Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott Amplifies Greenland Thaw in Underland

Summary: Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott, albeit about Iceland thaw of the Snæfellsjökull glacier, amplifies Greenland thaw in Underland by Robert Macfarlane.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Snæfellsjökull is situated on the westernmost part of western Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula; the glacier-capped stratovolcano is famous as the entry to an underground tunnel in Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au centre de la Terre; 1864) by French novelist Jules Verne (Feb. 8, 1828-March 24, 1905); "Snæfellsjökull in the Morning," image obtained Monday, July 16, 2012, 08:26: Axel Kristinsson from Reykjavík, Iceland, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott, albeit about Iceland thaw of Snæfellsjökull (from Icelandic snær, "snow"; fells, "hill's, mountain's"; jökull, "glacier") glacier in western Iceland, amplifies Greenland thaw in Underland by Robert Macfarlane.

Author Jordan Scott, in juvenile fiction for four- through eight-year-olds and grades Kindergarten through First Grade and with illustrations by Diana Sudyka, begins with glacier-ice whispering. Robert Macfarlane considers, in Chapter 10 The Blue of Time (Kulusuk, Greenland) and Chapter 11 Meltwater (Knud Rasmussen Glacier, Greenland), the sounds that Greenland ice communicates. He describes thundering Greenland glaciers as they do their calving, as floatable, ocean-destined icebergs detach into fjords (Old Norse fjǫrðr, "deep, long, narrow inlet between cliffs").

Ice cores emerging from deep-drilled layers emit fracture- and snap-like sounds as their compressed air expands and thereby emulate shooting-range sounds of handgun pistols and revolvers.

Macfarlane features the echo flow between amphitheater-like ice-mountain valleys and, what a professional singer figures as "a perfect fourth" (Macfarlane:354), honking pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus).

Surface meltwater-generated cylindrical, vertical shafts going through a glacier get named moulin (from French moulin, "mill"; Latin molinum, molo, "to grind, to mill" and -īnus, "-pertaining"). Macfarlane hails a 4-foot- (1.2192-meter-) wide, circular-surfaced, blue-shafted, diagonal-sliding moulin that has a high, steady, tingling song of moving air through deep-down, melt-carved, water-flowing ice tunnels. Professional singer Bill Campbell interprets that song as "an A, a D and a C sharp," as "harmonic series of D" (Macfarlane:358), from wind-organ glacier-piping.

Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott jubilates Snæfellsjökull glacier journeying through Iceland thaw even as Knud Rasmussen glacier journeys through Greenland thaw in Underland by Robert Macfarlane.

The Underworld author keeps what his friend Matt's partner Helen knows about winter kindling sea-ice tideline-area hissing, humming, whistling sounds as musical as Greenland glacial moulins.

Macfarlane longs to learn what glacial loudness leads to even as one night's glacial thundering perhaps links to his camp locked within next-morning, thick, white mist. He monitors what music, noise, sound Apusiaajik ("small glacier"), Helheim (Old Norse hel[-]heim, "underworld home"), Karale (Old Norse karl, "free man") and Knud Rasmussen glaciers make. Angela Rawlings, from childhood onward, notices Snæfellsjökull glacial colors, temperatures and textures even as she notes glacial music, noise and sounds and wildlife surrounding her glacier.

Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott observes noisy-neighing Icelandic horses, noisy-nestling Snæfellsjökull glacier, noisy-niching Iceland thaw, noisy as Greenland glaciers, Greenland thaw in Underland by Robert Macfarlane.

Angela Rawlings perceives blue-morph chocolate-brown winter-white arctic foxes and rock ptarmigans atop blueberry, crowberry, dwarf-birch, pixie-cup lichen, raven's glass, reindoor and silver mosses atop lava fields.

Angela quests gurgling rushing water, tuned-instrument wind, whispering snow atop glacial bumps and cracks even as glacial calving, versus crotal-ringing, woodblock-striking glacial meltwater, quarters bass-pitched crack-booming. Perhaps Greenland glaciers, Iceland glacier-like, realize sound-relayed relationships with bilberry; club-moss; dwarf-willow; fungi; gray-leaf willow; grey-gulls; huskies; kelp; map-lichen; mosquitoes; orca-whales; pink-fireweed; pink-footed geese; pink-willowherb; polar-bears. Perhaps they sound off with ptarmigans; ravens; red-throated divers; ringed-seals; scarlet-lichen; seagulls; seaweed; and yellow-willow even as perhaps their sounds scare ice-sojourning, local-lore, traveler-snatching, wild-creature kusuwak.

Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott tracks Snæfellsjökull glacier through Iceland thaw even as Underland by Robert Macfarlane treats Apusiaajik and Knud Rasmussen glaciers through Greenland thaw.

Angela's Glacier, written by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Chicago-based artist Diana, concerns Snæfellsjökull glacier, situated on the westernmost part of western Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula: Holiday House Books for Young People, via Facebook Dec. 8, 2023

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Snæfellsjökull is situated on the westernmost part of western Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula; the glacier-capped stratovolcano is famous as the entry to an underground tunnel in Journey to the Center of the Earth (Voyage au centre de la Terre; 1864) by French novelist Jules Verne (Feb. 8, 1828-March 24, 1905); "Snæfellsjökull in the Morning," image obtained Monday, July 16, 2012, 08:26: Axel Kristinsson from Reykjavík, Iceland, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snæfellsjökull_in_the_Morning_(7622876302).jpg;
Axel Kristinsson (axelkr), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/axelkr/7622876302/

Angela's Glacier, written by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Chicago-based artist Diana, concerns Snæfellsjökull, a glacier-capped stratovolcano situated on the westernmost part of western Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula: Holiday House Books for Young People, via Facebook Dec. 8, 2023, @ https://www.facebook.com/HolidayHouseBks/posts/angelas-glacier-is-coming-out-next-month-dont-miss-this-gorgeous-picturebookhttp/826981599437227/

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