Þórður Tómasson's museum in Skógar

At the foot of two vulcano glaciers in South Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull, lies Skógar. It has two main attractions, an enormous waterfall, Skógafoss, and an equally enormous museum.

I met the founder of the museum, Þórður Tómasson, who is 90 years old and still going strong. I told him who I was and he informed me: "I have been awaiting you." He had read the article about me in the newspaper two weeks ago. As a man whose whole life is devoted to the history of Iceland, he is greatly interested and very well informed about Konrad Maurer. He greeted me, overjoyed to meet me as a descendant. When I left the place two hours later, he hugged me many times as if saying goodbye to his own son. I was really moved and I wish I could have stayed the whole day at the museum, there was so much to see.

Þórður Tómasson had coffee with me and gave me a brochure of the museum and even a copy of his latest book, Svipast um á söguslóðum, in which he wrote a personal dedication for me. He also gave me a personal tour around his museum, during which he played various musical instruments and sang songs. It was all amazing and unforgettable for me to be here in this museum with thousands of artefacts and buildings from Iceland's past, and to receive such an overwhelming personal welcome from the museum founder. I gave him a copy of the Maurer family lineage album I had made.

Konrad Maurer was here in Skógar (Eyvindarhólar) on the 5th of July 1858. Þórður showed me a room of a house in which Konrad had been (see photo). And he also went into the museum's archives and presented two special treasures: two original letters written by Konrad Maurer.

Both letters are addressed to Sighvatur Árnason (1823-1911), who became later a member of the Icelandic Parliament. The letters are written in Icelandic, in Konrad's precise but very small handwriting, and Þórður permitted me to take photos of them. One is dated from 27 September 1858, sent from Reykjavik, when Konrad's round trip was completed and he prepared for going back home to Germany. I carefully handled the letter as if it was a holy object. This paper is probably the physically closest I ever came and ever will come to Konrad Maurer's Iceland travel of 1858.

The other letter is dated from 11 March 1866, and was sent from Munich to Sighvatur Árnason eight years later.