REYKJAVIK
Hail, Isle! with mist and snow-storms girt around,
Where fire and earthquake rend the shattered ground,--
Here once o'er furthest ocean's icy path
The Northmen fled a tyrant monarch's wrath:
Here, cheered by song and story, dwelt they free,
And held unscathed their laws and liberty.
ROBERT LOWE.
A faint idea of Icelandic scenery may perhaps be gained by taking a
journey on the moon by the aid of a good telescope. Nowhere else is
to be found the same weird impression of vastness and of magnificent
desolation!
Not infrequently, particularly in a land of hills, do the works of man
seem puny beside the works of God, but as in Iceland nowhere else.
Only rarely, here and there, are signs of cultivation, and that is on
the tiniest scale. Wild stretches of jagged lava and volcanic rock
spread into space like "the ruins of an elder world." The great rugged
mountains, capped by snow, and the numerous hot springs suggest the
eternal battle-ground of elements, and give to the landscape a weird,
almost unearthly effect. As Gudbrand Thorlac (Bishop of Holar, quoted
by Hakluyt) expresses it: "There be in this Iland mountaines lift up to
the skies, whose tops being white with perpetuall snowe, their roots
boile with everlasting fire." The prevailing colours, including every
shade of brown and yellow, are relieved only where appears the deep
blue-black of the sea; save that here and there a tiny waterfall by
stunted trees and a carpet of wild flowers, such as heather or grass of
Parnassus, rather faintly suggest the glories of more southern lands.
The Great Pyramid and the Chinese Wall themselves would be lost, St.
Peter's would appear a mere pebble, amid those gigantic stretches of
lonely mountain. And during the very darkest days of early mediæval
times a small handful of men in these remote solitudes were to play
a part in history that is perfectly unique, to endow humanity with
something it could ill afford to put away.
Here, on the dark winter nights of a region only just without the
Arctic Circle, were written and enjoyed those sagas that are true
history and very human, while nothing but dry chronicles were being
composed in all Europe besides. Far less we should know of the early
story of the British Isles and of North America had the Icelanders been
dumb. Worthily appears the name of their Republic among those of other
famous Commonwealths of earth in the hub of the universe, the State
House at Boston, Massachusetts!
Interest in Iceland and her sagas has been greatly revived of recent
years. In these days it seems strange to read what P. H. Mallet (p.
152) wrote about 1755: "Such was the constitution of a republic, which
is at present quite forgotten in the North, and utterly unknown through
the rest of Europe even to men of much reading, notwithstanding the
great number of poets and historians which that republic produced."
The stories of the early settlers, as related in the sagas, slightly
recall the conditions that even to-day exist in such places as Rhodesia
and newly-opened districts of the Western States. The details are
as different as they could well be, but there is something of the
same overflowing youthful vitality, the same grim sort of humour
and vigorous enjoyment of life. This tale, for instance, from the
_Liosvetninga Saga_, shows a rather indirect and possibly somewhat
modern method of leading up to an extremely simple point: "When the
table was set there Ufey put his fist on the board, and spake, 'How
big dost think that fist is, Gudmund?' He spake, 'Very big!' Ufey
spake, 'Thou wouldst think that there would be strength in it.' Gudmund
spake, 'Indeed I would.' Ufey answers, 'A heavy blow thou wouldst
think it would give?' Gudmund spake, 'Mighty heavy.' Ufey spake, 'What
harm wouldst think it would do?' Gudmund spake, 'Breaking of bones
or death.' Ufey spake, 'How wouldst like that way of death?' Gudmund
spake, 'Very ill, and I should not wish it to happen to me.' Ufey
spake, 'Then do not thou sit in my seat.'"
The settlement of Iceland was part of the happy movement that first
carried Norsemen to the Faroe Islands and far beyond. There was a man
named Gard-here, a Swede, and he journeyed to Sodor, or the Southern
Islands[8] on the very common quest of getting in the inheritance of
his wife's father, who had died. A gale broke his moorings. He was
driven westward into the sea, and the eventual result was that he
reached the island with which we are concerned. He praised the land
much, and desired that it should be called by his own name.
But _he_ did not discover the island. That glory belongs to dreamy
mystics of the ancient Irish Church in the days when her rays lit up
the whole of Western Europe, and her missionaries went out into all
lands.[9] Where he heard no other sound than the thud of the storm
waves on the lonely rocks, and the shrill cry of the sea-gulls, quite
alone with his God, there the Celtic monk could best say his prayers.
And the _Libellus Islandorum_ expressly says of the first days of
settlement: "There were then here Christian men, whom the Northmen call
'papa.' But soon they went away because they could not dwell with pagan
hordes, and they left behind them Irish books and bells and crooks." A
little cross of theirs is in the Museum at Reykjavik to-day.
Again there were certain men who needed to journey out of Norway to
the Faroes, some say that Naddodh was of their number, and they also
were driven to the same country, which they named Snowland. They
walked up a high mountain in the East-friths, and looked far and
wide to see if they could discover any smoke or other token of the
presence of mankind, but they saw none. They went back to the Faroes at
harvest-time and they praised the new country very much.
The third party of Norsemen that reached Iceland had decorously made
a great sacrifice before setting forth, and three ravens had been
hallowed. In the Faroe Islands, Floki, their leader, got his daughter
very satisfactorily married, and then he sailed out into the sea and
let loose the three ravens. The first feebly flew to the bows of the
vessel; the second with little more adventure soared into the air and
then came back to the ship; but the third flew forth from the bows
and led the way to the island. And when they sailed past Reek-ness,
or Smoky Cape, and entered the great mountain-walled fjord, Faxe
said, "This must be a big country which we have found; here are great
rivers." And, though his surmise as to the rivers was mistaken, the
inlet received his name; as Faxefjoth men know it to this day. The
whole frith was full of fish, including seals and whales, and the party
became so absorbed in catching them that they imprudently took no heed
to make hay--with the result that they lost all their stock in the
winter. As to the climate there were many different views, but Thorwolf
said that butter dripped out of every blade of grass in the country
that they had found. Wherefore he was called Thorwolf Butter.
It was nevertheless so cold that the party originated the unfortunate
designation of Iceland, a name that has probably done more than
anything else to spread through the world undoubtedly exaggerated
notions as to the coldness of the island. Sometimes for weeks together
Reykjavik has been warmer than London. The famous Icelandic explorer,
Eric the Red, seems to have realised that a mistake had been made,
and with much discretion he gave another land "a name, and called it
Greenland, and said that men would be ready to go thither if the land
had a good name."[10]
The Icelanders are as sensitive as the Canadians about the climate of
their country, and as early as the sixteenth century we find the Bishop
of Holar, already mentioned (p. 29), whose observations are quoted by
Hakluyt, growling thus about one whose strictures on the island did
not however stop with criticisms of the climate. "There came to light
about the yeare of Christ 1561, a very deformed impe, begotten by a
certain Pedlar of Germany; namely, a booke of German rimes, of al that
ever were read the most filthy and most slanderous against the nation
of Island. Neither did it suffice the base printer once to send abroad
that base brat, but he must publish it also thrise or foure times
over; that he might thereby, what lay in him, more deepely disgrace
our innocent nation among the Germans, and Danes, and other neighbour
countries, with shamefull, and everlasting ignomine. So great was the
malice of this printer, and his desire so greedy to get lucre, by a
thing unlawfull. And this he did without controlment, even in that
citie, which these many yeares hath trafficked with Island to the great
gaine, and commodity of the citizens. His name is Ioachimus Leo, a man
worthy to become lion's foode."
As late as 1846 "Sylvanus" (p. 202) wrote, "Iceland, a dreary,
storm-beaten isle, nearly deprived of all communication with its
fatherland. It is the abode of all but ceaseless winter, in which the
sun, rarely for more than a few months out of the twelve, is ever seen."
It is possible to suffer very much from heat in Iceland, but there
seems to be good ground for believing that the climate has changed for
the severer in the course of a thousand years. Forests are frequently
mentioned in the earlier sagas--the _Libellus Islandorum_ expressly
says that in the first days of settlement the country "was grown with
wood between fell and foreshore." But to-day there is nothing much
bigger than a Japanese dwarf tree.
The first permanent settler was Ingwolf Arnerson (or Erneson) and he
was told to go thither by an oracle while he sacrificed. And at that
time Harald of the Fairhair had for twelve years been king in Norway,
and since the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 874 winters had
passed away. He sailed to Iceland with Heor-leif, his sworn brother
and the husband of his sister; a man who refused to sacrifice. They
kept company till they saw Iceland and then they parted. And as soon
as Ingwolf noticed the land he pitched his porch-pillars overboard to
get an omen. For it was the pious custom of those days to let the
site for a new settlement be fixed, not by the caprice of man, but by
the decision of the gods, who made it known by causing the currents of
ocean to cast up the porch-pillars on the shore where they would have
the dwelling to be.
Before their emigration to Iceland Leif and Ingwolf had made a foray
in Ireland. There they had gained riches and thralls, and Leif was
called Heor, or Sword, from an encounter with an Irishman, from whom he
gained such a weapon. Driven westward off the land, Leif and his men
ran short of water, and the thralls, with the readiness that ever marks
their race, took to the plan of kneading meal and butter together, and
they declared that this was a thirst-slake. But as soon as it was ready
there fell a great rain and water was caught in the awnings.
Eventually they reached land in safety, and there was only one ox, so
the thralls had to drag the plow. And they plotted together to kill
the ox, and to say that a bear had devoured it; then while Leif and
his Norsemen were seeking to punish the non-existent bear, and were
scattered through the shaw, the thralls should slay every one his man,
and so should murder them all. And everything fell out just as the
Irish had plotted.
The dead body of Heor-leif was found by Ingwolf's thralls, who had been
sent to search for the porch-pillars, and when they told their master
he was very angry. And when he saw his brother dead he said, "It was a
pitiful death for a brave man that thralls should slay him, but I see
how it goes with those who will never perform sacrifice."
"Then Ingwolf went up to the headland and saw islands lying in the sea
to the south-west. It came into his mind that the thralls must have
run away thither, for the boat had disappeared. So he and his men went
to seek the thralls, and found them there at a place called Eith (the
Tarbet) in the islands. They were sitting at their meat when Ingwolf
fell upon them. They became fearful, and every man of them ran off his
own way. Ingwolf slew them all. The place is called Duf-thac's Scaur,
where he lost his life. Many of them leaped over the rock, which was
afterwards called by their name. The islands were afterwards called
the Westmen Isles whereon they were slain, for they were Westmen" (or
Irish).
Heimaey (or Home Isle), the largest of these Westmen Isles, consists of
two great jagged masses of igneous rock, presenting wild cliffs to the
ocean and a wild fretted outline to the sky. Between the two mountains
is a rolling stretch of grass-land, and upon it stands the scattered
little town of Kaupstadr. The cliffs are covered with sea-birds'
nests, most of them filthy fulmars. And some of the other islands of
the group, among which modern cruising steamers thread their way, are
sea-worn into caves and caverns by the much contorted rocks along the
shore.
At last, in the third winter, Ingwolf's thralls, Weevil and Carle,
found the porch-pillars, and at the spot where they came to land
he made for himself a homestead. He dwelt in Reek-wick, and the
_Land-nama-bok_, or Icelandic _Domesday_, from which nearly all the
above facts are taken,[11] says that the pillars are still to be seen
in his fire-house, or temple.
In the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ we read of the building of another temple that
stood on the north side of Faxefjoth. Somewhat similar, no doubt, was
the shrine that incorporated the porch-pillars at Reykjavik. "There he
let build a temple, and a mighty house it was. There was a door in the
side-wall, and nearer to one end thereof. Within the door stood the
porch-pillars and nails were therein; they were called the Gods' nails.
There within was a great frith-place. But of the inmost house was there
another house, of the fashion whereof now is the quire of a church,
and there stood a stall in the midst of the floor in the fashion of
an altar, and thereon lay a ring without a join that weighed twenty
ounces, and on that must men swear all oaths; and that ring must the
chief have on his arm at all man-motes."
A gold ring that Olaf Tryggvison took from the Temple of Lade (p. 69),
and presented to a lady whom he admired, turned out to be only plated
copper, and much trouble resulted from that gift. The gods had in all
probability never discovered the fraud, for, like the Chinese to-day,
the pagan Norse had a most mean opinion of the intelligence of the
objects of their worship (p. 106). Some of the temples of Iceland were
of considerable dimensions: in the _Vatzdaela Saga_ we read of one at
Thordisholt a hundred feet in length.
Ingwolf, the founder of Reykjavik, was the most famous of all the
fathers of Iceland, for he came to a desolate country, and was the
first to build a house and to cultivate the ground. His son "was
Thorstan, who let set the Thing at Keel-ness, before the Allthing was
established. His son was Thor-kell Moon, the Law-speaker, who was one
of the best conversation of any heathen men in Iceland, of those whom
men have records of. He had himself carried out into the rays of the
sun in his death-sickness, and commended himself to that God which had
made the sun. Moreover, he had lived as cleanly as those Christian men
who were of the best conversation or way of life." (_Landnama-bok._)
A fair broad bay, an arm of the Faxefjoth, rocky islands rising from
the water and low hills all around, the heights of Esja straight in
front of the ship that sails in, was the site chosen by the pagan
gods. The city of Reykjavik stands on low hills at whose foot the
porch-pillars were found. At the head of the little reeking bay is the
white steam of the hot springs; away to the north, just visible across
the choppy waves of Faxefjoth, towers, four thousand seven hundred feet
above the sea, the huge volcanic mass of Snaefells Jökull.
Thus Reykjavik, the present capital of Iceland, bordered landward by
a little lake, is more than a thousand years old, yet it does not
look fifteen! No new settlement in the American West has a rawer
or more recent appearance. The building materials are wood, brick,
cement, felt and galvanized iron. There are a few fair gardens with
very stunted trees, and in the rough grass square is a metal statue
to Thorwaldsen (p. 138). For ugly commonplaceness the broad and dusty
streets are hardly rivalled even on the North American continent, and
that is saying a good deal. Yet the glorious views of wild mountain and
ever-changing sea, with air as fresh and pure as in mid-ocean, make it
attractive in spite of all.
The Norse settlement of the island, having prosperously begun on
the grassy plains at the edge of which the city stands, soon spread
all round the shore. At wide intervals were built, or dug, the half
underground turf-covered dwellings where men sat under their smoky
rafters by the fire, drinking wine or mead, telling or hearing the saga
tales. Old buildings that still remain, including a few in the vicinity
of Reykjavik, give a fair idea of what these primitive dwellings were
like; sometimes they were partly excavated in the side of a hill. Their
interiors are much more cosy and homelike than would be suspected from
their desolate-looking outsides. Hangings round the walls must have
greatly improved the appearance as a rule, though the _Laxdaela Saga_
says that the hall which Thurid Olaf built in Herd-holt, whose sides
and roof were lined with noble histories carved on wainscotting, looked
better when the hangings were down. Each large householder was chief
and priest, lord of all within sight of his dwelling.
The same (_Laxdaela_) saga describes one of them, in fact the husband
of this same Olaf's daughter. "Garmund was generally a reserved man,
and surly to most folks, and he was always dressed the same; he used
to wear a red-scarlet kirtle and a grey cloak over it, and a bear-skin
hood on his head, a sword in his hand that was a great and good weapon
with hilt of walrus-tooth, and there was no silver inlaid on it, but
the blade was sharp and no rust to be found on it. This sword he
called Leg-biter, and he never let it pass out of his hand." This man
contrived to win Thurid, the daughter of Olaf, only by "giving no
small sum of money" to her mamma. As not infrequently happens in such
cases, husband and wife "did not get on very well, and this was felt by
both of them." So Garmund sailed away from Iceland, and, to the great
displeasure of his wife and mother-in-law, he left no chattels behind
him. However Olaf's daughter pursued and, finding her husband asleep
in his vessel, she took away the sword Leg-biter and left the baby in
its place! As soon as the disgusted father awoke from its crying and
discovered the unwelcome exchange, he sent a boat in pursuit of wife
and sword. Thurid had, however, foreseen that man[oe]uvre and the boat,
being riddled with holes, had in haste to put back to the ship. "Then
Garmund called to Thurid and bade her turn back and give him the sword
Leg-biter, and take the girl back, 'and as much money or chattels with
her as thou wilt.' Thurid says, 'Dost think it better to get back the
sword or not?' Garmund answered her, 'I would sooner lose great monies
than lose the sword.' She spake, 'Then thou shalt never get it; thou
hast in many ways treated me unjustly, and we will now part.'"
Even less careful of his personal appearance than Garmund must have
been Anlaf of Black-fen, whose deeds are recorded in the _Havardz Saga_
(II., 1). Men say that he had bear's warmth, for "there never was frost
or cold so great that Anlaf would not go about in no more clothes
than his breeches and a shirt tucked into the breeches. And he never
went abroad off the farm with more clothes on him than these." He was,
however, a good man, and somewhat before midwinter he walked over the
hill pasture and all over the fell seeking men's sheep, and he found
many and drove them home, and brought every man his own, so that every
one wished him well.
Iceland is perhaps the least mixed nation to be found on the surface of
the globe. Among the fathers of her settlement there were indeed a few
of other than Norse blood, particularly ubiquitous Irish, some of whom
were men very well thought of, but all except a few individuals here
and there were of pure Scandinavian stock. The _Landnama-bok_ expressly
tells us: "Men of knowledge say that the country was wholly settled and
taken up in sixty winters, so that it hath never after been settled any
more."
As the community grew older it became apparent that something more than
local chiefs and Things were imperatively needed if any sort of peace
was to be preserved and some kind of order to be established. And thus
there was called into being in A.D. 930 the most famous parliament of
the North--the Allthing, that assembled every year under the clear sky,
by the banks of a little stream where the horizon was formed by the
wild rocky hills of Thingvellir. From all over the island men came
for practically every purpose for which human beings can gainfully
meet. Laws were made and declared, law cases were decided; tales were
recited and much was bought and sold. But the only official of the
Republic was the Speaker of the Law, the jurisdiction was purely moral.
Administrative machinery, civil service, navy or army there were none.
He who refused to obey could but be outlawed.[12]
No doubt this essentially Teutonic reform brought vast improvement on
the lawless violence of earlier days, but the respect entertained for
law still left very much to be desired. The famous _Saga of the Burnt
Njal_ gives a truly Homeric account of proceedings at the Allthing
itself.
Flosi and certain others who were on trial for arson and manslaughter
were on the point of getting off by the kind of legal quibble in which
Dickens was interested so much. Gizur, one of the plaintiffs, said,
"What counsel shall we now take, kinsman Asgrim?" Then Asgrim said,
"Now will we send a man to my son Thorhall, and know what counsel he
will give us."
"Now the messenger comes to Thorhall, Asgrim's son, and tells him how
things stood, and how Mord Volgard's son and his friends would all be
made outlaws, and the suits for manslaughter be brought to nought.
"But when he heard that, he was so shocked at it that he could not
utter a word. He jumped up then from his bed, and clutched with both
hands his spear, Skarphedinn's gift, and drove it through his foot....
Now he went out of the booth unhalting and walked so hard that the
messenger could not keep up with him, and so he goes until he came to
the Fifth Court. There he met Grim the Red, Flosi's kinsman, and as
soon as they were met, Thorhall thrust at him with the spear, and smote
him on the shield and clove it in twain, but the spear passed right
through him, so that the point came out between his shoulders. Then
there was a mighty cry all over the host, and then they shouted their
war-cries.
"Flosi and his friends then turned against their foes, and both sides
egged on their men fast.
"Kari Solmund's son turned now thither where Arni (Kol's son) and
Hallbjorn the Strong were in front, and as soon as ever Hallbjorn saw
Kari, he made a blow at him, and aimed at his leg, but Kari leaped up
into the air, and Hallbjorn missed him. Kari turned on Arni (Kol's son)
and cut at him, and smote him on the shoulder, and cut asunder the
shoulder blade and collar bone, and the blow went right down into his
breast, and Arni (Kol's son) fell down dead at once to earth.
"After that he hewed at Hallbjorn and caught him on the shield, and the
blow passed through the shield, and so down and cut off his great toe.
Holmstein hurled a spear at Kari, but he caught it in the air, and sent
it back, and it was a man's death in Flosi's band....
"Then there was a little lull in the battle, and Snorri the priest came
up with his band, and Skapti was there in his company, and they ran in
between them, and so they could not get at one another to fight.... So
a truce was set, and was to be kept throughout the Thing, and then the
bodies were laid out and borne to the church, and the wounds of those
men were bound up who were hurt."
The day after men went to the Hill of Laws. A skald opportunely sang
some verses with the result that now men burst out in great fits of
laughter. And eventually "in this way the atonement came about, and
then hands were shaken on it, and twelve men were to utter the award,
and Snorri the priest was the chief man in this award, and others with
him. Then the manslaughters were set off the one against the other, and
those men who were over and above were paid for in fines. They also
made an award in the suit about the Burning."[13]
The Allthing still meets, but no longer amid mountain wilds. A very
substantial stone structure, two storeys and an attic high, faces the
square at Reykjavik; it bears date 1881. Below is a library; above the
chamber, from a gallery in the attic, the public may look on. It is
impossible to visit this humble structure without emotion, for it is
the seat of one of the ancientest moots upon the earth. Had it only a
continuous history from its first institution it would be older by, at
any rate, a century or two than the very Mother of Parliaments, for the
French-named body that sits at St. Stephen's can hardly claim historic
continuity with the Saxon Witanagemot. But the well-fitted Althinghuus
is an unromantic substitute for the vast and desolate wildness of the
Thingvellir. It is with a shock, too, that one notices on the walls
great pictures of Egypt and of Greece. Are not Ellidaar and Hvita,
salmon rivers of Iceland, to this assembly at any rate better than all
the waters of Nile and Cephissus?[14]
The Cathedral of Reykjavik, next to the Althinghuus, is a small
whitewashed structure with saddle roof tower, whose vane is dated 1847.
It is entirely destitute of the slightest interest, save for the lovely
font by Thorwaldsen (p. 138), a cube of white marble. Round the top
is a garland of flowers to support the metal bowl; on the four sides
are bas-reliefs representing the Baptism of Christ, a mother and her
children, cherubs, and Christ blessing the children. The Bishop, or
Lutheran superintendent, has charge of the whole island, which in the
middle ages formed two dioceses.
The Christianising of Iceland was a less violent process than that
of the other northern lands. The building of the earliest church was
owing to the gentle influence of the great Scottish apostle of Ireland.
"Aur-lyg was the name of a son of Hrapp, the son of Beorn Buna. He was
in fosterage with Bishop Patrec, the saint in the Southreys. A yearning
came upon him to go to Iceland, and prayed Bishop Patrec that he would
give him an outfit. The bishop gave him timber for a church and asked
him to take it with him, and a _plenarium_, and an iron church-bell,
and a gold penny, and consecrated earth to lay under the corner-posts
instead of hallowing the church, and prelates to dedicate the church
to Columcella."[15] And the church was built at Esia-rock, looking out
over the ocean. Close by in the sea-weed the iron bell had been found,
for it was cast into the sea that, like the heathen porch-pillars, it
might point out the exact site that was the best.
The passing from the old faith to the new was on the whole remarkably
destitute of bigotry. One, Helge, for example, "put his trust in
Christ, and named his homestead after him, but yet would he pray to
Thor on sea voyage and in hard stress, and in all those things that he
deemed really of most account."[16] While the _Landnama-bok_ itself
ends with the remark: "Some held their Christendom well till their
death-day, but it did not often go on in the family, because that
of their sons, some reared temples and sacrificed, and the land was
heathen nearly a hundred and twenty winters."
Then at a notable Allthing, about the year 1000, one Thor-gar spoke
to the people at the Rock of the Laws. He told them a story about two
kings who formerly ruled in Norway and Denmark respectively. "They
had long kept up strife between them, till at last the people of both
countries took the matter into their own hands, and made peace between
them, although they themselves did not wish it; but this plan was so
successful that the kings after a few winters' space were sending gifts
to each other, and their friendship endured as long as they both did
live. 'And this seems to me the best not to let them have their will
that are most out and out on each side, but let us so umpire the matter
between them that each side may gain somewhat of his case, but let us
all have one law and one faith. For this saying shall be proved true,
_If the Constitution be broken the peace will be broken_.'
"Thor-gar ended his speech in such a way that each side agreed to hold
those laws which he should think best to declare.
"This was the declaration of Thor-gar, that all men in Iceland should
be baptized and believe in one God, but as to the exposure of children,
and the eating of horse-flesh, the old law should hold; men might
sacrifice in secret if they would, but should fall under the lesser
outlawry if witnesses came forward against them. This heathendom was
taken away some years later."[17]
The final establishment of the faith was chiefly owing to Bishop Gizor,
who was, we are told, "better beloved by all the people of the land
than any other man whom we know to have been on the land."[18] Such,
indeed, was the devotion men felt for him, so much did they appreciate
his speeches, that the Icelanders voluntarily agreed to a complete
valuation of all that they possessed in order that they might have the
privilege of paying tithes! Greater proof of love than that no people
ever showed! It would stagger humanity indeed were anything of the sort
to be recorded to-day. Gizor it was who fixed the seat of the Bishopric
at Skalholt, for before it was nowhere; he, too, set up the northern
Bishop's stool at Holar, giving more than the fourth part of his income
to endow it. This Gizor was surnamed the White, and he kept such peace
in the land that there were no great feuds between the chiefs, and the
carrying of arms was almost laid aside. And he sent his son Islaf to
school in Saxland; he also became a Bishop and took to wife Dalla, the
daughter of Thorwald.
So the faith in Iceland grew, not by bigotry but by conciliation, and
men were apt to prefer prime-signing to baptism, for so could they have
full intercourse with Christian men and with heathen too, and they
could hold to the faith of their liking.[19] But good arguments had a
very-powerful effect, and "this made men very eager in church-building,
which was promised by the clergy, that a man should have room in the
Kingdom of Heaven for as many as could stand in the church that he had
built."[20]
Things being thus comfortably and happily settled by the Icelanders, it
was not to be expected that the sledge-hammer methods of the mainland
would find much favour among them. St. Olaf (p. 79) sent a priest,
one Thangbrand, to hasten the triumph of the faith in Iceland, but he
soon made that cool country a great deal too hot to hold him. And, as
the _Cristne Saga_ puts it: "At that very time Thangbrand the priest
came to the king from Iceland, and told him what enmity men had shown
him there, and said there was no hope of Christendom being received
there. Then the king was so angry that he had many of the Icelanders
taken prisoners and set in irons. Some he ordered to be slain, and some
maimed, and some were plundered, for he said that he would pay them for
the unworthy way their fathers had received his message in Iceland. But
Sholto and Gizor spoke for them, saying that the king had promised that
no man should have done such ill, but that he would give them his peace
if they would be baptized.... Moreover Gizor said that he thought there
was hope that Christendom would succeed in Iceland if it were wisely
forwarded. 'But Thangbrand hath carried himself there, as he did here,
rather lawlessly in slaying certain men there, and men thought it hard
to brook such behaviour in a stranger.'"
Longfellow (_The Saga of King Olaf_) sums up this troublesome
missionary in the following verse:--
He was quarrelsome and loud,
And impatient of control,
Boisterous in the market crowd,
Boisterous at the wassail-bowl,
Everywhere
Would drink and swear,
Swaggering Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
So firm a hold did Christianity take on the land that the sagas of
early Christian days are largely concerned with bishops' lives. The
Church was as powerful as in Italy, and the two prelates were much
honoured in the land. Thus we read in the book called _Hungrvaca_,
or _Hunger-Waker_, because many uninformed men, wise though they be,
that have gone through it have wished to know much more concerning
those notable persons of whom it speaks. "Bishop Cetil was now well
seventy years of age; he went to the Allthing and commended himself
to the prayers of all the clerks in the synod of priests. And then
Bishop Magnus asked him to come home with him to Skalholt to keep the
dedication feast of the church and a bridal that was to be there. The
feast was so very splendid that it was a pattern after in Iceland;
there was much mead mixed, and all other stores of the best that might
be. But the Friday evening both bishops went to bathe at Bathridge
after supper. And then it came to pass that Bishop Cetil died there,
and men thought this great news (July 6, 1145). There was great grief
at this feast among many of the guests till the bishop was buried and
service done for him. But by the comforting speeches of Bishop Magnus
and the noble drink that was provided, men got their sorrow the sooner
out of mind than they would otherwise have done."
The bathing of the bishops was in Iceland by no means exceptional.
While in the rest of Europe personal cleanliness was inconspicuous
between the destruction of the buildings of Rome and comparatively
recent days, in Iceland, even during the tenth century, men could not
get on without washing. One householder is specially distinguished in
the _Landnama-bok_ as Leot the Unwashed. Thus the _Eyrbyggja Saga_
describes a bath: "Stir let build a hot bath at his house at Lava, and
it was dug down in the ground, and there was a window over the furnace,
so that it might be fed from without, and wondrous hot was that place."
Many such are mentioned in the sagas, and one of the few mediæval ruins
in Iceland is that of the bath-house of Snorri Sturluson, author of
the _Heimskringla_, one who adorned history by his writings, but not
by his actions; for the discreditable collapse of the Republic and the
annexation of Iceland to Norway was largely owing to him. On his own
estate and by his own son-in-law he was murdered in 1241.
Two Icelandic bishops were placed among the Saints. Bishop Thorlak of
Skalholt "never spoke a word that did not tend to some good purpose
when he was asked anything. He was so wary of his words that he never
blamed the weather as many do, or any of those things that are not
blameworthy, but which he perceived went according to God's will. He
did not look forward to any day above the rest." And most deservedly
he was called that precious friend of God, the Beam and Gem of Saints,
both in Iceland and other lands.[21]
A still greater reputation was, however, gained by the other Icelandic
saint, the holy bishop, John of Holar, widely famed for the beauty
of his voice. His peculiar holiness very early in his life attracted
the attention of the devout. "When John was yet a child his father
and mother broke up housekeeping and went abroad together. They
came to Denmark and went to King Swein, and the king received them
worshipfully, and Thorgerd (John's mother) was made to sit by the queen
herself, the mother of King Swein. Thorgerd had her son, the holy John,
at the table with her, and when many kinds of precious dainties with
good drink came to the king's table, then it happened with the boy
John, as is ever the way with children, that he stretched out his hands
to the things he wished to have. But his mother would have chidden him,
and smote his hands. But when Queen Estrith saw this, she spake to
Thorgerd, 'Not so, not so, Thorgerd mine; do not strike those hands,
for they are bishop's hands!"[22]
John not only survived this spoiling, but fulfilled the prophecy of the
kindly queen. In due course, bearing a letter from Bishop Gizor, he
sailed to Denmark for his consecration; "the Archbishop was at church
at evensong, and when John, the holy bishop-elect, got to the church
(presumably the Cathedral at Lund), evensong was well-nigh over. He
took his place outside the quire, and began to sing evensong with his
clerks. The Archbishop had forbidden all his clerks, old and young
alike, to look out of the quire while the hours were being sung, and he
set a penalty to be taken if his command were broken. But as soon as
the Archbishop heard the chanting of the holy John, he looked out down
the church, trying to see who the man was that had such a voice. But
when evensong was over, the Archbishop's clerks said to him, 'How now,
my lord bishop, have ye not yourself broken the rules ye made?' The
Archbishop answered, 'I confess that it is true as ye say, but yet I
have not done it for nought, for a voice was borne into my ears such as
I have never heard before, and it may rather be likened to the voice of
an angel than of a man.'"[23]
The Primate perceived that his very dear brother had all the qualities
desirable in a bishop, and so favourable was the impression made that
the canonical difficulty to the consecration--that John had been twice
married--was surmounted with little trouble.[24]
Well did the new bishop regulate the affairs of the church on
his arrival at Holar, where he rebuilt the Cathedral, and at the
bishopstead, west of the church door, set up a school. A master he
chose from Gothland and he paid him a great wage, both to teach the
priestlings and to give such support to holy Christendom along with the
bishop himself as he could manage in his teachings and addresses. By
this time the days of transition in Iceland were over, and John felt
strong enough not only to destroy the material relics of paganism, but
also to anticipate George Fox in objecting to pagan names for the days
of the week. "He also forbade all omens, which the men of old had been
wont to take from the coming of the moon and observance of days, and
dedicating days to heathen men or gods--as it is when they are called
Tew's day, Woden's day, or Thor's, and so of all the week-days; but he
bade men to keep the reckoning which the holy fathers have set in the
Scriptures, and call them the Second Day of the week, and the Third
Day, and so on--and all other things beside, which he thought sprung
from ill roots."[25] At last, in 1121, on April 23, he departed out of
this world into everlasting bliss.
As might perhaps be expected, by far the most interesting object in
Reykjavik is the National Museum, into which is gathered, Scandinavian
fashion, much choice carved work from many an Icelandic church. For
their inability to raise great fabrics like those of southern lands,
the disciples of the White Christ in Iceland, much as in Ireland,
resolved as far as possible to atone by wealth of detail. Here
accordingly are quaint or beautiful works of art whose composition
beguiled many a long winter night of old. Even Mallet (p. 151) most
patronisingly remarks: "Nor is this sculpture so bad as might be
expected." The sagas here and there refer to the use of timber from the
Icelandic forests for purposes of building, but soft drift-wood is by
far the commonest material used for carving figures of saints, many of
which are extremely crude and some grotesque. The ornate "Kirkjustodir"
are rather like the totem poles of North American Indians. Many things
there are of post-Reformation date, as pulpits, bas-reliefs and fonts.
Runic inscriptions survive into the eighteenth century. The finest
feature is the magnificent retable in alabaster and wood, representing
scenes from the Passion, that came from Holar Cathedral.[26] Carving of
similar kind, though much earlier in date, for Skalholt Cathedral is
described in the _Pols Saga_.[27] Margaret was the most cunning carver
of all folk in Iceland, and she was surnamed the Skilful. "Bishop Paul
had put in hand, and had her begin a tabula for the altar before he
died, and had meant to spend on it much money, both gold and silver,
and Margaret carved it most nobly out of tusk-ivory, and this would
have been the greatest jewel or masterpiece if, according to his plan,
both Thorstan the shrine-maker and Margaret had wrought it out with
their craft. But his death was a big black blow, and such things had to
be put off for the sake of many other things that had to be done."
Some objects illustrate things other than ecclesiastical, but,
comparatively speaking, they are few. Among them are old Icelandic
chair-saddles with huge and unwieldy stirrups, and guns of wood with
iron rings.
The country surrounding the city seems dreary enough until the intense
fascination of the wildly desolate land and the extreme purity of
the air grows more and more upon the mind. The jagged rock-hills all
round are never quite free from snow, but they were thrown up by the
earth fires too late to be planed down by ice. The well-known little
ponies of Iceland in considerable numbers wander at will over the rough
rolling pasture land, save that some are ridden by tourists from the
south, and some by radiant Icelandic girls. These come jogging in from
the country on their curious flat side-saddles, both feet resting on
a wide hanging step. They wear their hair in four plaits, the ends of
which are looped up under a little flat cap of black cloth. From the
centre of the cap there hangs through a little silver cylinder a long
black tassel which reaches to the shoulder.
The ground is largely dug into hummocks so as to increase the area
available for grass. A good road, fringed by telegraph poles each side
and patronised by a fair number of cyclists, leads out of the town, and
after a mile or two crosses the Ellidaar, which has cut a broad winding
channel through the hard volcanic rock, and is famous for fishing.
Nearer the sea are the hot springs whose waters send up steam that is
visible from far, and gave the capital its name. The ponies are kept
from burning their noses by stretches of barbed wire. In water heated
by the fires that burn far down, beyond the reach of man, the people of
Reykjavik have long been wont to wash their linen and their clothes. A
constant procession of women bear soiled things to the spring and clean
things to the town.
Many Icelanders speak English, and they are often surprisingly
well-informed, both concerning their own history and the affairs of
foreign lands. Still read are the sagas in the land of their birth, and
they were Englished largely by Icelandic minds. There are very good
secondary schools in the towns, and a College at Reykjavik itself.
Though no elementary schools exist, almost every one can read and
write from the excellent teaching in the homes. Reykjavik, Akureyri
and Isafjordr are fair-sized towns, the former has a population of
about ten thousand souls, but the loneliness of life in many parts
is evident from the fact that the rest of the nation, about fifty or
sixty thousand in number, tending cattle and ponies, and fishing for
whale and cod, is thinly sprinkled through some two hundred and eighty
parishes.
[Illustration: HOT SPRINGS NEAR REYKJAVIK] [_Face page 60_
Of the rocky islands in Reykjavik Harbour by far the most interesting
is Videy, the resort to-day of ptarmigan and eider duck, in past years
the seat of one of the chief religious houses of Iceland, a Priory of
the Benedictine order. The founder and the first Prior (1226-35) was
one Thorvald, son of a Speaker of the Law, who was fifth in descent
from Gizor the White. He was succeeded by Styrmir, surnamed _hinn
fródi_ or the Wise, who was one of the editors of the _Landnama-bok_,
and died in 1245. The chapel in which he worshipped still exists, a
rude early thirteenth century structure, plain oblong with gables,
built roughly of volcanic stone. The sole original features are the
very plainest of windows under segmental arches. It is still used for
service, and has plain eighteenth century fittings with tall screen,
and pulpit rising behind the altar, all painted green and blue and red.
Three bells are dated 1735, 1752 and 1785. In the loft under the roof
is a collection of old spinning wheels. The absence of surnames, which
is still a characteristic of the unchanged Norse tradition of Iceland,
appears on a gravestone of 1820, to Viefus Scheving and his wife, Aunnu
Stephansdóttur.
This little chapel appears to have been almost the only stone church in
mediæval Iceland; even the famous Cathedral at Skalholt, which was in
every way glorious above any other building in Iceland, the finest and
most precious in the island, was merely a structure of wood.
From the highest point of the island of Videy there is a really superb
view over the plantless mountains and the steepleless city across a few
miles of blue-black, white-crested sea. The island pastures support
fifty head of cattle and slope right down to the shore, where the waves
have carved arches and caverns in the yielding rocks. The farmhouse by
the chapel is a long stone building, whose weathering by the storms of
some two hundred winters is concealed by a coat of whitewash, while the
rooms are comfortably panelled within. The outhouses seem in some cases
to be on foundations that were laid by the monks, for the monastic
buildings were evidently detached in the Celtic fashion; there was no
attempt to reproduce the conventional plan of a monastery that is so
unvaried in southern lands.
Iceland belongs geographically rather to America than to Europe, a much
wider stretch of ocean divides her from Norway than from Greenland.
But so close are the lands in the Far North that a present-day steamer
might sail with ease from London to New York, permitting her passengers
to go ashore for some part of every day.[28]
Five hundred years before Columbus crossed the Western Ocean Icelandic
barks had plowed their way, first to Greenland, then to the American
mainland. The latter their crews called Vinland from its vines
and surnamed from its character "the Good." In the _Saga of Olaf
Tryggvison_ we read: "That same spring also King Olaf sent Leif Ericson
to Greenland to bid christening there; so that same summer he went
thither. He took up a ship's crew on the sea who had come to nought,
and were lying on the wreck of the ship; and in that journey found
he Vinland the Good, and came back in harvest-tide to Greenland."
In the _Vinland Voyages_, commonly called the _Saga of Eric the
Red_, the North American coast is described with great accuracy, but
unfortunately still greater brevity, "The land seemed to them fair and
thick wooded, and but a short space between the woods and the sea,
and white sands. There were many islands and great shallows." Many
Icelanders in these latter days have emigrated to the United States
or Canada, and the son of one of them is V. Stefansson, who, in the
service of the American Museum of Natural History, discovered the
blond Eskimo of Victoria Land known as Akuliakattamiut, just possibly
descended from the ancient Norse settlers in Greenland. To-day (1913),
in the service of the Government of Canada, he is exploring the polar
ocean to the north of that wide land.
Sturdy independence and passionate attachment to their weirdly
beautiful island have always marked the Icelanders, and though since
the fall of the Republic more than six and a half centuries have worn
away, the spirit of the nation has not decayed. Even by the great
Margaret (p. 120) they would not consent to be taxed. In 1393 it is
recorded[29]: "The Stadholder brought forward the Queen's demand at the
meeting, when all the chief men promised to give sixteen feet of vadmal
(cloth used for barter) for Vigfus' sake--he was very much beloved in
Iceland; but on this condition, that it should not be called a tax, and
should not be demanded again. But the inhabitants of Eyafjordr refused
to give anything."
And about the year 1000, while other Europeans were trembling for the
end of the world or wondering why it had not come, Icelandic sailors,
who knew not fear, were wandering admiringly through the woods of the
North American Continent, were warring with the Scraelings or Indians,
were eating the grapes of the New World, were planning settlements,
possibly building churches,[30] in what became New England more than
six centuries later. What boundless possibilities were before them had
they only realised the value of that land! How different the history
of mankind if any considerable number of their countrymen, sprinkled
through all lands from the ice-fields of Greenland to the Russian
steppes, and from the North Cape to Constantinople, had been summoned
from their widely-scattered stations for the settlement of Vinland the
Good!
[Illustration]