_Poetry._--Iceland has always borne a high renown for song, but has
never produced a poet of the highest order, the qualities which in other
lands were most sought for and admired in poetry being in Iceland
lavished on the saga, a prose epic, while Icelandic poetry is to be
rated very high for the one quality which its authors have ever aimed
at--melody of sound. To these generalizations there are few exceptions,
though Icelandic literature includes a group of poems which possess
qualities of high imagination, deep pathos, fresh love of nature,
passionate dramatic power, and noble simplicity of language which
Icelandic poetry lacks. The solution is that these poems do not belong
to Iceland at all. They are the poetry of the "Western Islands."
It was among the Scandinavian colonists of the British coasts that in
the first generations after the colonization of Iceland therefrom a
magnificent school of poetry arose, to which we owe works that for power
and beauty can be paralleled in no Teutonic language till centuries
after their date. To this school, which is totally distinct from the
Icelandic, ran its own course apart and perished before the 13th
century, the following works belong (of their authors we have scarcely a
name or two; their dates can be rarely exactly fixed, but they lie
between the beginning of the 9th and the end of the 10th centuries),
classified into groups:--
(a) The _Helgi_ trilogy (last third lost save a few verses, but
preserved in prose in _Hromund Gripsson's Saga_), the _Raising of
Anganty_ and _Death of Hialmar_ (in _Hervarar Saga_), the fragments of
a _Volsung Lay_ (_Volsungakiraða_) (part interpolated in earlier
poems, part underlying the prose in _Volsunga Saga_), all by one poet,
to whom Dr Vigfusson would also ascribe _Völuspá_, _Vegtamskviða_,
_Þrymskviða_, _Grötta Song_ and _Völundarkviða_.
(b) The Dramatic Poems:--_Flyting of Loki_, the _För Skirnis_, the
_Harbarðslioð_ and several fragments, all one man's work, to whose
school belong, probably, the _Lay_ underlying the story of Ivar's
death in _Skioldunga Saga_.
(c) The Didactic Poetry:--_Grímnismál_, _Vafpruðnismál_, _Alvíssmal_,
&c.
(d) The Genealogical and Mythological Poems:--_Hyndluljoð_ written for
one of the Haurda-Kari family, so famous in the Orkneys; _Ynglingatal_
and _Haustlong_, by Thiodolf of Hvin; _Rig's Thul_, &c.
(e) The Dirges and Battle Songs--such as that on Hafur-firth Battle
_Hrafnsmal_, by Thiodolf of Hvin or Thorbjörn Hornklofi, shortly after
870; Eirik's Dirge (_Eíríksmál_) between 950 and 969; the _Dart-Lay on
Clontarf Battle_ (1014); _Bíarka-mal_ (fragments of which we have, and
paraphrase of more is found in _Hrolf Kraki's Saga_ and in Saxo).
There are also fragments of poems in _Half's Saga_, _Asmund
Kappa-Bana's Saga_, in the Latin verses of Saxo, and the Shield Lays
(_Ragnarsdrapa_) by Bragi, &c., of this school, which closes with the
_Sun-Song_, a powerful Christian Dantesque poem, recalling some of the
early compositions of the Irish Church, and with the 12th-century _Lay
of Ragnar_, _Lay of Starkad_, _The Proverb Song_ (_Havamal_) and
_Krakumal_, to which we may add those singular Gloss-poems, the
_Þulur_, which also belong to the Western Isles.
To Greenland, Iceland's farthest colony, founded in the 10th century,
we owe the two _Lays of Atli_, and probably _Hymiskvtiða_, which,
though of a weirder, harsher cast, yet belong to the Western Isles
school and not to Iceland.
In form all these poems belong to two or three classes:--_kviða_, an
epic "cantilena"; _tál_, a genealogical poem; _drapa_, songs of praise,
&c., written in modifications of the old Teutonic metre which we know in
Beowulf; _galdr_ and _lokkr_, spell and charm songs in a more lyric
measure; and _mál_, a dialogue poem, and _liod_, a lay, in elegiac
measure suited to the subject.
The characteristics of this Western school are no doubt the result of
the contact of Scandinavian colonists of the viking-tide, living lives
of the wildest adventure, with an imaginative and civilized race, that
exercised upon them a very strong and lasting influence (the effects of
which were also felt in Iceland, but in a different way). The frequent
intermarriages which mingled the best families of either race are
sufficient proof of the close communion of Northmen and Celts in the 9th
and 10th centuries, while there are in the poems themselves traces of
Celtic mythology, language and manners.[6]
When one turns to the early poetry of the Scandinavian continent,
preserved in the rune-staves on the memorial stones of Sweden, Norway
and Denmark, in the didactic _Havamal_, the _Great Volsung Lay_ (i.e.
Sigurd II., Fafnis's Lay, Sigrdrifa's Lay) and _Hamdismal_, all
continental, and all entirely consonant to the remains of Old English
poetry in metre, feeling and treatment, one can see that it is with this
school that the Icelandic "makers" are in sympathy, and that from it
their verse naturally descends. While shrewdness, plain
straightforwardness, and a certain stern way of looking at life are
common to both, the Icelandic school adds a complexity of structure and
ornament, an elaborate mythological and enigmatical phraseology, and a
regularity of rhyme, assonance, luxuriance, quantity and
syllabification, which it caught from the Latin and Celtic poets, and
adapted with exquisite ingenuity to its own main object, that of
securing the greatest possible beauty of sound.
The first generations of Icelandic poets resemble in many ways the later
troubadours; the books of the kings and the sagas are full of their
strange lives. Men of good birth (nearly always, too, of Celtic blood on
one side at least), they leave Iceland young and attach themselves to
the kings and earls of the north, living in their courts as their
henchmen, sharing their adventures in weal and woe, praising their
victories, and hymning their deaths if they did not fall by their
sides--men of quick passion, unhappy in their loves, jealous of rival
poets and of their own fame, ever ready to answer criticism with a
satire or with a sword-thrust, but clinging through all to their art, in
which they attained most marvellous skill.
Such men were Egil, the foe of Eirik Bloodaxe and the friend of
Æthelstan; Kormak, the hot-headed champion; Eyvind, King Haakon's poet,
called Skaldaspillir, because he copied in his dirge over that king the
older and finer _Eíríksmál_; Gunnlaug, who sang at Æthelred's court, and
fell at the hands of a brother bard, Hrafn; Hallfred, Olaf Tryggvason's
poet, who lies in Iona by the side of Macbeth; Sighvat, Saint Olafs
henchman, most prolific of all his comrades; Thormod, Coalbrow's poet,
who died singing after Sticklestad battle; Ref, Ottar the Black, Arnor
the earls' poet, and, of those whose poetry was almost confined to
Iceland, Gretti, Biorn the Hitdale champion, and the two model Icelandic
masters, Einar Skulason and Markus the Lawman, both of the 12th century.
It is impossible to do more here than mention the names of the most
famous of the long roll of poets which are noted in the works of Snorri
and in the two _Skalda-tal_. They range from the rough and noble pathos
of Egil, the mystic obscurity of Kormak, the pride and grief of
Hallfred, and the marvellous, fluency of Sighvat, to the florid
intricacy of Einar and Markus.
The art of poetry stood to the Icelanders in lieu of music; scarcely any
prominent man but knew how to turn a mocking or laudatory stanza, and
down to the fall of the commonwealth the accomplishment was in high
request. In the literary age the chief poets belong to the great
Sturlung family, Snorri and his two nephews, Sturla and Olaf, the White
Poet, being the most famous "makers" of their day. Indeed, it is in
Snorri's _Edda_, a poetic grammar of a very perfect kind, that the best
examples of the whole of northern poetry are to be found. The last part,
_Hattatal_, a treatise on metre, was written for Earl Skuli about 1222,
in imitation of Earl Rognvald and Hall's _Hattalykill_ (_Clavis
metrica_) of 1150. The second part, _Skaldskapar-mal_, a gradus of
synonyms and epithets, which contains over 240 quotations from 65 poets,
and 10 anonymous lays--a treasury of verse--was composed c. 1230. The
first part, an exquisite sketch of northern mythology, _Gylfa-ginning_,
was probably prefixed to the whole later. There is some of Sturla's
poetry in his _Islendinga Saga_, and verses of Snorri occur in the
_Grammatical Treatise_ on figures of speech, &c., of Olaf, which
contains about one hundred and forty quotations from various authors,
and was written about 1250.
Besides those sources, the _Kings' Lives of Snorri_ and later authors
contain a great deal of verse by Icelandic poets. King Harold
Sigurdsson, who fell at Stamford Bridge 1066, was both a good critic and
composed himself. Many tales are told of him and his poet visitors and
henchmen. The Icelandic sagas also comprise much verse which is partly
genuine, partly the work of the 12th and 13th century editors. Thus
there are genuine pieces in _Nial's Saga_ (chaps. 34, 78, 103, 126,
146), in _Eyrbyggia_, _Laxdæla_, _Egil's Saga_ (part only), _Grettla_
(two and a half stanzas, cf. _Landnamabók_), _Biorn's Saga_, _Gunnlaug's
Saga_, _Havard's Saga_, _Kormak's Saga_, _Viga-Glum's Saga_, _Erik the
Red's Saga_ and _Fostbrædra Saga_. In _Nial's_, _Gisli's_ and
_Droplaug's Sons' Sagas_ there is good verse of a later poet, and in
many sagas worthless rubbish foisted in as ornamental.
To these may be added two or three works of a semi-literary kind,
composed by learned men, not by heroes and warriors. Such are
_Konunga-tál_, _Hugsvinnsmál_ (a paraphrase of Cato's Distichs),
_Merlin's Prophecy_ (paraphrased from Geoffrey of Monmouth by Gunnlaug
the monk), _Jomsvikinga-drapa_ (by Bishop Ketil), and the
_Islendinga-drapa_, which has preserved brief notices of several lost
sagas concerning Icelandic worthies, with which _Gudmundar-drapa_,
though of the 14th century, may be also placed.
Just as the change of law gave the death-blow to an already perishing
commonwealth, so the rush of medieval influence, which followed the
union with Norway, completed a process which had been in force since the
end of the 11th century, when it overthrew the old Icelandic poetry in
favour of the rimur.
The introduction of the _danz_, ballads (or _fornkvædi_, as they are now
called) for singing, with a burden, usually relating to a love-tale,
which were immensely popular with the people and performed by whole
companies at weddings, yule feasts and the like, had relegated the
regular Icelandic poetry to more serious events or to the more
cultivated of the chiefs. But these "jigs," as the Elizabethans would
have called them, dissatisfied the popular ear in one way: they were,
like old English ballads, which they closely resembled, in rhyme, but
void of alliteration, and accordingly they were modified and replaced by
the "rimur," the staple literary product of the 15th century. These were
rhymed but also alliterative, in regular form, with prologue or
_mansong_ (often the prettiest part of the whole), main portion telling
the tale (mostly derived in early days from the French romances of the
Carlovingian, Arthurian or Alexandrian cycles, or from the mythic or
skrök-sögur), and epilogue. Their chief value to us lies in their having
preserved versions of several French poems now lost, and in their
evidence as to the feelings and bent of Icelanders in the "Dark Age" of
the island's history. The ring and melody which they all possess is
their chief beauty.
Of the earliest, _Olafsrima_, by Einar Gilsson (c. 1350), and the best,
the Aristophanic _Skída-rima_ (c. 1430), by Einar Fostri, the names may
be given. Rimur on sacred subjects was called "diktur"; of these, on the
legends of the saints' lives, many remain. The most notable of its class
is the _Lilia_ of Eystein Asgrimsson, a monk of Holyfell (c. 1350), a
most "sweet sounding song." Later the poems of the famous Jon Arason (b.
1484), last Catholic bishop of Holar (c. 1530), _Liomr_ ("gleam") and
_Píslargrátr_ ("passion-tears"), deserve mention. Arason is also
celebrated as having introduced printing into Iceland.
Taste has sunk since the old days; but still this rimur poetry is
popular and genuine. Moreover, the very prosaic and artificial verse of
Sturla and the last of the old school deserved the oblivion which came
over them, as a casual perusal of the stanzas scattered through
_Islendinga_ will prove. It is interesting to notice that a certain
number of _kenningar_ (poetical paraphrases) have survived from the old
school even to the present day, though the mass of them have happily
perished. The change in the _phonesis_ of the language is well
illustrated by the new metres as compared with the old Icelandic
_drott-kvædi_ in its varied forms. Most of the older rimur and diktur
are as yet unprinted. Many of the _fornkvædi_ are printed in a volume of
the old _Nordiske Litteralur-Samfund_.
The effects of the Reformation was deeply felt in Icelandic literature,
both prose and verse. The name of Hallgrim Petursson, whose
_Passion-hymns_, "the flower of all Icelandic poetry," have been the
most popular composition in the language, is foremost of all writers
since the second change of faith. The gentle sweetness of thought, and
the exquisite harmony of wording in his poems, more than justify the
popular verdict. His _Hymns_ were finished in 1660 and published in
1666, two great Protestant poets thus being contemporaries. A collection
of Reformation hymns, adapted, many of them, from the German, the
_Holar-book_, had preceded them in 1619. There was a good deal of
verse-writing of a secular kind, far inferior in every way, during this
period. In spite of the many physical distresses that weighed upon the
island, ballads (_fornkvædi_) were still written, ceasing about 1750,
rimur composed, and more elaborate compositions published.
The most notable names are those of the improvisatore Stephen the
Blind; Thorlak Gudbrandsson, author of _Ulfar-Rímur_, d. 1707; John
Magnusson, who wrote _Hristafla_, a didactic poem; Stefan Olafsson,
composer of psalms, rimur, &c., d. 1688; Gunnar Pálsson, the author of
_Gunnarslag_, often printed with the Eddic poems, c. 1791; and Eggert
Olafsson, traveller, naturalist and patriot, whose untimely death in
1768 was a great loss to his country. His _Bunadar-balkr_, a Georgic
written, like Tusser's _Points_, with a practical view of raising the
state of agriculture, has always been much prized. Paul Vidalin's
ditties are very naïve and clever.
Of later poets, down to more recent times, perhaps the best was Sigurd
of Broadfirth, many of whose prettiest poems were composed in Greenland
like those of Jon Biarnisson before him, c. 1750; John Thorlaksson's
translation of Milton's great epic into Eddic verse is praiseworthy in
intention, but, as may be imagined, falls far short of its aim. He also
turned Pope's _Essay on Man_ and Klopstock's _Messiah_ into Icelandic.
Benedikt Gröndal tried the same experiment with Homer in his _Ilion's
Kvædi_, c. 1825. There is a fine prose translation of the _Odyssey_ by
Sweinbjörn Egillson, the lexicographer, both faithful and poetic in high
degree.
_Sagas._--The real strength of ancient Icelandic literature is shown in
its most indigenous growth, the "Saga" (see also SAGA). This is, in its
purest form, the life of a hero, composed in regular form, governed by
fixed rules, and intended for oral recitation. It bears the strongest
likeness to the epic in all save its unversified form; in both are
found, as fixed essentials, simplicity of plot, chronological order of
events, set phrases used even in describing the restless play of emotion
or the changeful fortunes of a fight or a storm, while in both the
absence of digression, comment or intrusion of the narrator's person is
invariably maintained. The saga grew up in the quieter days which
followed the change of faith (1002), when the deeds of the great
families' heroes were still cherished by their descendants, and the
exploits of the great kings of Norway and Denmark handed down with
reverence. Telling of stories was a recognized form of entertainment at
all feasts and gatherings, and it was the necessity of the reciter which
gradually worked them into a regular form, by which the memory was
relieved and the artistic features of the story allowed to be more
carefully elaborated. That this form was so perfect must be attributed
to Irish influence, without which indeed there would have been a saga,
but not the same saga. It is to the west that the best sagas belong; it
is to the west that nearly every classic writer whose name we know
belongs; and it is precisely in the west that the admixture of Irish
blood is greatest. In comparing the Irish tales with the saga, there
will be felt deep divergencies in matter, style and taste, the richness
of one contrasting with the chastened simplicity of the other; the one's
half-comic, half-earnest bombast is wholly unlike the other's grim
humour; the marvellous, so unearthly in the one, is almost credible in
the other; but in both are the keen grasp of character, the biting
phrase, the love of action and the delight in blood which almost assumes
the garb of a religious passion.
When the saga had been fixed by a generation or two of oral reciters, it
was written down; and this stereotyped the form, so that afterwards when
literary works were composed by learned men (such as Abbot Karl's
_Swerri's Saga_ and Sturla's _Islendinga_) the same style was adopted.
Icelandic sagas.
Taking first the sagas relating to Icelanders, of which some thirty-five
or forty remain out of thrice that number, they were first written down
between 1140 and 1220, in the generation which succeeded Ari and felt
the impulse his books had given to writing, on separate scrolls, no
doubt mainly for the reciter's convenience; they then went through the
different phases which such popular compositions have to pass in all
lands--editing and compounding (1220-1260), padding and amplifying
(1260-1300), and finally collection in large MSS. (14th century). Sagas
exist showing all these phases, some primitive and rough, some refined
and beautified, some diluted and weakened, according as their copyists
have been faithful, artistic or foolish; for the first generation of
MSS. have all perished. We have also complex sagas put together in the
13th century out of the scrolls relating to a given locality, such a
group as still exists untouched in _Vapnfirdinga_ being fused into such
a saga as _Niala_ or _Laxdæla_. Of the authors nothing is known; we can
only guess that some belong to the Sturlung school. According to subject
they fall into two classes, those relating to the older generation
before Christianity and those telling of St Olaf's contemporaries; only
two fall into a third generation.
Beginning with the sagas of the west, most perfect in style and form,
the earliest in subject is that of _Gold-Thori_ (c. 930), whose
adventurous career it relates; _Hensa-Þorissaga_ tells of the burning of
Blund-Ketil, a noble chief, an event which led to Thord Gelli's reforms
next year (c. 964); _Gislasaga_ (960-980) tells of the career and death
of that ill-fated outlaw; it is beautifully written, and the verses by
the editor (13th century) are good and appropriate; _Hord's Saga_ (980)
is the life of a band of outlaws on Whalesfirth, and especially of their
leader Hord. Of later subject are the sagas of _Havard_ and his revenge
for his son, murdered by a neighbouring chief (997-1002); of the
_Heiðarirgasaga_ (990-1014), a typical tale of a great blood feud,
written in the most primitive prose; of Gunnlaug and Hrafn
(_Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu_, 980-1008), the rival poets and their
ill-starred love. The verse in this saga is important and interesting.
To the west also belong the three great complex sagas _Egla_,
_Eyrbyggia_ and _Laxdæla_. The first (870-980), after noticing the
migration of the father and grandfather of the hero poet Egil, and the
origin of the feud between them and the kings of Norway, treats fully of
Egil's career, his enmity with Eirik Bloodaxe, his service with
Æthelstan, and finally, after many adventures abroad, of his latter days
in Iceland at Borg, illustrating very clearly what manner of men those
great settlers and their descendants were, and the feelings of pride and
freedom which led them to Iceland. The style is that of Snorri, who had
himself dwelt at Borg. _Eyrbyggia_ (890-1031) is the saga of politics,
the most loosely woven of all the compound stories. It includes a mass
of information on the law, religion, traditions, &c., of the heathen
days in Iceland, and the lives of Eric, the real discoverer of
Greenland, Biorn of Broadwick, a famous chief, and Snorri, the greatest
statesman of his day. Dr Vigfusson would ascribe its editing and
completion to Sturla the Lawman, c. 1250. _Laxdæla_ (910-1026) is the
saga of Romance. Its heroine Gudrun is the most famous of all Icelandic
ladies. Her love for Kiartan the poet, and his career abroad, his
betrayal by his friend Bolli, the sad death of Kiartan at his hands, the
revenge taken for him on Bolli, whose slayers are themselves afterwards
put to death, and the end of Gudrun, who becomes an anchorite after her
stormy life, make up the pith of the story. The contrast of the
characters, the rich style and fine dialogue which are so remarkable in
this saga, have much in common with the best works of the Sturlung
school.
Of the north there are the sagas of _Kormak_ (930-960), most primitive
of all, a tale of a wild poet's love and feuds, containing many notices
of the heathen times; of _Vatzdælasaga_ (890-980), relating to the
settlement and the chief family in Waterdale; of _Hallfred_ the poet
(996-1014), narrating his fortune at King Olafs court, his love affairs
in Iceland, and finally his death and burial at Iona; of _Reyk-dæla_
(990), which preserves the lives of Askell and his son Viga-Skuti; of
_Svarf-dæla_ (980-990), a cruel, coarse story of the old days, with some
good scenes in it, unfortunately imperfect, chapters 1-10 being forged;
of _Viga-Glum_ (970-990), a fine story of a heathen hero, brave, crafty
and cruel. To the north also belong the sagas of _Gretti_ the Strong
(1010-1031), the life and death of the most famous of Icelandic outlaws,
the real story of whose career is mixed up with the mythical adventures
of Beowulf, here put down to Gretti, and with late romantic episodes and
fabulous folk-tales (Dr Vigfusson would ascribe the best parts of this
saga to Sturla; its last editor, whose additions would be better away,
must have touched it up about 1300), and the stories of the
_Ljosvetningasaga_ (1009-1060). Gudmund the Mighty and his family and
neighbours are the heroes of these tales, which form a little cycle.
The _Banda-manna saga_ (1050-1060), the only comedy among the sagas, is
also a northern tale; it relates the struggles of a plebeian who gets a
chieftancy against the old families of the neighbourhood, whom he
successfully outwits; _Öl-kofra þattr_ is a later imitation of it in the
same humorous strain. The sagas of the north are rougher and coarser
than those of the west, but have a good deal of individual character.
Of tales relating to the east there survive the Weapon-firth cycle--the
tales of _Thorstein the White_ (c. 900), of _Thorstein the Staffsmitten_
(c. 985), of _Gunnar Thidrand's Bane_ (1000-1008) and of the
_Weapon-firth Men_ (975-990), all relating to the family of Hof and
their friends and kin for several generations--and the story of
_Hrafnkell Frey's Priest_ (c. 960), the most idyllic of sagas and best
of the eastern tales. Of later times there are _Droplaug's Sons' Saga_
(997-1007), written probably about 1110, and preserved in the uncouth
style of the original (a brother's revenge for his brother's death is
the substance of it; _Brandkrossa Þattr_ is an appendix to it), and the
tales of _Thorstein Hall of Side's Son_ (c. 1014) and his brother
_Thidrandi_ (c. 996), which belong to the cycle of _Hall o' Side's
Saga_, unhappily lost; they are weird tales of bloodshed and magic, with
idyllic and pathetic episodes.
The sagas of the south are either lost or absorbed in that of _Nial_
(970-1014), a long and complex story into which are woven the tales of
_Gunnar Nial_, and parts of others, as _Brian Boroimhe_, _Hall o' Side_,
&c. It is, whether we look at style, contents or legal and historical
weight, the foremost of all sagas. It deals especially with law, and
contains the pith and the moral of all early Icelandic history. Its hero
Nial, type of the good lawyer, is contrasted with its villain Mord, the
ensample of cunning, chicane, and legal wrong doing; and a great part of
the saga is taken up with the three cases and suits of the divorce, the
death of Hoskuld and the burning of Nial, which are given with great
minuteness. The number and variety of its dramatis personae give it the
liveliest interest throughout. The women Hallgerda, Bergthora and
Ragnhild are as sharply contrasted as the men Gunnar, Skarphedin, Flosi
and Kari. The pathos of such tragedies as the death of Gunnar and
Hoskuld and the burning is interrupted by the humour of the Althing
scenes and the intellectual interest of the legal proceedings. The plot
dealing first with the life and death of Gunnar, type of the chivalry of
his day, then with the burning of Nial by Flosi, and how it came about,
and lastly with Kari's revenge on the burners, is the ideal saga-plot.
The author must have been of the east, a good lawyer and genealogist,
and have composed it about 1250, to judge from internal evidence. It has
been overworked by a later editor, c. 1300, who inserted many spurious
verses.
Of Greenland and North America.
Relating partly to Iceland, but mostly to Greenland and Vinland (N.
America), are the _Floamannasaga_ (985-990), a good story of the
adventures of Thorgils and of the struggles of shipwrecked colonists in
Greenland, a graphic and terrible picture; and _Eirikssaga rauða_
(990-1000), two versions, one northern (Flatey-book), one western, the
better (in _Hawk's Book_, and AM. 557), the story of the discovery of
Greenland and Vinland (America) by the Icelanders at the end of the 9th
century. Later is the _Fostbrædrasaga_ (1015-1030), a very interesting
story, told in a quaint romantic style, of Thorgeir, the reckless
henchman of King Olaf, and how his death was revenged in Greenland by
his sworn brother the true-hearted Thormod Coalbrow's poet, who
afterward dies at Sticklestad. The tale of _Einar Sookisson_ (c. 1125)
may also be noticed. The lost saga of _Poet Helgi_, of which only
fragments remain, was also laid in Greenland.
Besides complete sagas there are embedded in the _Heimskringla_ numerous
small _Þættir_ or episodes, small tales of Icelanders' adventures, often
relating to poets and their lives at the kings' courts; one or two of
these seem to be fragments of sagas now lost. Among the more notable are
those of _Orm Storolfsson_, _Ogmund Dijtt_, _Halldor Snorrason_,
_Thorstein Oxfoot_, _Hromund Halt_, _Thorwald Tasaldi_, _Svadi_ and
_Arnor Herlingar-nef_, _Audunn of Westfirth_, _Sneglu-Halli_, _Hrafn of
Hrutfiord_, _Hreidar Heimski_, _Gisli Illugison_, _Ivar_ the poet,
_Gull-Æsu Thord_, _Einar Skulason_ the poet, _Mani_ the poet, &c.
The forged Icelandic sagas appear as early as the 13th century. They are
very poor, and either worked up on hints given in genuine stories or
altogether apocryphal.
_History._--About the year of the battle of Hastings was born Ari Froði
Thorgilsson (1067-1148), one of the blood of Queen Aud, who founded the
famous historical school of Iceland, and himself produced its greatest
monument in a work which can be compared for value with the English
Domesday Book. Nearly all that we know of the heathen commonwealth may
be traced to the collections of Ari. It was he too that fixed the style
in which history should be composed in Iceland. It was he that secured
and put into order the vast mass of fragmentary tradition that was
already dying out in his day. And perhaps it is the highest praise of
all to him that he wrote in his own "Danish tongue," and so ensured the
use of that tongue by the cultured of after generations. Ari's great
works are _Konungabók_, or _The Book of Kings_, relating the history of
the kings of Norway from the rise of the Yngling dynasty down to the
death of Harald Sigurdsson in the year of his own birth. This book he
composed from the dictation of old men such as Odd Kolsson, from the
genealogical poems, and from the various dirges, battle-songs and
eulogia of the poets. It is most probable that he also compiled shorter
_Kings' Books_ relating to Denmark and perhaps to England. The
_Konungabók_ is preserved under the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri Sturloson,
parts of it almost as they came from Ari's hands, for example _Ynglinga_
and _Harald Fairhair's Saga_, and the prefaces stating the plan and
critical foundations of the work, parts of it only used as a framework
for the magnificent superstructure of the lives of the two Olafs, and of
Harald Hardrada and his nephew Magnus the Good. The best text of Ari's
_Konungabók_ (_Ynglinga_, and the sagas down to but not including Olaf
Tryggvason's) is that of _Frisbók_.
The _Book of Settlements_ (_Landnamabók_) is a wonderful performance,
both in its scheme and carrying out. It is divided into five parts, the
first of which contains a brief account of the discovery of the island;
the other four, one by one taking a quarter of the land, describe the
name, pedigree and history of each settler in geographical order, notice
the most important facts in the history of his descendants, the names of
their homesteads, their courts and temples, thus including mention of
4000 persons, one-third of whom are women, and 2000 places. The mass of
information contained in so small a space, the clearness and accuracy of
the details, the immense amount of life which is breathed into the
whole, astonish the reader, when he reflects that this colossal task was
accomplished by one man, for his collaborator Kolsegg merely filled up
his plan with regard to part of the east coast, a district with which
Ari in his western home at Stad was little familiar. _Landnamabók_ has
reached us in two complete editions, one edited by Sturla, who brought
down the genealogies to his own grandfather and grandmother, Sturla and
Gudny, and one by Hawk, who traces the pedigrees still later to himself.
Ari also wrote a _Book of Icelanders_ (_Islendingabók_, c. 1127), which
has perished as a whole, but fragments of it are embedded in many sagas
and _Kings' Lives_; it seems to have been a complete epitome of his
earlier works, together with an account of the constitutional history,
ecclesiastical and civil, of Iceland. An abridgment of the latter part
of it, the little _Libellus Islandorum_ (to which the title of the
bigger _Liber--Islendingabók_--is often given), was made by the
historian for his friends Bishops Ketil and Thorlak, for whom he wrote
the _Liber_ (c. 1137). This charming little book is, with the much later
collections of laws, our sole authority for the Icelandic constitution
of the commonwealth, but, "much as it tells, the lost _Liber_ would have
been of still greater importance." _Kristni-Saga_, the story of the
christening of Iceland, is also a work of Ari's, "overlaid" by a later
editor, but often preserving Ari's very words. This saga, together with
several scattered tales of early Christians in Iceland before the change
of faith (1002), may have made up a section of the lost _Liber_. Of the
author of these works little is known. He lived in quiet days a quiet
life; but he shows himself in his works, as Snorri describes him, "a man
wise, of good memory and a speaker of the truth." If Thucydides is
justly accounted the first political historian, Ari may be fitly styled
the first of scientific historians.
A famous contemporary and friend of Ari is Sæmund (1056-1131), a great
churchman, whose learning so impressed his age that he got the
reputation of a magician. He was the friend of Bishop John, the founder
of the great Odd-Verjar family, and the author of a _Book of Kings_ from
Harald Fairhair to Magnus the Good, in which he seems to have fixed the
exact chronology of each reign. It is most probable that he wrote in
Latin. The idea that he had anything to do with the poetic _Edda_ in
general, or the _Sun's Song_ in particular, is unfounded.
The flame which Ari had kindled was fed by his successors in the 12th
century. Eirik Oddsson (c. 1150) wrote the lives of Sigurd Evil-deacon
and the sons of Harold Gille, in his _Hryggiar-Stykki_ (Sheldrake), of
which parts remain in the MSS. collections of _Kings' Lives_,
_Morkin-skinna_, &c. Karl Jonsson, abbot of Thingore, the Benedictine
minister, wrote (c. 1184) _Sverrissaga_ from the lips of that great
king, a fine racy biography, with a style and spirit of its own.
_Böglunga-Sögur_ tell the story of the civil wars which followed
Sverri's death. They are probably by a contemporary.
The Latin _Lives of St Olaf_, Odd's in Latin (c. 1175), compiled from
original authorities, and the _Legendary Life_, by another monk whose
name is lost, are of the medieval Latin school of Sæmund to which
Gunnlaug belonged.
Snorri Sturlason (q.v.) was known to his contemporaries as a statesman
and poet; to us he is above all an historian. Snorri (1179-1241) wrote
the _Lives of the Kings_ (_Heimskringla_), from Olaf Tryggvason to
Sigurd the Crusader inclusive; and we have them substantially as they
came from his hand in the _Great King Olaf's Saga_; _St Olaf's Saga_, as
in _Heimskringla_ and the Stockholm MS.; and the succeeding _Kings'
Lives_, as in Hulda and Hrokkinskinna, in which, however, a few episodes
have been inserted.
These works were indebted for their facts to Ari's labours, and to sagas
written since Ari's death; but the style and treatment of them are
Snorri's own. The fine Thucydidean speeches, the dramatic power of
grasping character, and the pathos and poetry that run through the
stories, along with a humour such as is shown in the _Edda_, and a
varied grace of style that never flags or palls, make Snorri one of the
greatest of historians.
Here it should be noticed that _Heimskringla_ and its class of MSS.
(_Eirspennil_, _Jofraskinna_, _Gullinskinna_, _Fris-bok_ and _Kringla_)
do not give the full text of Snorri's works. They are abridgments made
in Norway by Icelanders for their Norwegian patrons, the _Life of St
Olaf_ alone being preserved intact, for the great interest of the
Norwegians lay in him, but all the other _Kings' Lives_ being more or
less mutilated, so that they cannot be trusted for historic purposes;
nor do they give a fair idea of Snorri's style.
_Agrip_ is a 12th-century compendium of the _Kings' Lives_ from Harald
Fairhair to Sverri, by a scholastic writer of the school of Sæmund. As
the only Icelandic abridgment of Norwegian history taken not from Snorri
but sources now lost, it is of worth. Its real title is _Konunga-tal_.
_Noregs Konunga-tal_, now called _Fagrskinna_, is a Norse compendium of
the _Kings' Lives_ from Halfdan the Black to Sverri's accession,
probably written for King Haakon, to whom it was read on his death-bed.
It is an original work, and contains much not found elsewhere. As
non-Icelandic it is only noticed here for completeness.
Styrmi Karason, a contemporary of Snorri's, dying in 1245, was a
distinguished churchman (lawman twice) and scholar. He wrote a _Life of
St Olaf_, now lost; his authority is cited. He also copied out
_Landnamabók_ and _Sverri's Life_ from his MSS., of which surviving
copies were taken.
Sturla, Snorri's nephew, wrote the _Hakonssaga_ and _Magnussaga_ at the
request of King Magnus, finishing the first c. 1265, the latter c.
1280. King Haakon's Life is preserved in full; of the other only
fragments remain. These are the last of the series of historic works
which Ari's labours began, from which the history of Norway for 500
years must be gathered.
A few books relating the history of other Scandinavian realms will
complete this survey. In _Skioldunga-bok_ was told the history of the
early kings of Denmark, perhaps derived from Ari's collections, and
running parallel to _Ynglinga_. The earlier part of it has perished save
a fragment _Sogu-brot_, and citations and paraphrases in Saxo, and the
mythical _Ragnar Lodbrok's_ and _Gongu-Hrolf's Sagas_; the latter part,
_Lives of Harold Bluetooth and the Kings down to Sveyn II._, is still in
existence and known as _Skioldunga_.
The _Knutssaga_ is of later origin and separate authorships, parallel to
Snorri's _Heimskringla_, but earlier in date. The _Lives of King
Valdemar and his Son_, written c. 1185, by a contemporary of Abbot
Karl's, are the last of this series. The whole were edited and compiled
into one book, often quoted as _Skioldunga_, by a 13th-century editor,
possibly Olaf, the White Poet, Sturla's brother, guest and friend of
King Valdemar II. _Jomsvikinga Saga_, the history of the pirates of Jom,
down to Knut the Great's days, also relates to Danish history.
The complex work now known as _Orkneyinga_ is made up of the _Earls'
Saga_, lives of the first great earls, Turf-Einar, Thorfinn, &c.; the
_Life of St Magnus_, founded partly on Abbot Robert's Latin life of him
(c. 1150) an Orkney work, partly on Norse or Icelandic biographies; a
_Mirade-book_ of the same saint; the _Lives of Earl Rognwald and Sveyn_,
the last of the vikings, and a few episodes such as the _Burning of
Bishop Adam_. A scholastic sketch of the rise of the Scandinavian
empire, the _Foundation of Norway_, dating c. 1120, is prefixed to the
whole.
_Færeyinga_ tells the tale of the conversion of the Færeys or Faroes,
and the lives of its chiefs Sigmund and Leif, composed in the 13th
century from their separate sagas by an Icelander of the Sturlung
school.
_Biographies._--The saga has already been shown in two forms, its
original epic shape and its later development applied to the lives of
Norwegian and Danish kings and earls, as heroic but deeper and broader
subjects than before. In the 13th century it is put to a third use, to
tell the plain story of men's lives for their contemporaries, after
satisfying which demand it dies away for ever.
These biographies are more literary and medieval and less poetic than
the Icelandic sagas and king's lives; their simplicity, truth, realism
and purity of style are the same. They run in two parallel streams, some
being concerned with chiefs and champions, some with bishops. The former
are mostly found embedded in the complex mass of stories known as
_Sturlunga_, from which Dr Vigfusson has extricated them, and for the
first time set them in order. Among them are the sagas of _Thorgils and
Haflidi_ (1118-1121), the feud and peacemaking of two great chiefs,
contemporaries of Ari; of _Sturla_ (1150-1183), the founder of the great
Sturlung family, down to the settlement of his great lawsuit by Jon
Loptsson, who thereupon took his son Snorri the historian to
fosterage,--a humorous story but with traces of the decadence about it,
and glimpses of the evil days that were to come; of the
_Önundar-brennusaga_ (1185-1200), a tale of feud and fire-raising in the
north of the island, the hero of which, Gudmund Dyri, goes at last into
a cloister; of _Hrafn Sveinbiornsson_ (1190-1213), the noblest Icelander
of his day, warrior, leech, seaman, craftsman, poet and chief, whose
life at home, travels and pilgrimages abroad (Hrafn was one of the first
to visit Becket's shrine), and death at the hands of a foe whom he had
twice spared, are recounted by a loving friend in pious memory of his
virtues, c. 1220; of _Áron Hiorleifsson_ (1200-1255), a man whose
strength, courage and adventures befit rather a henchman of Olaf
Tryggvason than one of King Haakon's thanes (the beginning of the feuds
that rise round Bishop Gudmund are told here), of the _Svinefell-men_
(1248-1252), a pitiful story of a family feud in the far east of
Iceland.
But the most important works of this class are the _Islendinga Saga_ and
_Thorgils Saga_ of Lawman Sturla. Sturla and his brother Olaf were the
sons of Thord Sturlason and his mistress Thora. Sturla was born and
brought up in prosperous times, but his manhood was passed in the midst
of strife, in which his family fell one by one, and he himself, though a
peaceful man who cared little for politics, was more than once forced to
fly for his life. While in refuge with King Magnus, in Norway, he wrote
his two sagas of that king and his father. After his first stay in
Norway he came back in 1271, with the new Norse law-book, and served a
second time as lawman. The _Islendinga_ must have been the work of his
later years, composed at Fairey in Broadfirth, where he died, 30th July
1284, aged about seventy years. The saga of _Thorgils Skardi_
(1252-1261) seems to have been the first of his works on Icelandic
contemporary history; it deals with the life of his own nephew,
especially his career in Iceland from 1252 to 1258. The second part of
_Islendinga_ (1242-1262), which relates to the second part of the civil
war, telling of the careers of Thord Kakali, Kolbein the Young, Earl
Gizur and Hrafn Oddsson. The end is imperfect, there being a blank of
some years before the fragmentary ending to which an editor has affixed
a notice of the author's death. The first part of _Islendinga_
(1202-1242) tells of the beginning and first part of the civil wars, the
lives of Snorri and Sighvat, Sturla's uncles, of his cousin and namesake
Sturla Sighvatsson, of Bishop Gudmund, and Thorwald Gizursson,--the fall
of the Sturlungs, and with them the last hopes of the great houses to
maintain the commonwealth, being the climax of the story.
Sturla's power lies in his faithfulness to nature, minute observance of
detail and purity of style. The great extent of his subject, and the
difficulty of dealing with it in the saga form, are most skilfully
overcome; nor does he allow prejudice or favour to stand in the way of
the truth. He ranks below Ari in value and below Snorri in power; but no
one else can dispute his place in the first rank of Icelandic writers.
Of the ecclesiastical biographers, an anonymous Skalholt clerk is the
best. He wrote _Hungrvaka_, lives of the first five bishops of Skalholt,
and biographies of his patron Bishop Paul (_Pálssaga_) and also of St
Thorlak (_Thorlakssaga_). They are full of interesting notices of social
and church life. Thorlak was a learned man, and had studied at Paris and
Lincoln, which he left in 1161. These lives cover the years 1056-1193.
The life of St John, a great reformer, a contemporary of Thorodd, whom
he employed to build a church for him, is by another author (1052-1121).
The life of Gudmund (_Gudmundar Saga Goda_), as priest, recounts the
early life of this Icelandic Becket till his election as bishop
(1160-1202); his after career must be sought out in _Islendinga_. It is
written by a friend and contemporary. A later life by Arngrim, abbot of
Thingore, written c. 1350, as evidence of his subject's sanctity, tells
a good deal about Icelandic life, &c. The lives of Bishops Arni and
Lawrence bring down our knowledge of Icelandic history into the 14th
century. The former work, _Arna Saga Biskups_, is imperfect; it is the
record of the struggles of church and state over patronage rights and
glebes, written c. 1315; it now covers only the years 1269-1291; a great
many documents are given in it, after the modern fashion. The latter,
_Laurentius Saga Biskups_, by his disciple, priest Einar Haflidason, is
a charming biography of a good and pious man, whose chequered career in
Norway and Iceland is picturesquely told (1324-1331). It is the last of
the sagas. _Bishop Jon's Table-Talk_ (1325-1339) is also worth noticing;
it contains many popular stories which the good bishop, who had studied
at Bologna and Paris, was wont to tell to his friends.
_Annals._--The _Annals_ are now almost the sole material for Icelandic
history; they had begun earlier, but after 1331 they got fuller and
richer, till they end in 1430. The best are _Annales Regii_, ending
1306, _Einar Haflidason's Annals_, known as "Lawman's Annals," reaching
to 1392, and preserved with others in _Flatey-book_, and the _New
Annals_, last of all. The _Diplomatarium Islandicum_, edited by Jon
Sigurdsson, contains what remains of deeds, inventories, letters, &c.,
from the old days, completing our scanty material for this dark period
of the island's history.
_Literature of Foreign Origin._--After the union with Norway and change
of law genuine tradition died out with the great houses. The ordinary
medieval literature reached Iceland through Norway, and every one began
to put it into a vernacular dress, so neglecting their own classics that
but for a few collectors like Lawman Hauk they would have perished
entirely.
The Norwegian kings, Haakon Haakonson (c. 1225), and Haakon V. (c.
1305), employed Icelanders at their courts in translating the French
romances of the Alexander, Arthur and Charlemagne cycles. Some forty or
fifty of these _Riddara-Sögur_ (Romances of Chivalry) remain. They
reached Iceland and were eagerly read, many Rimur being founded on them.
Norse versions of _Mary of Brittany's Lays_, the stories of _Brutus_ and
of _Troy_, and part of the _Pharsalia_ translated are also found. The
_Speculum Regale_, with its interesting geographical and social
information, is also Norse, written c. 1240, by a Halogalander. The
computistic and arithmetical treatises of Stiorn-Odd, Biarni the
Number-skilled (d. 1173), and Hauk Erlendsson the Lawman (d. 1334), and
the geography of Ivar Bardsson, a Norwegian (c. 1340), are of course of
foreign origin. A few tracts on geography, &c., in Hauk's book, and a
_Guide to the Holy Land_, by Nicholas, abbot of Thwera (d. 1158),
complete the list of scientific works.
The stories which contain the last lees of the old mythology and
pre-history seem to be also non-Icelandic, but amplified by Icelandic
editors, who probably got the plots from the Western Islands. _Völsunga
Saga_ and _Hervarar Saga_ contain quotations and paraphrases of lays by
the Helgi poet, and _Half's_, _Ragnar's_ and _Asmund Kappabana's Sagas_
all have bits of Western poetry in them. _Hrolf Kraki's Saga_
paraphrases part of _Biarkamal_; _Hromund Gripsson's_ gives the story of
Helgi and Kara (the lost third of the Helgi trilogy); _Gautrek's Arrow
Odd's_, _Frithiof's Sagas_, &c., contain shreds of true tradition amidst
a mass of later fictitious matter of no worth. With the _Riddara-Sögur_
they enjoyed great popularity in the 15th century, and gave matter for
many Rimur. _Thidrek's Saga_, a late version of the Völsung story, is of
Norse composition (c. 1230), from North German sources.
The medieval religious literature of Western Europe also influenced
Iceland, and the _Homilies_ (like the _Laws_) were, according to
Thorodd, the earliest books written in the vernacular, antedating even
Ari's histories. The lives of the _Virgin_, the _Apostles_ and the
_Saints_ fill many MSS. (edited in four large volumes by Professor
Unger), and are the works of many authors, chiefly of the 13th and 14th
centuries; amongst them are the lives of _SS. Edward the Confessor_,
_Oswald of Northumbria_, _Dunstan_ and _Thomas of Canterbury_. Of the
authors we know Priest Berg Gunsteinsson (d. 1211); Kygri-Biorn,
bishop-elect (d. 1237); Bishop Brand (d. 1264); Abbot Runolf (d. 1307);
Bishop Lawrence's son Arni (c. 1330); Abbot Berg (c. 1340), &c. A
paraphrase of the historical books of the Bible was made by Bishop Brand
(d. 1264), called _Gydinga Sögur_. About 1310 King Haakon V. ordered a
commentary on the Bible to be made, which was completed down to Exodus
xix. To this Brand's work was afterwards affixed, and the whole is known
as _Stiorn_. The Norse version of the famous _Barlaam and Josaphat_,
made for Prince Haakon (c. 1240), must not be forgotten.
_Post-classical Literature._--The post-classical literature falls
chiefly under three heads--religious, literary and scientific. Under the
first comes foremost the noble translation of the New Testament by Odd
Gottskalksson, son of the bishop of Hólar. Brought up in Norway, he
travelled in Denmark and Germany, and took upon him the new faith before
he returned to Iceland, where he became secretary to Bishop Ogmund of
Skalholt. Here he began by translating the Gospel of Matthew into his
mother-tongue in secret. Having finished the remainder of the New
Testament at his own house at Olves, he took it to Denmark, where it was
printed at Roskild in 1540. Odd afterwards translated the Psalms, and
several devotional works of the day, Corvinus's _Epistles_, &c. He was
made lawman of the north and west, and died from a fall in the Laxa in
Kios, June 1556. Three years after his death the first press was set up
in Iceland by John Matthewson, at Breidabolstad, in Hunafloe, and a
_Gospel and Epistle Book_, according to Odd's version, issued from it
in 1562. In 1584 Bishop Gudbrand, who had brought over a splendid fount
of type from Denmark in 1575 (which he completed with his own hands),
printed a translation of the whole Bible at Hólar, incorporating Odd's
versions and some books (Proverbs and the Son of Sirach, 1580)
translated by Bishop Gizar, but supplying most of the Old Testament
himself. This fine volume was the basis of every Bible issued for
Iceland till 1826, when it was replaced by a bad modern version. For
beauty of language and faithful simplicity of style the finer parts of
this version, especially the New Testament, have never been surpassed.
The most notable theological work Iceland ever produced is the
_Postill-Book_ of Bishop John Vidalin (1666-1720), whose bold homely
style and stirring eloquence made "John's Book," as it is lovingly
called, a favourite in every household, till in the 19th century it was
replaced for the worse by the more sentimental and polished Danish
tracts and sermons. Theological literature is very popular, and many
works on this subject, chiefly translations, will be found in the lists
of Icelandic bibliographers.
The first modern scientific work is the _Iter per patriam_ of Eggert
Olafsson and Biarni Paulsson, which gives an account of the physical
peculiarities--fauna, flora, &c.--of the island as far as could be done
at the date of its appearance, 1772. The island was first made known to
"the world" by this book and by the sketch of Unno von Troil, a Swede,
who accompanied Sir Joseph Banks to Iceland in 1772, and afterwards
wrote a series of "letters" on the land and its literature, &c. This
tour was the forerunner of an endless series of "travels," of which
those of Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir G. S. Mackenzie (1810), Ebenezer
Henderson (1818), Joseph Paul Gaimard (1838-1843), Paijkull (1867) and,
lastly, that of Sir Richard Burton, an excellent account of the land and
people, crammed with information of every kind (1875), are the best.
Iceland is emphatically a land of proverbs, while of folk-tales, those
other keys to the people's heart, there is plentiful store. Early work
in this direction was done by Jon Gudmundsson, Olaf the Old and John
Olafsson in the 17th century, who all put traditions on paper, and their
labours were completed by the magnificent collection of Jon Arnason
(1862-1864), who was inspired by the example of the Grimms. Many tales
are but weak echoes of the sagas; many were family legends, many are old
fairy tales in a garb suited to their new northern home; but, besides
all these, there are a number of traditions and superstitions of
indigenous origin.
The Renaissance of Iceland dates from the beginning of the 17th century,
when a school of antiquaries arose. Arngrim Jonsson's _Brevis
Commentarius_ (1593), and _Crymogaea_ (1609), were the first-fruits of
this movement, of which Bishops Odd, Thorlak and Bryniulf (worthy
parallels to Parker and Laud) were the wise and earnest supporters. The
first (d. 1630) collected much material for church history. The second
(d. 1656) saved _Sturlunga_ and the _Bishops' Lives_, encouraged John
Egilsson to write his _New Hungerwaker_, lives of the bishops of the
Dark Ages and Reformation, and helped Biorn of Skardsa (d. 1655), a bold
and patriotic antiquary (whose _Annals_ continue Einar's), in his
researches. The last (d. 1675) collected a fine library of MSS., and
employed the famous copyist John Erlendsson, to whom and the bishop's
brother, John Gizurarsson (d. 1648), we are indebted for transcripts of
many lost MSS.
Torfaeus (1636-1719) and Bartholin, a Dane (d. 1690), roused the taste
for northern literature in Europe, a taste which has never since
flagged; and soon after them Arni Magnusson (1663-1730) transferred all
that remained of vellum and good paper MSS. in Iceland to Denmark, and
laid the foundations of the famous library and bequest, for which all
Icelandic students are so much beholden. For over forty years Arni stuck
to his task, rescuing every scrap he could lay hands on from the risks
of the Icelandic climate and carelessness, and when he died only one
good MSS. remained in the island. Besides his magnificent collection,
there are a few MSS. of great value at Upsala, at Stockholm, and in the
old royal collection at Copenhagen. Those in the university library in
the latter city perished in the fire of 1728. Sagas were printed at
Upsala and Copenhagen in the 17th century, and the Arna-Magnaean fund
has been working since 1772. In that year appeared also the first volume
of Bishop Finn Jonsson's _Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae_, a work of
high value and much erudition, containing not only ecclesiastical but
civil and literary history, illustrated by a well-chosen mass of
documents, 870-1740. It has been continued by Bishop P. Peterson to
modern times, 1740-1840. The results, however, of modern observers and
scholars must be sought for in the periodicals, _Safn_, _Felagsrit_, _Ny
Felagsrit_ and others. John Espolin's _Arbækr_ is very good up to its
date, 1821.
A brilliant sketch of Icelandic classic literature is given by Dr
Gudbrandr Vigfusson in the Prolegomena to _Sturlunga Saga_ (Oxford,
1879). It replaces much earlier work, especially the _Sciagraphia_ of
Halfdan Einarsson (1777), and the _Saga-Bibliotek_ of Müller. The
numerous editions of the classics by the Icelandic societies, the
Danish Société des Antiquités, Nordiske Litteratur Samfund, and the
new Gammel Nordisk Litteratur Samfund, the splendid Norwegian editions
of Unger, the labours of the Icelanders Sigurdsson and Gislason, and
of those foreign scholars in Scandinavia and Germany who have thrown
themselves into the work of illustrating, publishing and editing the
sagas and poems (men like P. A. Munch, S. Bugge, F. W. Bergmann, Th.
Möbius and K. von Maurer, to name only a few), can only be referred to
here. See also Finnur Jónsson, _Den Oldnorske og Oldislanske
Litteraturs Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1893-1900); R. B. Anderson's
translation (Chicago, 1884) of Winkel Horn's _History of the
Literature of the Scandinavian North_; and W. Morris and E.
Magnusson's _Saga Library_. (F. Y. P.)