$30,000 per annum for the support of Iceland. Upon this subject, see
note at end of the present section.
[146] The author tried in vain to see the wording of the “little bill,”
and was assured that it had not been printed. It appeared in the
_Allgemeine Zeitung_, Nos. 66, 84, 85, 101, and 102, of the 7th, 25th,
and 26th March, and 11th and 12th April 1870. The article is entitled
“Island und Dänemark,” and is written by the historian Professor Konrad
Maurer of Munich. See note at end.
[147] _Cela va sans dire_; for many years the island has been too poor
to pay for the expenses of governing it. But see note at end of section.
[148] Hr Eirikr Magnússon in the _Standard_ of December 1, 1872, et seq.
[149] It can be proved that the different sums paid into the Danish
treasury by the various companies who rented the trade with Iceland
from time to time (from 1602 to 1722) amounted at least to $2,000,000,
and the revenue of Iceland has never been credited with this sum.
[150]
The degree of longitude in N. lat. 63° measures 2770·1 feet.
” ” ” 64° ” 2674·9 “
” ” ” 65° ” 2578·9 “
” ” ” 66° ” 2432·1 “
” ” ” 67° ” 2384·6 “
instead of 6082 at the Equator.
[151] Sir George S. Mackenzie makes the desert tracts of inner
Iceland to number 40,000 square miles, a figure which still deforms
Lyell’s admirable Principles of Geology, 11th edit., vol ii., p. 454.
Mr Vice-Consul Crowe reduces the total area to 29,440 square miles
(geog.), of which two-thirds are upwards of 1000 feet above sea-level,
and only 4288 square geographical miles are covered with perpetual
snow, whose line begins between 2000 and 3500 feet.
[152] The proportion of “boe,” where barley can be cultivated in the
Færoes, was, till very lately, 1:60 of outfield or pasture.
[153] The day is past when the “determinate lines of fracture,” which
resembled the empirical parallelism and the pentagonal networks of
mountains, connected Hekla with Etna--yet it was an improvement upon
the theory which made both of them mouths of the Inferno. Evidence to
the latter purport has been given in our law-courts. The earthquake
district of Iceland was popularly supposed to include Great Britain,
Northern France, Denmark, Scandinavia, and Greenland--regions of the
most diversified formation. The theory seemed to repose for base upon
isolated cases of simultaneity, possibly coincidents. But, as Dr Lauder
Lindsay remarks, contemporaneity would suggest a vast extension of
these limits. The (Lisbon) earthquake of 1755, for instance, extended
from Barbary to Iceland, from Persia to Santos in the Brazil. The
earthquake of 1783 was equally damaging to Calabria and to Iceland.
Even in 1872, there were, as has been shown, almost simultaneous
movements in Syria, Naples, and Iceland.
[154] Hooker tells us to pronounce Jökull “yuckull,” which involves
three distinct errors, especially in the double liquid, which becomes
everywhere, except before a vowel, _dl_ or _tl_, like Popocatape_tl_.
Iaki is a lump of ice, a congener of the Pers. [Illustration: Persian
symbol], like our “ice,” although Adelung derives the Germ. Eis-jöcher
from the Lat. Jugum, and translates “Excelsi Jökli” by “Montana
Glacies.” Jökull in Icel. primarily means “icicle,” a sense now
obsolete. The signification “glacier” was probably borrowed from the
Norse country Hardanger, the only Norwegian county in which “Jökull”
appears as a local name; and it was applied to the “Gletschers” of
the Iceland colonies in Greenland. “The Jökull” _par excellence_ is
Snæfellsjökull.
[155] The Icel. Stipti (Dan. Stift, and old Low Germ. Stigt) means a
bishopric or ecclesiastical bailiwick. Hence Uno Von Troil translates
Stiftamtmand by “bailiff of episcopal diocese,” and it gradually came
to mean a civil governor. Cleasby informs us (sub voce) that both name
and office are quite modern in Iceland.
[156] Further details concerning the governor-general will be found in
the Journal.
[157] The Sýsla (_pl._ Sýslur, and in compounds Sýslu) is derived from
Sýsl, “business”--að sýsla, “to be busy.” As a law term, it signifies
any stewardship held from the king or bishop; in a geographical sense,
it means a district, bailiwick, or prefecture. At present it answers to
the Thing of the Icelandic Commonwealth (Cleasby).
[158] Not to be confounded with the Sókn, or parish proper. Cleasby is
disposed to date the Rapes from the eleventh century, and he remarks
that the district round the bishop’s seat at Skálholt is called
“Hreppar,” showing that the house was the nucleus of the division.
[159] From pp. 703-909, the Skýrslur um Landshagi á Íslandi, vol. 4,
Möller, Copenhagen, 1870, a portly octavo of 934 pages. Mr Longman’s
list of the Sýslas (p. 34, Suggestions for the Exploration of Iceland)
was quite correct, except in point of orthography, but it is no longer
so.
[160] The Múla-Sýsla (“mull” county) was formerly divided into three
parts, the northern, the central, and the southern, each with its
Sýslumaðr. The present distribution dates from the year 1779.
[161] Hèrað (or Hierat) is the Scotch “heriot,” a tax paid to
feudal lord in lieu of military service. In Icelandic the Hèrað is
a geographical district generally, and is specially applied to the
river-basin of the Skagafjörð (Cleasby).
[162] The sheriff does _not_ attend parish meetings, he has no schools
to inspect, for there are none, in fact he has nothing to do with
education at all, that being the business of the parish priest under
the superintendence of the prófastr (dean) of the district.
[163] The name of this Icelandic code of laws, which must not be
confounded with the Grágás of Norway, is variously explained from the
grey binding or from being written with a grey goose-quill. It was
adopted in Iceland in A.D. 1118, and it contained a Lex de ejusmodi
mendicis (sturdy vagrants) impune castrandis. Some writers suppose that
the Icelandic Commonwealth had written laws but no code. After the union
with Norway the island received its first written code, the Iron-side,
Járn-Síða (A.D. 1262-1272), and this was exchanged in A.D. 1272 for the
Jónsbók, so termed from John the Lawyer who brought it from Norway. Uno
Von Troil (p. 73) removes the date of the latter to A.D. 1272.
[164] Mr Dasent, Introduction to Diet, (xlviii.), remarks that the jury
was never developed in Norway, and only struck faint root in the Danish
and Swedish laws. When asserting the jury to be purely Scandinavian,
the author speaks of Europe, neglecting the admirable Panchayat system
which arose in the village republics of Hindostan, and a multitude of
other similar institutions.
[165] Dillon notices forty-one women who had passed ninety: the
number has now greatly fallen off. There is a further decline from
the days of Olaus Magnus, who informs us that “the Icelanders, who,
instead of bread, have fish bruised with a stone, live three hundred
years.” The general longevity of Norway proves that the climates of
the north, the _vagina gentium_ of Jornandes, have nothing adverse to
human life. In Scotland the census of 1870 gave a total of twenty-six
centagenarians--nine men and seventeen women.
[166] Innuit (Eskimo), like Illinois (from Illeni), means simply “a
man”--a frequent tribal designation amongst savages. So Teuton and
Deutsch, with the numberless derivations, are derived from Goth. Thiud,
a people; Alemanni from “All-men,” and “German perhaps from Guerre-man”
(Farrar, Families of Speech).
[167] The discovery of Uriconium and of Roman remains throughout
England, and even in London, during the last few years, strongly
suggests that the beauty of the English race is derived from a far
greater intermixture of southern blood than was formerly suspected;
and the racial baptism, repeated by the invasion of the Normans,
must also have brought with it Gallo-Romans in considerable numbers.
We can hardly doubt that the handsome peasantry of south-western
Ireland is the produce of Spanish or Mediterranean innervation; and a
comparison with the country people of Orotava in Tenerife, where the
Irish have again mixed with the mingled Hispano-Guanche race, shows
certain remarkable points of family likeness. On the other hand,
except in certain parts of Great Britain, especially the Danelagh or
Scandinavianised coasts and the counties occupied by the Angli and
other Teutonic peoples, the English race remarkably differs from both
its purer congeners, the homely Scandinavians and Germans. The general
verdict of foreigners confirms its superior beauty, which, indeed, is
evident to the most superficial observer.
[168] It appears probable that the reverence paid to women by the
ancient Germans and Gauls arose from what Tacitus calls “some divine
and prophetic quality resident in their women;” from the superstitious
belief that the weaker sex was more subject to inspiration,
divination, second sight, and other abnormal favours of the gods. The
_Frauen-cultus_ of the present age, which in the United States has
become an absurdity, would be the relic and survival of this pagan
fancy.
[169] The author cannot say whether due care was taken when making
these observations. Amongst Englishmen, when the thermometer held in
the mouth exceeds 98°·5, there is suspicion of fever.
[170] Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio observed this fact among the paviours
and the wine-carters, who form almost a separate caste of the
Trans-Tiber population.
[171] Not always, as the common river-name Thvátt-á (wash or dip-water)
proves.
[172] These satirical songs are known to the Greenlanders, who thus
satisfy their malice, “preferring to revenge even than to prevent an
injury.” Yet, the Icelanders have a proverb, “Let him beware, lest his
tongue wind round his head.”
[173] Usually but erroneously translated “headlands,” instead of “head
of men.”
[174] The popular assertion, “nothing can be more natural than that
female chastity should be more prevalent in a northern than in a
southern climate,” is simply a false deduction from insufficient facts.
It is a subject far too extensive for a footnote; we may simply observe
that the Scandinavians have never been distinguished for continence,
nor are the northern more moral than the southern Slavs. In fact, the
principal factor of feminine “virtue” seems to be race not climate.
[175] “To go by the way of the rock” was the old pagan euphuism for
self-destruction; and the modern Hindú, as the Girnár Cliff shows,
preserves the practice of “Altestupor” and “Odin’s Hall.” Suicide is
now, like the duello, extinct, and the few cases recorded in late
history are looked upon as phenomena. We remark the same rarity of
self-destruction both in Scotland and Ireland, a wonderful contrast to
England, which, again, despite its ill-fame, shows favourably in this
matter by the side of France.
[176] The reader has only to remember how much of Britain was Danish
to understand the Snorra-Edda’s express statement about Icelanders
and Englishmen speaking the same tongue, “Vèr erum einnar tungu;”
and Bartolin (Antiquitates Danicæ), “Eademque lingua (Norwegica seu
Septentrionalis) usurpabatur per Saxonicum, Daniam, Sueciam, Norvegiam,
et partem Angliæ aliquam.”
[177] Their extensive travels gave them peculiar names for peoples and
places, which are often somewhat puzzling. “Thýskr,” a German, and
Gerzkr, a Russian, are easy; but Samverskt (a Samaritan) is not so
plain. Thus, also, we have “Enea” for Europe; “Hvítármannaland,” or
white man’s land, and “Irland et mikla,” Ireland the Great (the Irlanda
el Kabíreh of Edrisi in the twelfth century), for South America;
“Suðurálfa” (_i.e._, southern half), for Africa; “Great Sweden” for
Eastern Russia; “Svalbarði” (discovered 1194), for Scoresby’s Liverpool
Coast (?); “Bjarmaland” for Permia, the land beyond the North Cape;
“Sætt” for Sidon; “Njörfa-fjörð “for the Straits of “Gib;” Há-sterun
for Hastings; and “Katanes” (boat naze), for Caithness. Some names
are of ethnological value; for instance, “Bretland” for Wales; while
Vendill or Vandill, the northern part of Jutland, preserves the
name of the Vandals and the origin of Andalusia; and Garða-riki or
Garða-veldi, the empire of the Garðar or Castella, tells us how the
Russian empire was founded. So Suðr-menn (Germans) opposed to Northmen
(Norðmenn), preserves the tradition of original consanguinity. Others
are useless complications, as Engils-nes, the Morea, and Ægisif (Ἁγία
Σοφία). The travestied names of persons are sometimes interesting,
_e.g._, Elli-Sif (Scot. Elspeth) is Elizabeth, probably confounded
like Ægisif, with Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, who lives
in our gos-_sip_. Icelanders are not answerable for the mistake so
general amongst foreigners which makes Níðar-óss (Oyce or ostium of
the Nið River) an _alias_ of Throndhjem, of old Thrándheimr, when it
is the name of the ancient city occupying the position of the present
town. The “Antiquités de l’Orient” (par C. C. Rafn, Copenhagen, 1856)
well shows how Icelandic names were applied to the Byzantine empire,
_e.g._, Ἐσσουπῆ (_ei sofa_, not to sleep), given to the first bar of
the Dnieper; Οὐλξορσὶ (Hólm-fors or islet-force) to the second, and so
forth.
[178] “This assertion of travellers never had any foundation in fact,”
says Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín, yet it is quoted by Henderson, the least
imaginative, and, in such matters, the most trustworthy of men; and the
Icelandic proverb says, “One’s own home is the best home.”
[179] As every traveller, from Uno Von Troil downwards, has given a
plan and sketch of the Bær, the reader need not be troubled with them.
The group of buildings composing the actual homestead is invariably
built in a row: the front (Hús-bust) faces south, towards the sea or
the river, if in a valley, and the back is turned to the sheltering
mountain. The strip of flagged pavement along the front is called
“Stétt;” the open space before it, “Hlað;” the buildings are parted by
a lane (Sund); the approach is termed “Geilar” or “Tröð,” and the whole
is surrounded by the Húsa-garðr, a dry-stone dyke.
The Norse Skáli, or Hall of classical days, whose rude and barbarous
magnificence was the result of successful piracy tempered by traffic,
has clean vanished--there is not a trace of one upon the island. A
ground-plan, section, and elevation, are given in Mr Dasent’s “Burnt
Njal,” but it is hard to say how much of it came from the fertile
brain of the artist, Mr Sigurðr Guðmundsson. It was probably about
as “desirable” a “residence” as the old Welsh manor-house, with its
stagnant moat and its banks or walls of earth.
[180] The author well remembers that at Hyderabad, in Sind, only one
palace had the luxury of glass, when we first occupied the city.
[181] Sótt is applied to physical, Sút to mental, sickness.
[182] More will be said concerning the several varieties of oxalis,
which the people now seem to despise. Both wood-sorrel and meadow-sweet
(_Spiræa_) were used by the poor of Ireland to heal ulcers (Beddoes,
p. 47, on the Medical Use and Production of Factitious Airs), Uno Von
Troil (p. 108) gives a long list of the popular anti-scorbutics.
[183] Of course the first sibilant, the sign of possession, is not used
when the noun is otherwise declined. For instance, Jón Arason, often
written by foreigners Aræson, is the son of Are, whose oblique case
is Ara; yet there are popular exceptions, _e.g._, Bjarnarson (pron.
Bjatnarsonj, son of Björn, is vulgarly pronounced, and even written,
Björnsson.
[184] Thus the islanders preserve the memory of a “beautiful
fiend,” one amongst many, who, after a very human fashion, began
life as a coquette, and ended it as a _dévote_, being the first to
learn psalm-singing, and to take the veil in the new convent. This
hyperborean Ninon de L’Enclos deserves forgiveness for one of the
cleverest sayings uttered by woman--a revelation of its kind. When
asked which of her half-a-dozen lovers and husbands she preferred,
her wise and witty answer was, “Theim var ek verst, er ek unnti
mest”--“Whom I treated worst, him I loved most;” alluding to Kjartan
Olafsson, murdered by her behest. In old days, Gudrún and John answered
to the “M. or N.” of our Catechism, and to “those famous fictions of
English law, John Doe and Richard Roe.”
[185] This is probably a relic of early ages, when “Maria” was a name
too much revered for general use.
[186] Yet the Polygamia Triumphatrix (Liseri) of Lund,
A.D. 1682, was publicly burned at Stockholm.
[187] We may add, Paris, 23; Berlin, 25; Panama, 26; Bombay, 27; New
York, 28; Glasgow, 34; Madras, 35; Vienna, 36; and Rome the same, if
not more.
[188] Thus Skyr is a congener of the Persian “Shír” and of the Slav
Sir (cheese). The first stage is the “run-milk,” the second is the
“hung-milk” (because suspended in a bag) of the Shetland Islands.
Everywhere it is differently turned; by sour whey in Iceland,
by buttermilk in Scotland, and by rennet and various plants in
Asia and Africa. No milk-drinking nation drinks, as a rule, fresh
milk. The Icelanders want the manifold preparations known to the
Scoto-Scandinavian islands.
[189] Dr (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland introduced, or rather first
brought, the vaccine virus.
[190] From Lík, Germ. Leiche, Eng. Lych, as in lych-gate, and Thrá, a
throe or pang. Hold is flesh.
[191] This, like other forms of gout, certainly depends much upon the
popular beverage. In England we find it amongst the beer-drinking
poorer classes: Padua, the author was informed by the celebrated Dr
Pinalli, does not produce a single case even to lecture upon.
[192] Thýðverjaland, or Thjóðverjaland, is Teuton-land, Germany, the
adjectival forms being Thýðverskr, Thýzkr, and Thýeskr. Icelandic here
has evidently borrowed from the Gothic Thjuth, the German Diutisc
(Diutisch or Tiusch), the low Latin Theotiscus, and the modern Teutsch
or Deutsch, through traders in the eleventh or twelfth century
(Cleasby). But Rafn (Antiquités de l’Orient, p. xlix.) quotes the Roman
de Rou of Robert Wace:
“Cosne sont en thioiz et en normant parler,”
to show that the two terms were applied to a single tongue. From the
old root come the Italian Tedesco and the English “Dutch,” which the
vulgar in the United States still persistently apply to Germans.
Schöning (p. 310, Copenhagen, 1777) and Laing (Heimskringla, iii. 349)
confused Thýzkr with “Turkish!”
[193] For a full account of the ancient dietary as prescribed by law in
1789, see Baring-Gould, p. 29. The items are meat and peas; sausages
cold and warm; meat, broth, and soup; haddock and flounder; stock
fish and butter (“the staff of life”); skyr (not curd) and cold milk;
meal-grout, buckwheat-porridge, and barley-water grout with milk and
butter.
[194] Ölmusa or Almusa is the Greek Ἐλεημοσύνη, the German Almosen, and
the English Alms (Cleasby).
[195] He died November 2, 1872.
[196] The author is aware that a student who reads Greek and Latin,
Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French, German, and English, will find
almost all the Talmud, certainly all the valuable parts, in translation
at the library of the British Museum. But, unhappily, British Museums
do not exist everywhere. Till the constitutional days of Italy the five
Jewish Synagogues at Rome were not allowed to own copies of this vast
repertory of Hebrew lore.
[197] If English, as appears likely, is to become the cosmopolitan
language of commerce, it will have to borrow from Chinese as much
monosyllable and as little inflection as possible. The Japanese have
already commenced the systematic process of “pidgeoning,” which for
centuries has been used on the West African Coast, in Jamaica, and, in
fact, throughout tropical England, Hindostan alone excepted.
[198] The dialects vary so much that we can hardly speak of modern
Greek. The only approach to it is the bastard, half-classical jargon,
almost confined to the professors and the λογιώτατοι of the capital and
chief towns. Worse still, all the Romaic grammars and dictionaries are
devoted to teaching a tongue which no illiterate person speaks, ever
spoke, or ever, it is to be hoped, will speak. Except by actual travel
it is hardly possible to learn the charmingly _naïve_ dialects of the
peasantry.
[199] The two cathedrals of Catholic days were burnt: their successors
were humble buildings; that of Skálholt was a wooden barn; the building
at Hólar was, like the Viðey church, of stone, a rare thing outside
Reykjavik.
[200] Bishop Pètursson (299-305) supplies a “Specification” of all the
priesthoods and their revenues in the island.
[201] Gullbringu is the Sýsla which contains Reykjavik; but the
cathedral town is, of course, under a separate jurisdiction.
[202] Bóndi (of old, Búandi and Bóandi), _plur._ Buéndr or Bóendr
(Germ. Bauer, Eng. Hus-band) included all the owners of landed property
and householders (Bú), from the petty freeholder to the franklin,
especially the class represented by our yeomen and the “statesmen”
of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is still opposed in Iceland to
the “klerkar” (clergy), to the knights, to the barons (Hersir-or
Lendir-menn), and to the royal officers (hirð). In more despotic Norway
and Denmark, “bóndi” became a word of contempt for the lower classes;
and in modern Danish, Bönder means plebs, a boor. Bú, from að búa, to
build, to inhabit, is the household and stores, opposed to Bær, the
house (Cleasby).
[203] In 1873, no less than 4385 “livings” in the Church of England
were under £200 per annum: of these, 1211 were under £100; 1596 ranged
between £100 and £150; and 1578 from £150 to £200. Measures have lately
been taken to abate this scandal, which pays less for the “cure of
souls” than for the care of stables.
[204] The traveller cannot but think that our scientific political
economists are apt, in outlying countries, to neglect the first rule
of taxation, namely, to avoid imposing novelties, and to levy imposts
with which the people are accustomed. Thus India willingly contributes
salt and capitation taxes, and especially Nazaránah, or legacy duties,
whilst she hates the name of income-tax. No one will deny that the two
former are objectionable for a host of reasons, but the question is,
whether they are less injurious than those which lead to the many evils
engendered by chronic discontent.
[205] The system of hundreds will be discussed when treating of
taxation. Suffice it here to say that in modern Iceland, as in England
of former times, the value of land tenure was estimated not by extent,
but by produce. Indeed, superficial land-measures, such as the “mark”
of the Færoes (=32,500 square English feet), are unknown to the island.
[206] It should be remembered that “Heimili” (households, families)
are quite different from “Jarðir” (farms); and the two must not be
confounded. The number of the former is 9306, of the latter 4357.
[207] In 1872 contested elections were almost unknown; at least only
one was quoted, and the candidate had learned the practice in England.
The position of Al-thíngis-maðr was also an object of scanty ambition
except to those who required the small salary, or who had a political
theory to work out. The assertion in the text is denied by Icelanders;
but the author repeatedly heard it made by Danes and other foreigners
settled in the island--at any rate, we may expect to see it realised
by the new constitution. Knowledge is power in Iceland as elsewhere,
and the numbers of the priesthood secure their influence, whilst the
physicians and lawyers are too few to be of much account.
[208] The English Midwife means “with-wife,” from the Icel. “Með,” the
German Mit.
[209] So Styria and Istria boast of a “Kohl-fuchs,” so termed from his
coal-black waistcoat.
[210] May not the idea have arisen from a confusion of “Tó,” a
grass-tuft, with “Tóa,” or “Tófa,” a tod? The older name, Mel-rakki, is
derived from burrowing in the sand.
[211] Uno Von Troil (p. 140) also mentions wild cats (Urðar-kettir,
cats-o’-stone-heap) and rats.
[212] The Irish “town-land,” _i.e._, yard and meadow; Scotch “toun;”
Cornish “town;” Dutch. “tuyn,” a garden; and Germ. “tzaun.”
[213] This bird (_Charadrius pluvialis_, Icel. Hey-ló and Hey-lóa, the
fem. Hey-láa commonly used, the hay-sandpiper), “quite the commonest
in Iceland” (Baring-Gould, p. 411)--the snow-bunting being perhaps the
commonest of the small birds--is black breasted in the breeding season,
and afterwards becomes “golden.”
[214] Gaukr (mod. gickr) is a congener of the A. Sax. Gaec; the Irish
Cuach (hence Mo-chuachin, “my little cuckoo!”); the Scotch Gowk; the
German Gauch; the Danish Gick, and the Slav. Keuk or Kukavitsa: the
Serbian legend makes it a sister calling upon a lost brother. The Index
Vocum, etc. (Landnámabók, p. 486), explains it Cuculus.
[215] This is a lineal descendant from the ancient and venerable root
which named the Aryan race, Ἄριοι, _i.e._, ploughers not pastors, and
which produced Ar-atron, Ar-atrum; Bohemian, Or-adlo; Lithuanian,
Ar-klas; Cornish, Ar-adar, and Welsh, Ar-ad, and which survives in our
word to “ear.” The Arðr of the Sagas was probably heavier and bulkier
than the Plógr, a late word of foreign stamp, which “our American
cousins” will degrade to “plow.”
[216] This word, Melr (_plur._ Melar), wild oats or bent, also
Mel-gras (whence Mel-rakki, the fox), must be distinguished from
what the Dictionary, erroneously I think, makes its secondary sense,
a sand-hill, dune, dene or link, overgrown with such grass, and a
sandbank generally, even when bare. The question is, was the oat called
from its sand-bed or _vice versâ_? For a description of this feature,
see Chapter IX.
[217] Etymologically, Reynir is applied to a cousin, the rowan tree,
or mountain ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_), especially sacred to Thor. Hence
the Vikings were called ash-men, because they sat under the sacred ash,
which defended them from the evil eye.
[218] Hooker (ii. 325) found a true rose, the _Rosa hibernica_, growing
in the Seljaland, but only there. Thus it is not wholly wanting, as in
the southern hemisphere.
[219] Further notices will occur in the Journal (Chap. V.) about this
Surtar-brand (not “Surtur-brand”). Etymologically, it is from Surtr
(a congener of “swarthy”) “the Black,” a fire-giant, who, coming from
the south, will destroy the Odin-world, and Brandr, a firebrand. After
the change of faith, this northern Ahriman or Set (Typhon) was ready
to hand, and at once became the Semitico-Scandinavian “Devil.” Upon
the same principle, the latter is known in Scotland as “Auld Sootie,”
since the classical gamins gave horns and tail to Pluto, and the face
of the great god Pan was blackened by the monks. The Surtshellir tunnel
in western Iceland, famed for the atrocious “Cave-men” (outlaws), is
also derived from the Surtr of Scandinavian mythology. The author did
not visit it, but the descriptions and illustrations suggested the Umm
Nírán in the lava formations of the Safá, near Damascus, noticed in
“Unexplored Syria.”
[220] In Switzerland, also, the minimum of snow coincides with the last
of July and early August.
[221] The indigenous Poas number twelve, and the Festucæ three
[222] Óðal is a congener of the German Edel and Adel, noble, as
the “chiefs” of Scandinavian and Teutonic communities were the
land-holders. Hence the mid. Lat. Allodium; and (Cleasby) “feudal” is
fee-odal, odal held as a fee (Germ. _vieh_; Dutch, _vee_; pecunia,
capitale) from the king: Dr Sullivan prefers _Feodum_, from Fuidhir,
fugitives. Popularly, Udal, Allodium, prædium hereditarium, is opposed
to feudal.
[223] The Icelandic Umboð are our Umboth-lands, formerly belonging to
the bishop, and afterwards transferred to the Crown. Etymologically,
the word means a charge or stewardship.
[224] See Section VI.
[225] The author’s statement made in the _Standard_ found objectors.
Hr E. Magnússon impudently contradicted what he termed a _contradictio
in adjecto_, apparently ignorant of the simple truth that neither
logic nor Latin can affect facts and figures. It is amply confirmed by
the Consular Report of 1870-71: “The stocks of domestic animals have
shown a steady tendency to decrease, especially as regards the sheep
flocks, which at times have been cruelly decimated by scab epidemics;
the occasional failure of the grass crops exercises also a destructive
influence on their herds and flocks generally, as they have no means
at hand of substituting other fodder for the excellent wild pastures
with which in ordinary years Nature supplies them so bounteously. These
occasional epidemics and grass failures are bewailed by the Icelander
as national calamities; but it is a question whether they may not prove
to be the reverse, by opening his eyes to the necessity of devoting his
energies and small capital to the better and more regular prosecution
of the fisheries, which are boundless in extent, and less dependent on
vicissitudes and seasons.”
[226] “Perhaps,” says Peirce (p. 29), “this is why the official
statistics, with a sort of grim humour, number the ‘horned cattle’
at 23,713, while other authorities say there are 40,000 ‘cattle.’”
He also quotes Dillon (p. 291) about four-horned and six-horned
sheep--“quadricorns” are exceptional in Iceland as in most countries.
[227] More exactly the average yield of a one-year old is 1¼ lb.; of a
two-year, 2½ lbs.; and of a three-year old, 3 lbs.
[228] Valued at a total of £2468, or about £5, 5s. a head. The prices
will be considered in the course of the Journal.
[229] The steamer “Queen” in 1872 embarked 1030 head and the “Yarrow”
1414; these figures are given from the _Scotsman_. In 1873 the price
had risen to £10 to £14, and the hire was a Danish dollar a day; thus
the peasant was deprived of transport for himself and his goods.
[230] This is not the case with Norway, situated in the latitude of
Iceland and Greenland, as the old rhyme shows:
“Sidst i Torri og först i Gio,
Skal Sild og Hval være i Sio.”
“At the last of Torri (first moon after Christmas) and first of Gio
(the second moon),
The sillock (herring, _Clupea harengus_) and whale in the sea will show.”
Yet in Coxe’s time (late eighteenth century) the herring had
disappeared from the shore, being found only in deep water; and Fortia
(Travels in Sweden) tells us, that firing of guns was not allowed for
fear of frightening the fickle fish.
[231] Concerning the fresh-water fishes, details will be found in the
Journal.
[232] R. J. Walker, quoted by Peirce. Dr Carpenter and Professor
Wyville Thomson, in the “Lightning,” made the remarkable discovery that
sea-water at different depths, is of different temperatures--the older
theory being that the sea was of a uniform temperature of 39° (F.).
[233] In intertropical and temperate latitudes _Phocæ_ and _Manatis_
devour the fetid marine vegetation which collects on river bars, chokes
the mouths, and causes “Yellow Jack” to prevail from Florida to Rio de
Janeiro.
[234] Of course the “finny brood” is not without its folk-lore. There
is a variety of “troll-fish” which, being ominous and unlucky, are
thrown overboard by their captors. The same takes place farther south,
as we learn from Lucas Dobes (Færoe Reseratar, Copenhagen, 1673).
[235] “Gullbringusýsla (literally, Goldbreast county) derives its name
from some hills called Gullbringur (Goldbreasts), about twelve English
miles distant from Reykjavik. They were so called because tradition
says that the old Viking Egill Skallagrímsson there buried the treasure
given him by King Athelstan for his assistance at the battle of
Brunenburgh” (Jón A. Hjaltalín). This derivation is far more probable
than the popular version given in the text: for a third interpretation
see the Journal, chap. ii.
[236] The three species on the west coast of Scotland are:
1. The Rawn, or Common Seal (_Phoca vitulina_), from five to six
feet long; coat, tawny-white, spotted brownish-black on back and
sides, with darker haslets and dusky-grey belly. The skin is of
short bristly hair, but no fur.
2. The Tapraist, or Grey Seal (_Halichærus griseus_), somewhat
larger than the former; the muzzle is black, and the coat dirty
brown, looking silver-grey only when the sun strikes the recurved
hair.
3. The Bodach, or Old Man (Halket, _Halichcærus_?), somewhat
smaller than No. 1, and very easily tamed.
[237] Forelle is German and Danish; the general Icelandic name of trout
is Silungr, but, as might be expected, the nomenclature is rich. Hooker
notices this char (i. 97). The “suburtingur” of Baring-Gould (Appendix,
423), a fresh-water fish with pink-coloured flesh and sometimes
weighing twenty pounds, does not appear in the Dictionary.
[238] A description and plate are found in Ólafsson.
[239] The word Vaðmál (pron. _Vathmowl_) is derived from Váð, Vóð,
or Voð, stuff, cloth, weeds (_e.g._, widows’ “weeds”); and Mál, a
measure--“stuff-measure,” because it was the standard of all value and
payment before a coinage came into use (Cleasby). The form “Wadmal”
will here be preserved, although England prefers “Wadmill,” _e.g._, in
“Wadmill-till” for waggons.
[240] The following is the translation of the “Advertisement to
mariners who enter the harbour of Reykjavik:”
“In pursuance of the laws, and under the punishment fixed by law, the
following rules are to be attended to by the masters and crews of
vessels that touch at the port of Reykjavik.
“1. As suspected, with regard to health, are considered all vessels
(_a_) coming from countries or places where pestilential or epidemic
diseases are found; (_b_) having merchandises on board, which are
brought from such countries or places, or there packed up; (_c_) having
had during the voyage, or having at the arrival, any sick person on
board, whose disease can be considered as ill-natured or contagious;
(_d_) having had, on the sea or near the land, communication with any
vessel from suspected or infected places. Such vessels are bound, at
the arrival to the harbour, to hoist a green flag, or, in default of
such a one, their national flag on the main-top, with which they remain
lying, until further order is given.
“As to other vessels, against whom there is no reason for suspicion
of this kind, the masters thereof are peremptorily enjoined to land
first at the bridge of Quarantine (distinguished by a green flag), to
be submitted to the legal examination of the state of health of their
crew, and to produce their bill of health, if they have any. Before
this is done, nobody from the vessel is permitted to go on shore. The
landing can take place from 8 o’clock A.M. to 8 o’clock
P.M.
“2. It is the duty of the master, when arrived on shore, instantly
to present himself in the Police Office for showing there his ship’s
documents and clearances. Loading or unloading is not permitted before
this is performed, and Icelandic maritime pass redeemed. Commerce on
board with the inhabitants (‘speculant-trade’) is not permitted, except
after a previous information thereof to the Policemaster.
“3. When any of the crew commits disorders on shore, it will be
examined how far the master himself can be considered as responsible
for such offences committed by his crew, especially when he has
permitted them to remain on shore till late in the evening or night.
“4. In order that the breeding of the Eider ducks in the islands in
the neighbourhood of the harbour (Viðey, Engey, etc.) shall not be
disturbed, no firing of cannons, except in cases of distress, or as to
men-of-war, in what the service exacts, is permitted within half-a-mile
Danish (about two and a half miles English), or of guns within a
quarter of a mile Danish (one and a quarter English) from the said
islands. Nor is it permitted to go on shore on the uninhabited islands
surrounding of near the harbour (Effersey, Akurey), without a special
permission from the owner; hunting or disturbances of the breeding
of the birds in these places are, accordingly to the laws concerned,
punished with peculiar severity.
“5. It is prohibited to take ballast on the ground or beach belonging
to the town, except in places pointed out by the Policemaster. Throwing
overboard of the ballast may not at all take place on the harbour, and
not in other places than such as will be pointed out by the police.
“6. Water to the use of mariners may only be taken in places pointed
out by the police. As water money every vessel of the burthen of above
forty tons pays for each voyage one rixdollar Danish; of less burthen,
half a rixdollar.
“Given in the Police Office of Reykjavik, July 4, 1870,
(Signed) A. THORSTEINSON.
“N.B.--This advertisement, which is delivered by the pilot, and from
the Police Office, is made for the use of sailors. Wanting notion of it
does not exempt from liability to punishment for offences, mentioned or
not mentioned here, that are committed by mariners.”
[241] The “Napoleon book” (p. 364), gives a sketch of a “mine de
criolithe:” one of the veins embedded in granite is eighty feet
thick. Mr Walker (Peirce’s Report, p. 3) is mistaken in asserting
that cryolite is found only in Greenland, but doubtless the largest
known supplies are there, the development being due in great part to
American (U.S.) enterprise. The natives used it only in the pulverised
state--like quartz--to “lengthen out” their snuff; and similarly the
“Red Indians” of the Brazil utilised their diamonds as counters. This
double fluoride of sodium and aluminium, popularly called natural
soda, is a mineral of ever increasing value; it is employed in the
manufacture of soda and soda-salts, hydrofluoric acid, fine glass, and
earthenware almost infrangible; the residue makes a flux (“Steven’s
flux,” etc.) capital for the treatment of difficult metallic ores.
Perhaps the chief use is in the manufacture of aluminium and its
alloys, a noble metal which can be carried to white heat before it
oxidises, and whose brilliancy is unaltered by sulphuretted hydrogen,
water, acids, salts, and organic matter. The price till lately was
about one-third that of silver, but increased cheapness has extended
the use, especially in coinage and jewellery. Tenacious as silver,
sonorous, easily melted and moulded, about as hard as soft iron, and
one-third the weight of zinc; it is valuable for watch-cases, mirrors,
spectacle-frames, opera and field glasses, hand-bells, pendulum-rods,
small weights and balances, chemical apparatus, instruments of
precision, and articles where lightness is required. It has also been
converted into dinner services and cooking apparatus, in which, unlike
tin and copper, it is absolutely harmless. The common form is _bronze
d’aluminium_, with one of that metal to ten parts of copper; the
tenacity of the alloy is about that of steel.
[242] This again is the popular assertion which has been strongly
opposed by Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín (see note at end of Section III.). The
reader, however, will observe that the patriotic Icelander confesses to
the figures in the text, as matters now stand.
[243] The political sense of 120 franklins, several of which composed
the English shire, is unknown to Iceland.
[244] The “Sharker,” moreover, pays a variable sum (say 24 skillings)
per barrel of oil as an hospital tax, and this is now appropriated to
the district physician.
[245] Compare the German Schatze and our Scot in Scot-free, Scot and
Shot; Róma-skattr would be Peter’s Pence.
[246] The Icelandic word is Fógeti (low Lat. Vocatus, Germ. Vogtie, a
bailiwick, hence “Landvogt” Gessler), which dates from the fourteenth
century (Cleasby). It corresponds with the Fowd and Grand Fowd, chief
magistrate of the Scoto-Scandinavian islands.
[247] In these pages “$” always refers to the rixdollar, which, like
the Brazilian milreis, is half the milreis of Portugal or the dollar of
the United States.
[248] In the plur. Aurar is supposed to be corrupted from Aurum, as the
coins first known to Scandinavia were Roman and Byzantine, Saxon and
English. It was applied to coinage opposed to baugr, gold or silver
rings. Hence the phrase “Aurar ok óðal,” money and land. Ær or Ör was
probably the name of a small coin; so the modern Swedish Öre is a coin
worth less than a farthing, and the Norsk Ort (contracted from Örttog,
Örtug, Ærtog, or Ertog) is the fifth part of a specie dollar (Cleasby).
Upon the ancient money of Iceland the reader will consult Dr Dasent’s
Burnt Njal, ii. 397.
[249] In 1872 it was not a legal tender.
[250] The German Loth and the corrupted Italian Lotto.
[251] Uno Von Troil (1770) makes the Lispund = 20 lbs. English, and
adds the Vaett = 5 Lispunds, and the Kapal 12 to 15 Lispunds. Both
Lispund and Bismer are now falling out of use in Iceland, where only
the Danish pound is preserved. She should follow the example of
Austria, and introduce the metrical system.
[252] The Danish mile is the long league; 15 being = 1° of latitude.
[253] Formerly there were only four--viz., Nos. 1, 3, 5, and
6--established by law of April 15, 1854, regulating the trade and
navigation with Iceland.
[254] The following Danised names of the thirty-one privileged
factories and trading places are given by Mr Vice-Consul Crowe (Report,
1865-66):
SOUTH QUADRANT.
1. Reykjavik (capital).
2. Havnefjord.
3. Keflavik.
4. Örebakke.
5. Vestmanns Islands.
6. Papö.
7. Landhussund.
NORTH QUADRANT.
8. Oefjord (called “a town”).
9. Skagerstrand.
10. Hofsós.
11. Seydafjord.
12. Husavik.
13. Ramforhavn.
14. Thorshavn.
15. Sandarok.
EAST QUADRANT.
16. Vapnafjord.
17. Seydisfjord.
18. Eskifjord.
19. Berufjord.
WEST QUADRANT.
20. Isafjord (called “a town”).
21. Stykkisholm.
22. Olafsvik.
23. Bûdenstad.
24. Bildal.
25. Dyrefjord.
26. Patriksfjord.
27. Flatey (island).
28. Reykjafjord.
29. Bordöre.
30. Straûmfjord.
31. Skeljavik.
[255] This gentleman is most obliging in giving all information about
the steamer. No passport is required for Iceland.
[256] Upon these remarks Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín observes, “The case
referred to is as follows: The Scotchman’s claim may have been good in
point of Scotch law, but it was not in point of Icelandic law. That is
the reason why the Procurators would not undertake it. He has therefore
to blame the law, not the men. I know, as a fact, that both the
Procurators of Reykjavik have conducted cases for foreigners, _e.g._,
Messrs Henderson & Anderson against Icelanders. It would have been more
questionable practice, although perhaps more lawyer-like, if they had
induced the plaintiff to go on with the case, although they were sure
that he would lose it. Foreigners often think they are wronged if a
case, which is clear according to their own laws, breaks down according
to foreign laws: Icelanders have gone through that experience in
Scotland.”
[257] 1: Naturalisation is wisely made easy in Iceland. The foreigner
swears allegiance, pays $2, and straightway becomes a citizen.
[258] In the secluded parts of the island fish and butter still form a
currency of exceedingly variable value.
[259] No Cayenne is procurable, and those who ask for it will probably
be served with curry powder in bottles, that do not suffice for a
single dish, but cost one shilling.
[260] Coffee did not come into general use before the end of the
eighteenth century; tea and tobacco are mentioned in the satirical
poem, “Thagnarmál,” 1728, by Eggert Ólafsson, who died in 1768
(Cleasby).
[261] The Consular Report says, “1 lb. per annum for every man, woman,
and child.”
[262] The Report has it that the duty of eight skillings per pot or
quart has been laid upon ale, wine, and spirituous liquors, when
imported in casks or hogsheads, and a duty of equal amount per one and
a half pint, when imported in bottles, jars, or kegs.
[263] Iceland home-made butter is poor, white, full of hairs, and made
in a way peculiarly unclean. It is mostly of ewes’ milk, that of the
cow not sufficing. Travellers of course prefer the imported, but it is
not always to be had at the shops. The favourite native form is “sour
butter,” which, like the Ghi of Hindostan, lasts twenty years, though
if salted it becomes rancid: it takes the place of salt and seasoning;
it is considered to assist digestion, and it “diffuses an agreeable
warmth over the stomach.” The climate demands such carbon-producing
food, and “Fat have I never refused!” is a saying with the islanders.
[264] Flat fish, not being flat, is a misnomer for the sun-dried
preparation which is unknown abroad, and unfit for European markets.
[265] This salt fish on the eastern coast is chiefly for home use, the
catch being too late for curing, and dry weather being mostly wanting
at that season.
[266] Only two pelts were sent in 1872.
[267] The merchant weighs the carcase when cold, melts the tallow, and
pays a price varying according to the market, from fourteen skillings
to a mark. The people have a strange idea that sheep falling into snow
crevasses, and found a year or two afterwards, are naturally salted--a
curious appendage to the “freezing upwards” theory.
[268] The other imports not accounted for are alum, drugs, ashes, ink,
brushmakers’ work, cocoa, chocolate, ale in bottle and in cask (the
latter, 11,776 lbs. in 1865), wine in bottle and cask (the latter,
23,137 lbs.), vinegar, essences, catechu and galls, indigo, dyestuffs
and varnish, playing-cards, “galanterie wares,” glass ware, resin and
gums, caps, stone china, pork and hams (2,480 lbs.), meat (2,279 lbs.),
cork, buckwheat meal (880 lbs.), oatmeal (319 lbs.), spices (1,016
lbs.), coals (157 tons), cotton goods (62,484 lbs.), silk (11 lbs.),
woollen goods (686 lbs.), block metal (786 lbs.), bar and hoop iron
(63,486 lbs.), nails (23,441 lbs.), iron chain (404 lbs.), iron wares
(33,770 lbs.), zinc in plates, hardware sundries (6,981 lbs.), cheese
(1,736 lbs.), paper (6,210 lbs.), soap (12,225 lbs.), sago, etc. (811
lbs.), saltpetre (297 lbs.), prepared hides, and skins (4,508 lbs.),
acids (309 lbs.), tea (918 lbs.), ropemakers’ work (22,770 lbs.), wood
goods (14,294 cubic feet), worked woods (42,993 lbs.), vitriol (4,519
lbs.), and bar steel (1,441 lbs.).
[269] Here and there an eagle skin may be bought; and in country parts
the quills of the royal bird are used as pens. The only species is the
white-tailed Haliaetus (_H. albicilla_ or _F. leucocephalus_).
[270] Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín observes: “If by ‘home’ is meant the place
where the songs were first made, this is undoubtedly correct, according
to accepted theories; but then Norway would not then be their home any
more than Iceland. On the other hand, it is indisputable that their
last and only home was in Iceland, when they were nowhere else to be
found. The allusions in the songs give no clue to their birthplace.
You may find an Icelander of the present day singing of lions and
elephants. And if they can do so now, why not in former times also?”
The author would remark that the Elder Edda has evidently been
preserved by memory from earlier ages, and that its origin must have
been in Continental Scandinavia. It is rather the spirit of the poetry
than the scattered allusions which suggests that much of it was not
addressed to islanders. A comparison of the Völuspá with any Icelandic
composition will explain what is here meant; and Mr Benjamin Thorpe
seems to have been struck by the same idea.
[271] We find an Ulf’s-vatn in Iceland, but probably the name was given
in memory of the old home, or as Úlfr was a proper name like Vuk in
Slav, the first settler may have so christened it.
[272] Skáldr (Germ. Schalte) means a pole; and inasmuch as the
Scald-pole (Skáld-stöng or Níð-stöng) was scored with charms and
imprecations--as Martin Capella (fifth century) writes:
“Barbara fraxineis sculpatur runa tabellis;”--
so “pole” came to signify a libel. Hence Skáld may be akin to the
Germ. Schelten, and the familiar English “Scold.” Afterwards it took
the meaning of poetry in a good sense, and Skáldskapr (Skaldship) was
applied to the form of verse, metre, flow, and diction (Cleasby). It
is hardly necessary to observe that the word is of disputed origin,
the five general derivations being Skalla (depilare), Skiael (wisdom =
our “skill”), Skjall (narratic), Skal (sources), and Gala (to sing).
“Hirðskáld” corresponds with our poet-laureate.
[273] Von Hammer counts 5744 Arabic terms for a camel.
[274] The total is 3060, but this would include the classics who have
treated of Istria.
[275] Mr Lidderdale of the British Museum has lately catalogued its
Icelandic books, and by another list of all those printed, shows what
is wanted to perfect the national collection. The latter possesses some
rare volumes which are not in the National Library of Copenhagen.
[276] The most noted of the old writers are the following: Arngrímr
Jónsson published a variety of books on local subjects, Brevis
Commentarius (1592), Anatome Blefkeniana (1612), Epistola Defensoria
(1618), Apotribe Calumniæ (1622), Chrymogæa (1609-1630), Specimen
Islandiæ (1643). In 1607 appeared the “Islandia, etc.” of Difmar
Blefkens (Blefkenius). The author lived a year at “Haffnefiordt,” and
then passed on to Greenland. He greatly scandalised the islanders by
making them purify their skins and strengthen their gums like the
Celtiberi of Strabo and Catullus, and the coquettes of rural France.
In 1608, Ionr Boty printed his “Treatise of the Course from Iceland to
Greenland” (Purchas, iii. 520). In 1644, La Peyrère wrote an “Account
of Iceland” (Churchill, ii. 432), from which an extract has been made.
In 1746, John Andersson, afterwards Burgomaster of Hamburgh, there
published his “Nachrichten von Island,” which was translated into
Danish and French. His statements were contradicted in 1750 by the Dane
Niels Horrebow, “Tilforladeliga Efterretningar om Island med ett nytt
Landkort, og 2 Aars Meteorologiska Observationer,” also translated into
German and English.
The marking book of the last century was the “Introduction à l’Histoire
de Dannemark,” par M. Mallet, à Copenh. 1755, 2 vols. 4to. It was
reproduced in English and German. This pioneer of northern literature
was born at Geneva, became French Professor at Copenhagen (1752),
travelled in Norway and Sweden (1755), returned home and died (1762).
The work is obsolete, but Mallet’s “Northern Antiquities,” edited by
Bishop Percy, and supplemented by Mr I. A. Blackwell, would form a
valuable item of Bohn’s Library (London, 1859), were it provided with
a decent index, and purged of the blemishes which now dishonour it.
Imagine the effect of such a note as this (p. 42): “The Himalaya, or
Heavenly mountains; the Sanskrit, himala, corresponding to the M.
Gothic himins; Alem. himil.... Engl., heaven.”
In 1766-67, M. de Kerguelen Tremarec voyaged over the North Sea, and
published in 1772 his “Relation d’un Voyage dans la Mer du Nord.” In
1772, Uno Von Troil accompanied Sir J. Banks to Iceland, and wrote a
most valuable series of twenty-five letters. They have been reproduced
in many collections: the edition always referred to in these pages
is the 4to of Robson, London, 1780, kindly given to the author by Mr
Bernhard Quaritch. Another important book is that of Eggert Olafsson
and Biarní Pállsson (usually Danised to Olafsen and Povelsen), “Reise
igienem Island, with Zoega’s Botanical Observations,” 2 vols., Soroe,
1772, 4to; it was translated into German and into French, and a
compendium of it, given in English, was largely quoted by Henderson.
In 1772, Bishop Finn Jónsson (Finnus Johannæus), the learned author
of the “Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ (vols. 3, Hafn., now very
rare), treated of the “depopulation of Iceland by cold, volcanic
eruptions, and famine.” Guðbrandus Thorlacius, Bishop of Hólar, also
wrote a “Letter concerning the Ancient State of the Island.” In 1789,
Mr (afterwards Sir) John Stanley addressed two “Letters” to Dr Black,
which were printed in the “Transactions of the Koyal Society of
Edinburgh.”
The various collections of “Voyages and Travels” contain many
interesting notices of Iceland. The “Scoprimento dell’ Isole Frislanda,
Eslanda, Engroenlanda, Estotilanda, and Icarea, fatto per due fratelli,
M. Nicolò il Caualiere et M. Antonio, Libro Vno, col disegno di dette
Isole,” appears in Ramusio, vol. ii.; in Purchas, iii.; and in Hakluyt,
iii. Hakluyt, i., gives “King Arthur’s Voyage to Iceland” (A.D. 517),
and King Malgo’s conquest (A.D. 580), by “Galfridus Monumentensis.” Also
“A Briefe Commentary of the True State of Island” (or Iseland, both used
indiscriminately), by Jonas Arngrim. Volume iii. reprints “A Voyage of
the ships ‘Sunshine’ and ‘North Starre’ (of the fleet of Mr John Davis),
to discover a Passage between Groenland and Iseland” (A.D. 1586). J.
Harris (Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca; or, a Compleat
Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1705 and 1748), in book ii., chap.
ii., sec. 30, p. 489, et seq. (edition 1748), offers “A Voyage to the
North, containing an Account of the Sea Coasts and Rivers of Norway ...
and Iceland, etc.” (circa 1605), “extracted from the Journal of a
Gentleman employed by the North Sea Company at Copenhagen.” “A
Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels,” published by
Sir R. Phillips (London, 1805), reprints (vol. ii.) “Travels in Iceland,
performed by order of His Danish Majesty, etc., by Messrs Olafsen and
Povelsen” (the Olafsson and Pállsson before alluded to), translated from
the Danish, map and four plates. Kerr (“A General History and Collection
of Voyages and Travels, etc.,” 1811-24) has a chapter (vol. i., sec. I,
p. 4, et seq.) on the Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the
ninth century about A.D. 861. J. Laharpe (vol. xvi.) quotes Horrebow
(1750), Anderson (1746), Jonas Arngrim, and “Flocco, a Norwegian
pirate.” The “Allgemeine Historie der Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande,”
etc., Leipzig, 1769 (pp. 1-63, map and plate), contains “Besondere
Geschichte von Island.”
[277] In 1837 appeared the first southern attempt at a novel upon
hyperborean subjects--“Han d’Islande,” which Jules Janin (Les
Catacombes, i. 102) described as “Cette vive, passionée et grossière
ébauche d’un homme qui avait Notre Dame de Paris dans la tête et les
Orientales dans le cœur.” The great author’s mind must have been very
young when he wrote it. This silly and childish farrago bears the same
relation to “Notre Dame” as “Titus Andronicus” to the “Tempest” or
to “Othello.” Han is an impossible savage, ever with a _tempête sous
un crâne_. Ordener is a ridiculous Timon, and the sudden conversion
of Schuhmacher to absurd benevolence is worthy of caricature-loving
Dickens. With the exception of a few striking remarks, it shows more of
fury and frenzy than of fine wit. It forcibly calls to mind the late
Prosper Merimée’s harsh judgment of M. Victor Hugo as a poet: “He is
all imagery. There is neither matter, nor solidity, nor common sense
in his verse; he is a man who gets drunk on his own words, and who no
longer takes the trouble of thinking.” And Han d’Islande explains how
the austere old littérateur detected a vein of insanity in the greatest
poet of the French Revival, the Romantic School which dates from 1830.
Nor amongst travellers can we reckon M. Jules Verne’s “Voyage au Centre
de la Terre,” the least meritorious of the “terribly thrilling” and
marvellously impossible series; its scene is chiefly below “Sneffles”
(Snæfelljökull), a sniffling disguise, which seems to have been, but is
not, invented in jest.
[278] M. Robert was the mineralogist, geologist, and botanist of the
expedition; he received special directions from M. Adolphe Brogniart
(Professor of Botany in the Museum of Natural History, Paris); he
traversed the greater part of the island in 1835-36, and at his request
Hr Vahl, a Danish botanist, who had lived long in Greenland, revised
the published lists, especially Hooker’s, and drew up a fresh list,
corrected to 1840. Since that time, Iceland has been visited by Mr
Babington of Cambridge (1846), who also made collections. For others,
see Section VII.
[279] The writer could have learned this only from Iceland information,
and he should have been more cautious in listening to the islanders,
especially when they were criticising what they consider a hostile
book. On the other hand, Madame Pfeiffer has left an impression upon
the reader that the clergy take money from travellers--which is
certainly not the case now, and probably never was general.
[280] Amongst Icelandic travels we cannot include the valuable
commercial papers, often alluded to in these pages--(1.) by Mr
Vice-Consul Crowe, “Report on the Fisheries, Trade, and General
Features of Iceland, for the years 1865-66;” and (2.) by Mr Consul
Crowe, “On the Trade and Fisheries of Iceland, for the years 1870-71.”
It is evident that the able author has not been in Iceland or he
would not say “the _schools_ are excellent and well attended,” when
there are absolutely no schools. It is to be regretted that the
Foreign Office does not enable writers to correct their proof-sheets;
we should then not have in a single page such blemishes as Skrid
Sökler (Jöklar); Oræfa Tokull (Jökull); Odadahrann (Ódáða Hraun); and
Kekjavik-cum-Keykjavik (for Reykjavik) repeated throughout the paper.
[281] Dr Hjaltalín has written many articles on sanitary matters
and the natural history of Iceland, which have appeared in various
periodicals, Icelandic, Danish, and English. He has also published for
several years the “Heilbrigðistíðindi” (Sanitary News).
[282] Near the end of the paper we read, “Iceland was now (after union
with Norway) governed as a colony;” this assertion, it is said, belongs
not to the author but to the editor.
[283] Laing’s “Heimskringla” is a work of a very different kind, not
translated from the original.
[284] The author can practically answer for its value. When travelling
in 1872 he had only the first volume, and thus whilst tolerably
acquainted with the words between A and the first half of H, he found
it impossible, within given limits, to master the rest. In the “Days
of Ignorance” it was necessary to learn Danish in order to use the
Icelandic Dictionary. It is only to be hoped that the English-Icelandic
half of the work will follow in due season, and doubtless some
enterprising publisher, like Mr Trübner, will presently give us
portable editions of both.
[285] Possibly a confusion with the pied crow (_C. Leucophæus_) of the
Færoes. In Scandinavian mythology the raven was white, but, like the
Hajar el Aswad of Mecca, it turned black in consequence of babbling and
tale-bearing.
[286] He made an expedition to East Greenland in 1828-29; and his
volume was translated by the late E. Gordon Macdougall, and published
(London, Parker, 1837) by the Royal Geographical Society of Great
Britain--a most sensible step. His determination that the East Bygð was
on the west coast has of late been successfully questioned by Mr R. H.
Major (Ocean Highways) through the 1507 edition of Ptolemy, the map of
Van Keulen (circ. A.D. 1700), and the “Chorography” of
the old Greenland colony, with sailing directions for reaching it from
Iceland by Ivar Bardsen, steward of the colonial bishop. Captain Graah
had denied the existence of Gunnbjörn’s Skerries, and so forfeited the
guidance of Ivar Bardsen. His book, however, is a valuable study of
hyperborean regions generally, and especially useful as a standard of
comparison between Iceland and Greenland. In the latter we find the hot
springs of Onnartok depositing silicious sinter, like the Geysir and
Strokkr, whilst the unfinished church of Kakortok reminds us of Færoese
Kirkjubæ.
[287] The fact is, it has become a party question. Hence strangers
who, like Dr W. Lander Lindsay (p. 7, “On the Eruption, in May 1860,
of the Kötlu-gjá Volcano, Iceland”), are otherwise employed than in
making general inquiries, ignore the basis. When this great _opus_ was
printed (1844), few countries in Europe had charts on such a scale,
so accurately detailed, and so well engraved. Even at present it
wants only the names of places being made more legible; it is still
the standard work, for which seamen and landsmen have reason to be
grateful, and it forms a solid foundation for future addition to all
time. Mr Thorne (Ramsdale, Thorne, & Co.) kindly lent his copy to the
author, who ungratefully kept it nearly three years.
[288] Every serious Icelandic traveller of the nineteenth century has
alluded more or less to the career of the Rev. Jón Thorláksson, parish
priest of Backa, who lived as best becomes a poet, in poverty, and who
died in poverty, æt. seventy-five, in 1819. He thus laments his hard
fate:
“Yes; Penury hath been my bride
Since e’er I saw the world of men;
And clasped me to her rugged breast
These seventy winters all but twain:
And if we separate here below,
He only knows who made it so.”
His “living,” besides glebe and parish gifts, was £6 per annum, of
which half was paid to an assistant (Henderson and Barrow); and he
did not live to receive the £20 collected for him in England. He
translated Pope’s Essay on Man, Klopstock’s Messiah, and Paradise
Lost. The three first books of the latter were printed by the Islenzka
Lærdómslista-fèlag (Icel. Lit. Society) before it was dissolved in
1796. The original MS. is deposited in the rooms of the Literary Fund,
London.
[289] Forn-yrði, an old word, an archaism; hence Eddaic verse. We may
illustrate its alliteration by Peirce Plowman:
“I _looked_ on my left half
As the _Lady_ me taught,
And was _ware_ of a _woman_
_Worthlyith_ clothed.”
Finn Magnússon and Rask thus converted Virgil into narrative verse:
“Arma virumque
Cano, Trojæ
Qui primus ab oris
Italiam,
Fato profugus,
Lavinaque venit
Littora,” etc.
[290] As will appear in the Journal, all the principal streams have
ferries or some _succedanea_, and no Iceland guide is in the habit of
exposing himself recklessly.
[291] Hunter & M’Donald of Leith sell sou’-westers for 2s.; outer and
inner hose, at 3s. 6d. and 2s. 6d.; sailors’ trousers, for 10s.; stout
oil coats, at 18s. 6d.; and fishermen’s mitts, at 1s. 3d. Foreman, also
of Leith, supplies excellent boots for £2, 10s.
[292] A very young traveller, Mr John Milne, F.G.S., has thus taken
the author to task: “Fancy yourself with forty horses, riding over
snow bridges by the dozen.” Is it then necessary to explain that the
ponies are intended for the Ódáða Hraun, a tract about the size of
Devonshire? When Mr Watts started on his second expedition, he declared
it was “essential that the party should not be less than six,” and he
preferred eight, calculating that the expenses would not exceed £50 per
man.
[293] “Ropeing” is not a new thing, as many Alpine travellers seem to
think. Pállson, when ascending Öræfa Jökull (1794), used “a rope about
ten fathoms in length,” and “left a distance of two fathoms” between
himself and his two companions. The latter is the modern average, the
extremes being nine and fifteen. The author never heard of Icelanders
objecting to this precaution, but “G. H. C.,” who in August 1, 1874,
inspected the Kötlu-gjá (_Field_, October 10, 1874), says that his two
guides “apparently regarded such proceeding in the light of a capital
joke, and, connecting the idea with that of horses (_í taumi_) at a
sale, declared ‘they had never heard of a horse-fair on a Yokull.’”
[294] Every kind of snow requires its own shoe. Thus the Norwegian
“skies” are very different from the Iceland skí, which resembles the
Finn “öndrar,” or “andrar.” These articles are six, seven, and even
twelve feet long, by five inches wide, in fact like large cask-staves.
The front ends are a little bent up, and the sides are garnished
with iron (saddlers’) D’s, through which leather thongs, or bands of
willow-withes, are passed to secure the feet. Sometimes for facility
of turning, one is made longer than the other, and the Lapps sole the
right foot with hairy skin, so as to hold the snow in the back stroke.
The alpenstock in Iceland is a bone handled staff, with a stout spike:
the author never saw the stick shod with a wheel three inches broad,
and safe against sinking, which is used on the Continent.
[295] One of the thermometers was broken on the way to Edinburgh, and,
curious to say, it could not be repaired in the capital of Scotland.
Professor C. Vogt prefers to the Alpine Sympiesometer, the _Barometre
Compensée Metallique_ of M. Richard, Rue Fontaine du Roi, Paris: he
used it in Iceland, and found it answer admirably.
[296] The _Saturday Review_ (December 14, 1872) informs its readers
that the Danish mail packet runs from Leith--which it does not.
[297] From most parts of the world, too, even from Hungary and Fiume,
the casks are sent back to the United States, not broken up, but in
bulk, because the heavy freight pays well where labour cannot be bought.
[298] I need hardly remark that this was written before the glorious
days of February 1874, when the English nation, centuries ahead of
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, by one of the noblest constitutional
revolutions known to its history, buried that _felo-de-se_, the Radical
Cabinet, and pulled down its programme Disestablishment, Retrenchment,
and Non-intervention, the latest modification of Liberté, Égalité,
Fraternité, and--Death.
[299] We have seen that in Iceland the Lögberg, or Hill of Laws, was
confined to the Althing.
[300] After many years of the “_quousque tandem?_” state of mind, my
astonishment at the amount of legal murder authorised and sanctioned
by authority in England, and my wonder that abuses so hideous did not
become a public scandal, have been explained away by the sacrifices
which the patriotic Mr Plimsoll found necessary before he could
obtain a hearing. The manner in which his small inaccuracies of
detail have been made to obscure the whole “palpitant question,” the
counter-charges of sensationalism and ultra-philanthropy which have
been brought to refute the main charge, and the notable worship of
Mammon and vested abuses, are hardly encouraging to the optimist’s
view of “progress.” But the day is now done, let us hope, when crews
of “murdered men” can be sent to sea in floating coffins insured at
thrice their value. The simplest preventive would be an order that
every consul should report all flagrant cases, with the express
understanding, however, that he should not be punished nor be made to
suffer for doing his “unpleasant duty.”
[301] Found in St. Helier, and written “Helyer” in the
Scoto-Scandinavian islands. Evidently the Icelandic Hellir (_plur._
Hellar), a cave, common in local words, _e.g._, Hellis-menn, the
cave-men; it is akin to Hallr, a slope, a boulder, much used for proper
names of men and women, as Hall-dór (Hall thor) and Hall-dóra (Cleasby).
[302] John Brand (A Brief Description of Orkney, etc., Edinburgh, 1701,
Pinkerton, iii. 731) writes Dungisbie Head, and Duncan’s Bay. The
Scandinavian form of Duncansbay Head is Dungalsnýpa.
[303] Pettlands Fjörð in Icelandic from Pight-land or Pict-land.
[304] For other interesting details see the Gróttasöngr, or Lay of
Grótti.
[305] The old Cape Orcas, derived, as has been said, from Latin
Orca, Gaelic Orcc or Orc, and Icelandic Orkn--“_Delphinus orca_,” a
dog-seal--the addition of-_ey_, an isle, makes Orkney. This point is
the Ptolemeian Tarbetum or “Taruedum, quod et Orcas promontorium,
finis Scotiæ dicitur,” and unduly placed in N. lat. 60° 15´, and long.
31° 20´ (lib. i., cap. 3). The word derives from the Gaelic Tarbet, a
drag, a portage, a haul-over, common names in Scoto-Scandinavia, and
equivalent to the Icelandic Eið (aith). It lies only six miles from
the nearest of the archipelago, which Pomponius Mela called Orcades,
evidently a Roman corruption of the indigenous “Orkneyjar,” the Irish
Innsi Orcc, and the Inis Torc of Ossian. Fordun’s “Scotichronicon” (ii.
2) calls the Orkneys “Insulæ Pomoniæ;” and Buchanan says, “Orcadum
maxima multis veterum Pomona vocatur.” As _poma_ are not abundant
there, the name has caused considerable argumentation. In the “Société
Royale des Antiquaires du Nord” (1845-49), and in the “Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland” (Edinburgh, Neill, 1852),
Professor A. Munch, of Christiania, contributes an able paper, “Why is
the Mainland of Orkney called Pomona?” Before his time Dr (D.D.) George
Barry, in an excellent book, “History of the Orkney Islands” (London,
Longmans, 1805) had derived Pomona from “pou,” small (query, “Bú,” a
settlement, or “bol,” corrupted to “bull,” a house?), and Mon, Patria;
also from the Norsk terms signifying “Great-land.” Professor Munch
quotes Torfæus (Orcad., p. 5), “Pomona ... a Julio polyhistore Diutina
appellatur.” Solinus Polyhistor, facetiously known as Plinii Simius,
says of Thule (chap. xxv.), “Ab Orcadibus Thyle usque quinque dierum
et noctium navigatio. Sed Thule larga et diutina pomona copiosa est”
(Thule is a fertile country, and plentifully productive of long-lasting
corn). He would read the evidently mutilated text, “Sed Thule larga et
Diutina pomona copiosa est,” or “Sed Thule larga et diutina, Pomona
copiosa est,” and he finds that “Diutina _ergò_ Pomona--ab esse ad
posse valet consequentia.” But it is over ingenious to account by the
error of a text for a popular term four hundred years old, _e.g._,
“Our rare Pomonia, which the natives style
The Mainland.”
[306] To quote the Dean’s English, “it is part of a (Radical?) movement
to help forward the obliteration of all trace of the derivation and
history of words:” as such it may be highly recommended to the “Japs.”
The Icelandic or pure Scandinavian form, simple and compound, is _ey_
(gen. and plur. _eyjar_); each vowel being pronounced distinct, and not
confounded, as some foreigners do, with the German _ö_ or the French
_eu_. _Ey_ is the Keltic “hy,” as found in the classical Hy Brazile,
the mysterious island west of Galway, and so called during centuries
before the real Brazil was discovered. Again the form appears in
“Ireland’s Eye,” which Cockneys pronounce Ireland’s H’eye; the pure
Irish form is _I_ (O’Brien’s Irish-English Dictionary, sub voce), or
_aoi_, an island or region, which that learned writer derives (?) from
the Hebrew “ai,” insula, regio, provincia. “The Norwegian _öy_, the
Danish _öe_, the Swedish _ö_, the Anglo-Saxon _êg_ (-land), and the
German _aue_, are found in ey-ot and Leas-ow, Chels-ea and Batters-ea;
and whilst the Orkneys corrupt it wofully, we retain it pure in
Cherts-ey, Aldern-ey, and Orkn-ey” (Cleasby). Munch (Ant. du Nord) has
corrected the error of Webster, who derives “island” from _ea_ or _ey_,
water (!), and _land_. It is simply _ey-land_, “terra insularis.”
[307] Properly Sand-eið, or Sand-aith, a sand-isthmus connecting two
headlands.
[308] “Links,” from Lykkur, locked or closed fields.
[309] “Bismari” in Icelandic is a steelyard, and “bismara-pund” a
kind of lb. The Norwegian Bismerpund is = 12 Skaalpunds (100:110 Eng.
avoird.), and the Lispund is = 16 Skaalpunds. The Icelandic word is
Lífspund, from Lifl, and = 18 lbs. Scots (Cleasby).
[310] Varangian, Icel. Væringi, from Várar, a pledge (al. Wehr, Vær,
ware or active defence): the Væringjar of the Sagas, the Russian
Varæger, the Βαράγγοι of Byzantine historians, and our Warings,
popularly known through Gibbon and “Count Robert of Paris,” formed the
Scandinavian bodyguard of the Eastern empire. These battle-axe men
were at first Northmen from Kiew in A.D. 902, under the
Emperor Alexis, and successively Danes, Norwegians, and Icelanders
(Cleasby and Mallet: Mr Blackwall, note ‡, p. 193, attempts and fails
to correct Gibbon). What possessed Mr A. Mounsey (Journal through the
Caucasus and Persia) to derive “Feringi” (Frank) from Varangian?
[311] Popularly but erroneously derived from Kolbeinsey or Kaupmannsey,
“Chapman’s Isle.”
[312] Mr Blackwall (p. 257) more modestly says the “first European.”
[313] “Peerie-folk” means the fairies, both words evidently congeners
of the Persian Pari or Peri. Grimm, an excellent authority, derives
the French Fée, the Provençal Fada, the Spanish Hada, and the Italian
Fata, from the Latin Fatum--remarking that Fata and Fée have the same
analogy as _nata_ and _née_, _amata_ and _aimée_. In connection with
“Simmer” or “Sea,” “Peerie,” meaning little, is by some deduced from
the French “petit;” in the Shetlands it is further emphasised to
Peerie-weerie-winkie (of a foal, etc.).
[314] The ordinary runes, I need hardly say, have been shown by Rafn
to be derived from archaic Greek; and probably from coins which found
their way north during the first centuries of our era.
[315] Gen. Lim-rúnar (lim or limr being the limb of a tree opposed to
the bole), which Cleasby explains as “a kind of magical runes.”
[316] “Hubby” is a loose robe, erroneously derived, like the Scotch
Joop, the German Giup, the Italian Giubba and Giubbone, the French Jupe
and Jupon, and the Slav Japungia, from the Norsk Hwipu. All these are
simply corruptions of the Arabic “Jubbeh.”
[317] These Northmen left their handiwork even on the “Stones of
Venice.” Readers may not be unwilling to see the legend upon the
maneless and melancholy lion, the statue of Pentelic marble, ten
feet high, once at the harbour mouth of the Piræus (Porto Leone),
where the pedestal still stands, now fronting the arsenal, Venice,
where, after the retreat from Greece, the Doge Morosini carried it in
1687. The hardly legible inscription on the right side of the animal
is supposed to be, “Asmundr graved these runes united with Asgeir,
Thorlief, Thórd, and Ívar, at the request of Haraldr Háfi (the Tall);
although the Greeks, taking thought, forbade it.” It is supposed that
this Harold was the same who had the promise of seven feet in English
ground. The left flank and shoulder are less uncertain, and the legend
reads as follows: “Hakun, united with Ulfr (Wolf) and Asmundr and Aurn
(Örn), conquered this port. These men and Haraldr Háfi, on account of
the uprising of the Greek people, imposed considerable fines. Dálkr
remained (prisoner?) in remote regions. Egill fared with Ragnar to
Rumania ... and Armenia.”
The inscriptions were first published in 1800 by Åkerblad, a Swedish
savant; they have been frequently revised, and the last study is the
“Inscription Runique du Pirée, interpretée par C. C. Rafn; et publiée
par la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord,” Copenhagen, 1856.
[318] The old Norsk Megin-land, land of might, or mainland, is
evidently, like the Scotch Mickle, connected with the Persian Mih
or Mihin, great, powerful, but not, as Mr Blackwall conceives, with
“miracle.” The classical name of the Orkney group, then numbering only
seven, is Acmodæ in Pliny, iv. 16, and Hæmodæ in Mela, iii. 6. The
Icelandic term is Hjaltland (pronounced _Zhatland_), hence Zetland,
Hetland, and Shetland. Thus it still preserves the fame of old Hjalti,
the Viking of the ninth century, who also survives in the modern
“Sholto.” Munch suggests that Hjaltland, hilt-land, may have been
given from a weapon dropped in it; so trivial were the names of olden
Scandinavia: he also mentions the legend of Swordland, a great country
now submerged, between Norway and Hjaltland, its hilt.
[319] In Scandinavian, Dynröst, “thundering roost,” from “að dynja,” to
din; hence the Tyne and Dvina Rivers. The Icelandic Röst, or current,
is the French Raz; that of “Petlandsfjörð” is especially celebrated.
In the Orkneys “Roust” is a stormy sea caused by the meeting of
tides; “Skail” (Icel. Skellr) is the dashing of surf upon the shore;
“Skelder,” the washing of waves, is a common name for farm-houses near
the beach; and “Swelchie,” which explains its own meaning, is the
Icelandic Svelgr.
[320] Fit Fiall, _i.e._, “planities pinguis,” or, better still,
Fitfulglahöfði, sea-fowl cape.
[321] An abstract printed in “Illustrations of Northern Antiquities,”
one vol. 4to, Edinburgh, 1814; reprinted verbatim in “Northern
Antiquities,” edited by Mr J. A. Blackwall, London, Bohn, 1859. In
it we may note the origin of Norna the sibyl’s “improvisatory and
enigmatical poetry.”
[322] Originally Brúsey, from Brúsi, a proper name.
[323] Skála-vegr, the way of the court-house.
[324] Also written Brough, meaning a round tower. The word is
usually derived from the Gothic “berga,” to defend, but it has a far
nobler origin. It is the Chaldee “burgadh,” the Arabic “burj,” the
Armenian “pourc,” the Greek “πύργος,” and the Latin “burgus;” the
Gothic “baurg,” the Mæso-Gothic “bairg,” and “borg,” a mountain;
the Scandinavian “borg,” a fortress; the Armoric, Irish, and Welsh
“burg,” also found in Teutonic and Saxon; the Anglo-Saxon “beorh”
and “beorg,” a rampart, and “burh” or “bureg,” a castle; the Belgian
“burg,” the Gaelic “burg,” the French “bourg,” the Italian “borgo,” the
North British “burgh” and “burg,” as Edinburgh and Corrensburg; the
Scoto-Scandinavian “brogh” or “broch,” with the guttural uncompounded,
and even “borve,” as in Sianborve, and “burr,” as in Burraness; and,
finally, the English “burg” and “burgh,” “borough” and “burrow.” Such
are a few of its titles to antiquity and extent of domain.
[325] I am well aware of the difficulties, and especially of the
expense, objected to condensing peat. But peat _au naturel_ can
be burnt as the _mottes_ in France and Holland have been used for
generations. And I am also aware of the immense interests wielded by
the Coal League--surely these must sooner or later succumb to the
public good. Lands without coal leagues find no difficulty in the
operation. The two companies lately established at Oldenburg use a
large flat-bottomed steamer, which opens a canal 20 feet broad and 6
deep at the rate of 10 to 12 feet per hour: the soil is heaped up on
the banks, and is cut into brick-shape, after which mere drying makes
it fit for fuel.
[326] After Australian diggers had asserted for years that gold would
be found in Bute, a specimen was lately (1874) extracted from a vein of
quartz which runs out into the sea below the Skeoch plantation.
[327] Jerome Cardan, travelling in Scotland (1552), remarked the
popular fondness for the _Platanus_, and explains it thus: “I think
they take a special delight in that tree, because its foliage is so
like vine leaves.... ‘Tis like lovers, who delight in portraits when
they can’t have the original.” Colonel Yule (Geograph. Mag., Sept. 1,
1874) asks whether these trees were the real plane (_P. Orientalis_) or
the maple (_Acer pseudo-platanus_), commonly but erroneously so called
in Scotland, and still more erroneously in England, “Sycamore.” Hence
also, he observes, by propagation of error Eastern travellers translate
the Persian “Chínár” (_Platanus_) by Sycamore.
[328] Especially “Shetland,” etc., by Robert Cowie, M. A., M. D.
Edinburgh: Menzies, 1871. Will the author allow me to suggest that in
his next edition of this valuable work--an exceptional guide-book,
amusing as well as instructing--the medical part from page 56 to page
88, and especially Chapter XIV., should be placed in an appendix? At
present it reminds me of a volume which I read with the liveliest
interest, “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” regretting only that the order
of the tales had not been systematically reversed. Dr Cowie has been
kind enough, at my request, to draw up an account of the pre-historic
collection at Lerwick, which will be found in the note at the end of
this chapter.
Since these lines were written, the papers have informed me that Dr
Cowie, after printing a second edition of his admirable guide-book, has
passed from this world when in the prime of manhood.
[329] The number of these places of refuge shows the Shetlands in
proto-historical times to have been densely peopled. I have made the
same remark about the Istrian Castellieri.
[330] Etymological Glossary of the Shetland and Orkney Dialects, by
Thomas Edmonston. Edinburgh, 1866.
[331] Hence the name of Malestrom or Moskoestrom.
[332] “Lappmark’s land-plague,” says Mr Shairp, author of “Up in North”
(London: Chapman & Hall, 1872), is of three kinds:
1. Mygg, or long nose (_Culex pipiens_), the wretch of stinging bite
and blasphemous song.
2. Knott (_C. reptans_), a villain that keeps close to the ground, and
avoids horses.
3. Hya or Gnadd (_C. pulicaris_), the smallest of the family, but when
it “sticks,” as the Swedes say, violent itching is the result.
[333] The fowl rope contained sixteen ox hides, and the seven pieces
each measured eighty fathoms. Early in the present century it cost only
$10.
[334] One of those in the Lerwick Museum was taken out of the peat-moss
six feet beneath the surface.
[335] On some Remarkable Discoveries of Rude Stone Implements in
Shetland, by Arthur Mitchell, F.S.A., from Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. vii, 1866-67.
[336] Dr Mitchell, paper supra cit.
[337] At Ephesus blue formed the background of enrichments and
sculpture in relief, whilst brilliant reds and yellows were applied to
the parts requiring greater prominence. The idea that red, green, and
blue, are primitives, with yellow, sea-green, and pink for complements,
is very modern and rather startling.
[338] He attributes (p. 49) the fire to crushed driftwood, but Adam of
Bremen declares the ice to be so dry that it can burn.
[339] The Icelandic “fugl” is especially applied to the gull.
“Fowl-isle” amongst the Scandinavians meant an isolated rock lying far
out to sea, and supposed to represent a bird swimming.
[340] Raven--old German, Hraban; modern, Rabe; Icel. Hrafn (_pron._
Hrabn); Anglo-Saxon, Hræfn; Dan. Ravn; and Slav. Vran--is derived (says
Max Müller, “Science of Languages,” Longmans, 1862) from the Sanskrit
Rn or Krn, “to cry,” whence “raucus,” and other kindred words. Like the
pigeon, the genus Corvus (Corax and Cornix) crops up in all mythology,
even where least expected; witness the Hierocorax of Mithras and the
marvellous changes by which Apollo and Athene became crows.
[341] The very word is Norsk, “leiðar-(Anglo-Saxon, lâd) steinn,”
not “lapis viæ,” but leading stone (að leiða), or lode-stone; like
lode-star and lodesman, “a pilot.” It is also called Sólar-steinn, or
“sun-stone.”
[342] Cleasby derives it from Kúði or Kóð, the fry of trout and salmon.
[343] Several Icelanders (see Dr W. Lauder Lindsay) have visited the
rift which engulphed Katla, the murderess and suicide; a name well
known by the translation of Powell and Magnússon. “G. H. C.,” before
quoted, who explored it in August 1874, after being misled by the map,
found on the southern face “a deep circular indentation where black
volcanic sand could be seen uncovered by snow and ice.” We can now
explain by the usual method the glacier which, according to Professor
Steenstrŭp, was torn from its moorings in 1721 by water within or
below: evidently the heated ground melted the whole of the upper
_calotte_ and caused the catastrophe. Other traces were concealed
by the snow-fall which, consolidating into glacier-ice, accumulates
annually twenty feet, and fourteen years have elapsed since the last
eruption. The guides were surprised that “their natural foe should
present phenomena of a character no more startling and tremendous. What
had they expected to find? Perhaps a vast yawning gulf, over whose edge
might be watched the spirit of Katla, whirling like a second Francesca
di Rimini in the sulphurous depths below.” Yet Henderson could
descry from Skaptafell “the aqua-igneous volcano _Kötlu-giá_, whose
tremendously yawning crater was distinctly visible” (i. 264).
[344] In Iceland the reflection of field-ice is brightest, but yellow;
new ice is grey, and drift-ice is purest white. The use of “blink” is
not happy: Ross employs it in “ice-blink” to denote a cliff or barrier;
others talk of land-blink, _i.e._, the reflection of the sky upon the
earth.
[345] The English “tern” is from the Icel. Therna (_Sterna hirundo_).
[346] Hence “Lundy” in the Bristol Channel.
[347] Baring-Gould (pp. 418, 419) gives four kinds of
skuas--_Catarrhactes_ (great skua), _Pomatorhinus_, _Parasiticus_
(Arctic skua), and _Buffoni_. He makes “Kjór” the Icel. name for No. 3:
I heard it so applied, but the Dictionary gives “a sea-bird of the tern
kind; Hill’s Sterna.” We find the family mentioned by Pigafetta, the
circumnavigator (A.D. 1519-22), under the libellous name
“Cagassela” or “Caca uccello,” and he himself oftentimes witnessed the
practice which survives in the term Stercorarius. It is an Antarctic as
well as an Arctic “pirate of the seas.”
[348] A term of daily use, derived from “að hrynja,” to flow, to stream
down; its pronunciation (_Hroyn_) induces the facetious traveller to
call it the “road to ruin,” and Henderson wrote as he spoke, Hroyn.
“Gullbringu” is usually translated gold-bringing; but Cleasby, sub
voc. “bringa,” derives the word differently, and makes “Gull-bringur”
signify the Golden Slopes. In Sect. VII. of Introduction a third
signification has been given.
[349] Hence the country word “Kaarl Cat,” for tom cat, still preserved
in heraldry. The Icel. Karl is pronounced _Katl_ or _Kadl_.
[350] Farther south the Fulmar is called the Mollie-moke; hence the
“mollie,” or mild orgie on broad northern whalers.
[351] The following is the whole text of the letter upon the “Expected
Eruption of Mount Hecla” (which did not take place):
“MANSE OF ARBUTHNOTT, _July 2, 1872._
“SIR,--Will you permit me to add the following to your paragraph with
the above heading in the _Scotsman_ of to-day? While doubling Cape
Reikianess, the south-west promontory of Iceland, on the morning of
Saturday, June 8, we saw a remarkable Geyser a few miles inland,
shooting up water at regular intervals of about five minutes to a
height of at least 100 feet. All on board who had ever heard of the
Great Geyser, so graphically described by Madame Ida Pfeiffer and
others, but which is sometimes so unpolite as to keep sightseers
waiting two days before it favours them with an exhibition, were amazed
at a spectacle so remarkable, and yet so unremarked by any who before
us had visited Iceland.
“After attending service at the church of Reikiavik on Sunday, I did
myself the honour to call upon the Bishop of Iceland, an excellent,
courteous old gentleman, who, if he does not dwell, like the Psalmist,
in a ‘house of cedar,’ dwells, like his flock, in a house of Norwegian
fir. He could not speak English, but he spoke French well. To him I
mentioned the phenomenon we had seen, believing that he was as likely
as any one to know whether or not it was new. He told me that he knew
the district well, but that there was no Geyser there at his last
visit; that what we had seen, therefore, was quite new. In answer to
my inquiry whether there had been any recent volcanic disturbance in
the island, he informed me that there had been a violent earthquake
in the northern region about the middle of April. This outburst of a
new Geyser (which we observed in full play on our homeward voyage on
Tuesday, June 11) and the earthquake in the north, seem premonitory
of an eruption either of Hecla, or of some other of the other seven
mountains which Keith Johnston, in his Physical Atlas, marks as
active volcanoes. I hope we shall shortly have a description of any
such occurrence, if it do take place, from the graphic pen of Captain
Burton, whose society made our outward voyage a rare treat.--I am, etc.
“(Signed) R. M. SPENCE.”
[352] Reyk = reek (Kelt. Ruagh, Reâc, and Ruah, the German Rauch),
seems to be a word common to the Aryan and Semitic families. Old
philologists derive it from the Hebrew Ruach, Arab. Rúh or Ríh, wind,
breath, mind, spirit. Spinoza, the Hebraist, translates, apparently
with reason, “Ruach Elohim” (the Spirit of Elohim or Gods, Gen. i. 2)
by “a strong wind.”
[353] “Eyjar” is often used of the Western Isles, Orkneys, Shetlands,
and Soder or Suder (Suðr-ey, south isle, whence the diocese of Soder
and Man). In south Iceland it is also applied to the Vestmannaeyjar.
[354] One of the earliest forms of armour-plating, the old defence
still survives in the nettings of our bulwarks.
[355] English tautology. Skagi (in Shetland Scaw or Skaw, _e.g._, the
Skaw of Unst) is a low cape opposed to Höfði, a high headland (Cleasby).
[356] Originally Örfiris-eye, which has been explained under Orfir of
the Orkneys.
[357] Heimdall was the doorkeeper of the gods, who kills and is killed
by Loki.
[358] I dismiss the “Iceland Revolution” in a few lines, for
Baring-Gould (Introd. xlii.) has given a very complete account,
borrowed from Hooker and Mackenzie.
[359] Reykjavíkr in the nominative sing, is an abstract linguistic
fiction, from Vík (feminine), a bay, a wich (_e.g._, Greenwich).
Travellers neglect the Icelandic termination, and even English literati
omit the-_r_ or-_ur_ as superfluous and strictly correct only in the
nominative, _e.g._, Leif for Leifr. From Vík, a bay, comes Víking,
a baying-voyage, or seeking the shelter of bays, and Víkingr, a
baying-voyager, or a voyager from the fjords. This word, sometimes
written Vi-king in English, suggests a wrong etymology. Cleasby warns
us that the termination-_wick_ or-_wich_ is Norsk only for maritime
places, the inland “wicks” derive from the Latin _vicus_. Local names
beginning with _Reyk_ are unknown to Scandinavians, and peculiar to
Iceland where the pillars of steam must have struck the colonist’s eye.
[360] Taken at the cathedral. The longitude (G.) given by Norie is W.
21° 51´ 3´´, by Raper 21° 55´ 2´´; Norie gives the lat. 64° 9´ O”,
Raper 64° 8´ 4´´. The variation of the compass is roughly 36° off
Berufjörð; 35° 15´ off the eastern Jökull; and 45° off Reykjavik:
it was in 1814 (Henderson, i. 250) “two points towards the west;”
in 1840 (French charts) it was W. 43° 21´. M. Lottier (1838) made
it 43° 14´; and in 1871 (Admiralty chart, by Captain Evans) it was
44°, still increasing at the rate of 5´ per annum. Consequently the
people have two norths--north by compass and true north, the latter at
Reykjavik fronting the mountain-block Akrafjall. The inclination (dip)
of the magnetic needle (French chart of 1840) is 76° 45´. The vulgar
_Etablissement du port_ (Hafenzeit, high water at full and change),
French chart, is at 5h. Om.; and the maximum height of the tides 5m. 35
cent. The Admiralty tables give spring-tides a rise of 17½ feet and the
neaps 13¼.
[361] The Dictionary translates it “home of the Thronds” (Thrændir).
[362] From “And,” opposite, and “Vegr,” an “opposite seat,” a “high
seat.” In the old timbered hall the benches (bekkr) were ranged along
the walls with the two seats of honour in the middle facing one
another. The northern, fronting the sun, was called Öndvegi æðra,
first or higher high-seat, reserved for the master, and the other was
Úæðra, the lower or second, kept for the chief guest. In England the
master and the mistress sitting opposite each other at table, may be
a remnant of the old Scandinavian custom. The sides of the high seat
were ornamented with uprights (öndugis súlur) carved with figures, such
as a head of Thor: these posts were regarded with religious honour and
were thrown into the sea as guides. When a man of rank died, the son,
after all rites performed, solemnly sat in his father’s seat, as a sign
of succession, but this was not done if the paternal murder remained
unavenged (Cleasby).
[363] There is a plan of Reykjavik, but the size of the scale keeps
it in MS. Baring-Gould and others give ground sketches, which are now
obsolete.
[364] In Icel. Brú is a bridge in our sense of the word; Bryggja is a
landing-place as well as a bridge.
[365] This hollow sound may be remarked even in the new town of
Trieste, where a passing omnibus shakes the substantially-built
stone houses. Such soil must be always the most dangerous in case
of earthquakes, which are comparatively harmless on the adjacent
hill-slopes.
[366] The word Völlr (plur. Vellir, and gen. pl. Valla) means a field,
and is akin to the German Wald. It often occurs in the plural, _e.g._,
Reyni-vellir (Rowan plains); and “Thing-valla,” the foreign way of
writing, is properly Thingvellir.
[367] Tómr, empty, is the Scotch “toom.”
[368] I particularly remarked the beautiful shell, striped white and
brick-red, the Hörpu-diskr, _Pecten Islandicus_, or Iceland clam. The
krákuskel, or _Mytilus edulis_, is eaten by foxes.
[369] Native authorities differ as to the depth where frost extends. I
heard a maximum of eight feet, even in the lowlands.
[370] The word Hjallr, the Færoese Kiadlur, is akin to Hjalli and Hilla
(English hill), a shelf or ledge in the mountain-side, and hence a
scaffold; the full term for the fish-shed is Fisk-hjallr (Cleasby).
[371] Henderson confounds the “Klip-fish” (Danish, Klippe, a rock),
which is cleaned, salted, and stacked, with the stock-fish or dry-fish,
simply split, washed, sunned, and turned by the women. The latter forms
the national staff of life, and is not exported. “Fiskr” in Icelandic
is especially applied to cod, trout, and salmon.
[372] The Maskat Arabs eat shark-meat, but they never apply the oil to
the skin, considering it a caustic; rubbed into ship bottoms, it is
supposed to defend the wood from worms.
[373] There was one corpse at the Hospital; the death had been caused
by delirium tremens.
[374]
The “boiled shirt” costs 12 skillings = 3d.
Flannel ” ” 8 ” = 2d.
Socks and collars ” 3 ” = 1½d.
Kerchiefs and white ties 2 ” = 1d.
You must be pretty careful, however, unless you wish your linen to go
the way of all washing in all lands.
[375] I was once asked at an English country-house to show how coffee
is made in Arabia; the housekeeper’s only remark was, “It is easy to
make coffee like Captain Burton if one may use so much!” But the Arab
system, though simple as it is scientific, cannot be learnt without
long practice.
[376] The lich-gate proper in the cemetery is, or rather was, called
Sálu-hlið, or souls’ gate.
[377] According to Professor J. M. Thiele (Copenhagen, 1832), he was
descended on the spindle side--where, by-the-by, almost any descent can
be established--from the royal blood of Scandinavia. The family, once
settled at Óslandshlíð in Skagafjörð, sank, and his father Gottskálk
emigrated to Copenhagen, where he lived by carving figureheads for
shipwrights. His mother was a clergyman’s daughter, and he was born
November 19, 1770. Finn Magnússon (Antiquitates Americanæ) has also
drawn up his pedigree.
His first order from his northern home was, according to Thiele, a font
which Countess Schimmelmann and her brother Baron Schubarth wished to
present to the church of Brahe-Trolleberg in “Funen,” as we write Fyen.
It was adorned with four bas-reliefs--the Baptism, the Holy Family,
Christ blessing the children, and three angels. After being exhibited
and admired at Copenhagen, it was sent to its destination, and a copy,
we are told, was offered by the artist to the deserted land of his
forefathers, to be _placed in Myklabye church_. A note informs us that
this font was bought by a northern merchant, whereupon the artist
immediately began another in Carrara marble. It is not said whether the
third edition actually reached Myklabye church or is the one bought by
Lord Caledon--evidently we have found it in the cathedral.
The “Patriarch of Bas-reliefs,” as the Italians entitled him (ob.
1844), has been called a “handsome young Dane,” when he was peculiarly
Icelandic in body and mind. It was his misfortune to belong to the day
of manufacturing sculptors, amongst whom he was the first and no more.
But what can the artist expect from such inspiration as Jason, Anacreon
and Cupid, Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, can give? The Icelander was pure and
simple, free from the Gallicisms of Canova, an improvement upon Sergell
the Swede, but cold, lacking life and interest; in fact, an imitator.
I would rather in these days settle as an artist amongst the Kru-boys
of the west coast of Africa, and attempt negro subjects, than copy the
classics.
Richard Cleasby, who, by the by, killed himself with Cures, or rather
Kurs, had a wide experience of men and manners in Europe, and his
criticisms are sometimes sharp, but he left Thorvaldsen “with the
impression of having been in the company of a great man.” The peculiar
Icelandic traits in his character were an ultra-Yankee ‘cuteness in
making a bargain, and a love of money, which led him into that ugly
business of Madame d’Uhden. Still he amply deserves the statue for
which the Municipal Council of Copenhagen has voted $6000, in honour of
the Iceland Millenary.
[378] Síra is more commonly, but not so correctly, written Séra, and
by foreigners Sjera; and I have heard it pronounced _Shera_. It is
a Romance word, originally Senior, hence Seigneur, Signore, Senhor,
Señor, Sir, Sir-r (Richardson), Sirrah, and “Sir-ree.” Icelanders still
keep up our fashion of Shakespeare’s day, and apply it to clerks with
the Christian name only, as Sir Hugh. _Magister_ was the university
title of the M.A. in our fifteenth century: _Dominus_ (the Dan of
Chaucer and his contemporaries, and the Don of modern Italian priests)
was, and still is, the B.A., entered as Sir This or Sir That (the
surname) in some of the college registers down to the time of Queen
Anne, and, I believe, even in our day. Hence, possibly, the origin of
the French Sir Brown and Sir Jones.
[379] This author also tells us that Sweden annually produces
38,000,000 of pots of Korn-schnapps, of which 6,000,000 are used for
technological purposes.
[380] In 1872 no less than 1100 cases of illicit distillation were
detected in Ireland, against 21 in England, and 8 in Scotland.
[381] The irrepressible statistician of the _Figaro_ assigns annually
to England 50,000 deaths by drunkenness, of which 12,000 are women;
40,000 to Germany; 38,000 to the United States; 10,000 to Russia (??);
4000 to Belgium; and 1500 to virtuous France.
[382] Bishop Pètursson has a section (No. 3, p. 448, et seq.), “De
regiis Islandiæ Satrapis,” amongst whom was a Count Ehrenreich C. L.
Moltke. Chap. II. (p. 474) treats “de Finno Johannæo;” and Chap. III.
(p. 479) “de Johanne Finnæo.”
[383] I made the mistake before leaving England of buying the Biblia
published in the German character at Copenhagen in 1747, and found the
language old-fashioned. The Oxford edition of the Bible Society, which
sells for four marks, is certainly an improvement.
[384] Grímr and Grímnir are names of Odin, from his travelling in
disguise: grímumaðr is a cowled man, “Mutalassam,” or “face-veiled,” as
the Bedawin say.
[385] I see by the papers that Father Stub, the Barnabite, on his
return to Berghen in Norway, opened a Catholic church, to the great
satisfaction of the people.
[386] This common name of places in Iceland means Holts, hills; it
is the plural of Hóll, but most writers put it in the dative plural,
Hólum, as it would stand in composition “í Hólum” at Hólar. Possibly
the intention is, despite grammar, to apply Hólum to the bishopric and
Hólar to the other sites.
[387] The name has been discussed in the Introduction (Section VII.).
[388] Moðir is mother; Ammá (evidently a Sanskritic form), grandmother;
and Edda is Proavia, or great-grandmother. Of course the derivation is
disputed.
End of Project Gutenberg's Ultima Thule; vol. 1/2, by Richard R. Burton