"Worlds on worlds of creatures." Friedrich Thienemann (1793-1858) was a German physician and naturalist who travelled in Iceland in 1820-1 and subsequently published an account of his travels (1824-7) in two volumes of text and an accompanying volume of hand-colored copper engravings. He tells us that the present picture represents "a portion of one of the islands in Mývatn [Midge Lake], which derives its name from the swarms of blackflies that are produced in its waters and hover above it all summer long in dense cloudlike columns [dichte Wolkensäulen], one of which can be glimpsed on the right" (I, 406).

Thienemann visited the island, which is located about half a mile off the south shore of the lake, on 30 June/1 July 1821. While his two Icelandic companions fished for trout with a seine net, he climbed several hundred feet to the top of the extinct volcano cone in the background, from which he got a splendid view over Mývatn and its many islands — until a thick mist closed in, whereupon he spent the rest of the night studying the birds nesting all around him (I, 255-8). In his explanation of the picture he carefully identifies all the birds shown (I, 406-7).

The illustrations to Thienemann's account of his Icelandic travels frequently display fine touches of whimsy, like the "dense cloudlike column" of midges which is shown here and which certainly suggests that the statements in Jónas's poem "The Sog" are no exaggeration.

Source: F. A. L. Thienemann, Reise im Norden Europa's vorzüglich in Island in den Jahren 1820 bis 1821 (Leipzig: Bei Carl Heinrich Reclam, 1824-7), Plate III (second series).