Product Description: The book is subdivided into three parts supplemented by eleven appendices. The first part attempts to explain Ragnars own sense of time and place and his relationship with his local and wider region. To do this, it is necessary to go back to Ingólfur Arnasons first landfall in AD 874 under the headland that bears his name, Ingólfshöfði, which could be seen by Ragnar from his farmhouse. In working through the centuries, using the somewhat unconventional approach to assume perceptions and attitudes of a number of principal characters, some possibly mythical, others startlingly real, the author eventually reaches 1952, the date of his own first arrival. At this point he moves to the second part. This is a narrative of the University of Nottingham student expeditions of 19521954, including a detailed account of the fatal accident of August 1953. It also outlines some of the results of their research. It is recounted at some length because it demonstrates how Jack came to be bound to Ragnar and Skaftafell. It is also an example of the influence of Iceland and Icelanders on the lives of visitors from overseas. The third part is an account of the second half of Ragnars life that is inseparably linked with the origins and evolution of the Skaftafell National Park leading to the author's presumption of eventual World Heritage recognition. He uses his own extensive experience with UNESCO, the United Nations University, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), as well as his university teaching and mountain research career, to illustrate the many challenges and opportunities that development of the park entails. The final section is a collection of eleven appendices that provide greater detail for those interested in such topics as seal hunting, jökulhlaup, glacier movement, mountaineering, the history of Skaftafell, and aspects of the Nottingham student expeditions.