women are said to have been tied up in a sack, pushed out into the pool, and held under. [...]

 

Eighteen women were drowned here in Drekkingarhylur.

 

1618 þórdís Halldórsdóttir úr Skagafirði

1618 Guðbjörg Jónsdóttir að austan

1647 Björg Jónsdóttir úr Húnaþingi

1650 Sigríður Einarsdóttir

1678 Margrét Símonardóttir úr Árnessýslu

1684 Helga Gunnarsdóttir úr Strandasýslu

1684 Guðrún Jónsdóttir úr Gullbringuslýslu

1687 Borgný Brynjólfsdóttir úr Ísafjarðarsýslu

1695 þuríður Bjarnadóttir úr Ísafjarðarsýslu

1697 Jóreiður þorgeirsdóttir úr Árnessýslu

1703 Katrín þorvarðsdóttir af Akranesi

1705 Kolfinna Ásbjörnsdóttir úr Kjósarsýslu

1705 Ólöf Jónsdóttir úr Snæfellssýslu

1705 Ragnhildur Tómasdóttir úr Strandasýslu

1708 Hallfríður Magnúsdóttir úr Múlaþingi

1709 Helga Magnúsdóttir úr Skaftafellsþingi

1738 Kona úr Ísafjarðarsýslu

1749 Guðríður Vigfúsdóttir úr Snæfellssýslu

 

~ from an inscription on a nearby plaque. Drekkingarhylur is the name of the pond in the background.

Done