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[Illustration: MAP OF ICELAND
AFTER ÞORVALDAR THORODDSEN
1900]
[Illustration: _Mrs. Russell in the Festal Costume of Iceland. The Author
in the Full Dress of the Faroese._]
ICELAND
HORSEBACK TOURS IN SAGA LAND
W. S. C. RUSSELL
_Illustrated from Photographs
By the Author_
[Illustration]
BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER
TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED
Copyright, 1914, by Richard G. Badger
All Rights Reserved
THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A.
TO MY WIFE
GRACE
WHO TWICE COURAGEOUSLY ACCOMPANIED ME
OVER ICELANDIC TRAILS
AND TWICE
DISPLAYED THE GREATER COURAGE
REMAINING AT HOME
ALONE
THIS SIMPLE RECORD OF OUR WANDERINGS
AFFECTIONATELY
I
DEDICATE
FOREWORD
This Foreword, were it not for the tyrant Custom, might as well be
omitted, since a preface is seldom read. Boldly I make my first
appearance before the critical public with no excuses to offer and
no apology to the reader for adding another volume to the long list
of travel books in the English tongue. But I have reasons why I have
ventured into print.
First,—Iceland has a fascination for all who know it. Its history, its
ancient and modern literature, its legends and folklore, the people
with their customs of a thousand years unchanged, the magnificence
and grandeur of its scenery, its bird and plant life, its unexcelled
opportunities for the student of geology,—all these and many more, are
reasons why all the English speaking people should know something of this
ancient branch of the Gothic line from which time and circumstance have
separated the Angle and the Saxon.
Second,—There is little or nothing in the English language that is
authoritative concerning present conditions in Iceland. Henderson,
publishing in 1819, and Miss Oswald in 1882, are the only writers in
English who have given to the public a fair and appreciative story of
Iceland and its people. True it is that there are a few brief works,
mainly the accounts of a sojourn of two or possibly three weeks in the
country, but they are of necessity limited in scope of observation and
lacking in appreciation of real conditions. A character study of the
conservative Icelander may not be completed in a single season, one must
live with him to know him.
Third,—The kindness with which my numerous lectures on Iceland have been
received by the public and the manifest lack of any definite knowledge
concerning this country and its people have led me to place before the
public this straightforward, simple tale about the Icelanders with some
descriptions of their fascinating land. It is the result of extended
travels during the summers of 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1913 through the well
known sections and in the out-of-the-way places as well as the unknown
portions.
I desire to make the following acknowledgments:—I have both Henderson
and Miss Oswald to thank for my first interest and their observations
and remarks have ever been in my mind for a comparison with my own
experiences. My thanks are due to many Icelanders, to all those who
unselfishly opened their doors that I might share their hospitality,
more especially to those who in kindness answered my numerous questions,
often quite personal, about their countrymen and customs,—in particular
do I mention Helgi Zoëga, who has been untiring in furnishing ponies,
provisions and sound advice; Steffán Steffánson, who has written many
lengthy letters in answer to inquiries; Ólafur Eyvindsson, my friend and
trusty guide, whose name frequently occurs in these pages and Dr. Geir
T. Zoëga, First Master of the Latin School at Reykjavik, for his advice
and council. Finally, I acknowledge my indebtedness to her, to whom this
volume is dedicated, for her kindly criticism of these pages while in
progress of composition and for the final reading and examination of
proofs.
Sir Walter Scott has said in reference to one of his poetical works:—
“…, though scarce my skill command
Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay,
Though harsh and faint and soon to die away,—
…
Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway,
The wizard note has not been touched in vain.”
And so I say,—if one person acquires an interest in Iceland and its noble
people, its history and its ancient tales,—this labor has not been in
vain.
_Springfield, Massachusetts, February, 1914._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I HISTORICAL 13
_Outline of Discovery and Settlement._
II THE LURE 31
_Why I Go to Iceland._
III THE WAY 34
_How to Get There._
IV FAROE 37
_The Faroe Islanders, their Manners and their Islands._
V VESTMANNEYJAR 50
_The Westman Islands on the South-west Coast._
VI REYKJAVIK 60
_Educational and Sociological._
VII THINGVELLIR 76
_The Mecca of Iceland, Historical, Descriptive._
VIII GEYSIR 98
_The Greatest Geyser Known._
IX GULLFOSS 117
_Waterfalls, People and Customs._
X HEKLA 131
_Its Ascent, Its History, Its Grandeur._
XI KRISUVIK 157
_Descriptive Customs and Information._
ICELAND REVISITED 182
_An Appreciation._
XII SEYÐISFJÖRÐR 184
_The East Coast, the Scenery and the People._
XIII MÝVATN 204
_The Fairest Spot in All That Land._
XIV KRAFLA 229
_Volcanic, Historical, Experiences._
XV VATNSDALR 243
_Descriptive, Sagas and Romance._
XVI REYKHOLT 275
_Caves, Waterfalls, Hot Springs and Snorri._
XVII APPENDIX 300
_Notes and Corrections._
INDEX 306
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Mrs. Russell in Festal Costume of _Iceland_, the Author
in Full Dress of the _Faroese_, _Frontispiece_
Cutting up Whale Meat at _Thorshavn_, 38
Heads of the Bottle Nose Whale, 38
_Helgafell_, Volcanic Cone, _Vestmannaeyjar_, 56
A Chain of Basalt Pyramids in _Faroe_, 56
The Hay Market and the Harbor at _Reykjavik_, 66
An Odd Corner in _Reykjavik_, 66
The Latin School at _Reykjavik_, 72
The _Thinghús_, Parliament Building, _Reykjavik_, 72
Foot of the _Öxerá_ in _Almannagjá_, 96
_Lögberg_, Mount of Laws, between the Rifts, _Ármannsfell_ in
the Distance, 96
Bridge River, _Brúará_, near _Geysir_, 114
Tube of _Geysir_ Filling, Photographed from within the Basin, 114
Favorite Ponies, _Sunlocks_ and _Greba_, 158
Mountains of Sulfur, _Solfataras_, at _Krisuvik_, 158
When the Fog Lifted,—Entrance to _Seyðisfjörðr_, 184
Washing Split Cod at _Faskrudsfjörðr_, 184
_Goðafoss_, the Icelandic Niagara, on the _Skjalfandafljöt_, 204
Island Craters in the _Mývatn_, from _Skútustaðir_, 204
Fording a Shallow Arm of the _Mývatn_, Turf Cottage in the
Distance, 218
Contorted, Twisted and Crumpled Lava at _Skútustaðir_, 218
A Hot Water Fall at _Hveravellir_, (Hot Spring Valley), 226
_Slútness_, Crater Island in the _Mývatn_, Home of the Golden
Eyed Duck, 226
Flag of the Arctic Club of America On the Summit of _Krafla_, 238
Obsidian Ridge, _Hrafntinnuhryggr_, near Summit of _Krafla_, 238
_Thverá_, a Highland Home in the _Öxnadalr_, 248
_Vatnsdalshólar_, Numberless Conical Hills in _Vatnsdalr_, 248
The Glacier of _Láng Jökull_ in the _Kaldidalr_, 276
Glaciers and Moraine on _Arnavatnsheiði_, 276
_Árhver_, River Hot Springs near _Reykholt_, 292
_Reykholt_, Ancient Stead of Snorri, Typical Icelandic Farm, 292
ICELAND
CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL
_Atossa._—And who is set over them as a shepherd of the flock,
and is master of the army?
_Chorus._—They call themselves the slaves of no man, nor the
subjects either.
—_Aeschylus._
Historically, Iceland is unique. Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Italy,
Mexico,—each has a prehistoric period of human habitation, when man loved
and hated, and competed with the brutes for existence. He fashioned his
instruments from stone and made self-preservation his first and only
law. A sturdy race, little removed from the highest brutes, filled with
animal vigor and endowed with brute passions, held all known lands in
prehistoric time. Step by step, cycle upon cycle, brute force submitted
to reason; culture and refinement, mental acquisition and spiritual
attainment characterized an evolutionary race of human beings in which
each developing cycle was founded upon the decadence of the prehistoric.
Not so with Iceland. A myriad centuries the Atlantic had rolled its
billows against these basalt cliffs, the Arctic packed its ice upon these
shores, the beetling mountains cast their rugged outlines upon the quiet
fiords, the great Plutonic candles flamed in the Arctic air and guttered
the land again and again with scorching streams of molten rock. The seal
basked in the sunshine of the lengthened summer, the salmon sported
in the glacial streams and millions of birds congregated on the lofty
cliffs. All life was blissfully ignorant of its great enemy, man.
There are no prehistoric conditions in Iceland.
The men who settled Iceland were neither serf nor savage. They were men
of might and power, fearless and of high birth and of the highest mental
capacity in the ancient days of Norway. The cause of their emigration
is related by Snorri in _Heimskringla_. Halfdan, the Black, was one of
the petty kings of Norway. At his death, he left his realm to Harald,
a child of ten years, known in history as The Fair Haired.[1] It is to
the influence of a high-minded woman, Gyda, daughter of Eric, King of
Hordaland, that the settlement of Iceland by the nobles of Scandinavia is
due. Harald sent his messengers to Gyda with the request that she become
his wife. To their demand she replied,—
“I will not waste my maidenhood for the taking to husband of a king who
has no more realm to rule over than a few folks. Marvelous it seems to
me that there be no king minded to make Norway his own and be sole lord
thereof in such wise as Gorm of Denmark or Eric of Upsala have done.”
Her reply in no way angered Harald. On the contrary he praised her high
spirit and said,—
“For she has brought to my mind that matter which it now seems to me
wondrous I have not had in my mind before.”
He then made the following oath,—
“This oath I make fast, and swear before that God who made me and who
rules over all things, that nevermore will I cut my hair or comb it, till
I have gotten to me all Norway, with the scat thereof and the dues, and
all rule thereover, or else I will die rather.”
After years of strenuous warfare he brought all Norway under his rule,
wedded Gyda and held a feast. Snorri completes the story as follows,—
“So King Harald took a bath, and then he let his hair be combed, and
then Earl Rognavald sheared it. And heretofore it had been uncombed and
unshorn for ten winters. Aforetime he had been called Shock-head, but
now Earl Rognavald gave him a by-name and called him Harald Fair Haired,
and all said who saw him that he was most soothly named, for he had both
plenteous hair and goodly.”
Harald lived from 860 to 933 A. D. He introduced that new doctrine of
middle Europe that made the people the king’s retainers at all times
and not on special occasions. It was a centralization and consolidation
of power and royal authority. It laid taxes upon all the lands and
interfered with what the people had ever held as their vested rights. It
enabled the monarch to meddle with the holdings of his people and aimed
to cement the entire country into one kingdom of power through a central
head rather than to permit the existence of several petty realms, each
presided over by a Jarl who was jealous of his more powerful neighbors.
To the lesser rulers the course of Harald was tyrannical, a curse upon
their freedom, a blight upon their ambition. As we view the situation
from the distance of ten centuries, it was a step in the progress of
the nations that was to result in a blessing through the introduction
of Christianity and the ultimate progress of civilization. The freemen
resisted as long as they could; beaten again and again they gathered
their waning strength and renewed the desperate struggle, but to no
purpose. One by one the freeholders came under Harald’s dominion. Many
withdrew from the scene of strife, forsook the land of their birth,
preferring exile with their accustomed liberties to vassalage under
conditions, where, as they deemed, no free-born man would care to live.
We now read of them in many lands. France, Italy, Spain,—each in turn
feels the fury of the wrath of the fair-haired warriors of the north.
A century later, we behold these restless wanderers victorious in the
streets of Byzantium. They check their foes from whatever source they
come, never give quarter and swiftly ride to victory, be it on their
spirited chargers or in their high-prowed seahorses. In Sicily, Asia, the
shores of the Black Sea, in Greece, in northern Africa, no matter where,
the stoutest champions of the Moslem or the less valiant warriors of the
declining Roman Empire, all feel the force of the northern blast and
succumb to the prowess of the Northmen. Wherever they go they leave their
mark, and to this day the arsenal of Venice is scored with runes which
boast the triumphs of the Vikings.
Of all their wanderings the islands “west-over-the-sea” were their chosen
field for conquest. For centuries the coast and river hamlets of England,
Scotland and Ireland were in constant dread of their bloody depredations.
Their blows were quickly struck. Whence they came the Briton did not
know. Swift as the hawk upon the sparrow, they swept down upon some
quiet, industrious hamlet with merciless weapon in hand. Fire, pillage
and slaughter followed in their wake. They plundered home and sanctuary,
tossed in sport the screaming children on their pikes, sent their mothers
to shame and serfdom, and left the erstwhile peaceful Briton to quench
the ebbing stream of life in the smouldering embers of his former home.
Ireland, where a civilization, greater than we shall ever know, was
crumbling, lured them to mingle in the strife between its petty lords,
from which the Vikings always issued with the lion’s share of the spoil
and glory. Scotland, and its adjacent islands, offered tempting chances
for swift descent upon unprotected hamlets; and in the hours of their
rest or preparation for a new onslaught, its channels afforded them
protection and opportunity to refit their ships. The blow struck and they
were away with seahorse laden to the water’s edge, seeking the security
of the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the distant lava peaks of Faroe.
These island groups ultimately became the homes of those who dared not
return to Norway or had become too aged to mingle longer in the robbery
of Europe. From these islands the self-exiled Northmen sailed forth to
assist now one faction of England, Scotland and Ireland, and now another,
and even vented their spite by continued bold and dastardly forays upon
the domains of Harald.
In 860 Naddodd, a Faroe Viking, left his native Isles and was driven by
contrary winds deep into the stormy waters of the north. For days no
land was visible, and the anxious eye beheld only the boundless waste
of waters shrouded in impenetrable fogs, and the occasional glimpses
were only of the rolling, drift-strewn sea ever beyond. At length, the
mists were lifted, and the plucky mariner beheld the snow-capped peaks
of Iceland. A landing was effected but Naddodd found no traces of human
beings, and in his deep disgust he christened the newly discovered
country Snaeland, immediately taking his departure.
In 864 Gardar, a Swedish Viking, in attempting to reach the Hebrides,
was driven by adverse winds, as Naddodd had been, and at length reached
Iceland. He explored the coast quite thoroughly and was the first to
circumnavigate it. He built a house on the shore of _Skjalfandifjörðr_,
the present site of _Húsavik_, “house-by-the-creek.” Hoping to affix his
name to the country, he rechristened it Gardar’s Holm. On his return
to the Hebrides he gave an enthusiastic account of his voyage and
discoveries.
This story so influenced Floki Vilgerdarson, a famous old Viking, that
he resolved at once to settle in the new country. Floki, trusting to
the flight of ravens, took three of these sable birds of omen as his
pilots. When a little beyond the Faroe Islands, he liberated one bird
which immediately returned to the land. Some days later a second was set
free, whereupon it arose, circled about the ship and returned to its
cage. Later the third was liberated. This bird flew to the northwest,
and piloted Floki to Iceland. On entering a great bay, bounded on the
right by a lofty mountain and on the left by a rugged promontory, Faxa,
one of his companions, called the attention of Floki to the fact that
such prominent physical features must mark a land of vast expansion and
enormous riches. So flattered was Floki that the bay was immediately
christened _Faxafjörðr_, its present name. A colony was founded on
a small inlet which in honor of their feathered pilot was named
_Hrafnarfjörðr_, “Raven’s fiord.” Proper precaution was not taken for the
severe winter that followed, and during the second year the few survivors
returned to Faroe in disgust and gave to this inhospitable land the
chilly name of _Iceland_.
Among the first of the high-born Jarls of Norway to leave his native land
was Ingölfr Arnarson, accompanied by his foster brother, Hjörleifr. Many
of his friends had gone to ravage France, others went to England, where
Alfred was beginning his eventful reign and still others remained in
Norway to await the reports from Ingölfr in Iceland. This was in 874, and
recalling accounts of Gardar, they set sail with high hopes. Ingölfr took
with him the pillars of the high seat of his ancestral hall and when he
came in sight of the icy domes of the _Öraefa Jökull_ he cast the pillars
into the sea and vowed that upon whatever coast they drifted, there would
be found his colony. How many a traveller in modern days has sailed
those same waters with the story of Ingölfr fresh in mind and gazed up
to these towering cliffs, crowned with pristine ice and decorated with
countless waterfalls glittering in the Arctic sun!
A violent storm arose which separated him from his sacred relics and
forced him to land upon a long, steep headland just under the _Öraefa_.
To this day the promontory bears the name of _Ingölfshöfði_. A still
bolder headland about seventy miles to the west bears the name of his
kinsman, _Hjörleifshfði_. Hjörleifr was not only a sea-rover, a Viking,
but he disdained to worship the gods of his race. He set his Irish slaves
to tilling the land. They slew him and fled to the adjacent islands,
since called _Vestmannaeyjar_, or the “Westmen Isles,” for the Irish were
then known as the Westmen.
Ingölfr pursued the slaves and slew them all. With the fate of his
brother in mind, who had refused to honor the gods, Ingölfr searched
vigorously for his drifted pillars and after three years found them on a
lava-strewn fiord towards the west. A stream ran down into the channel
from a boiling spring, the steam of which was visible for some distance.
Here Ingölfr, true to his vow, established his colony and called it
_Reykjavik_, “Smoking Creek.” One of his followers complained of the
location as follows,—
“Ill we did in passing the good lands to settle on this promontory.”
Many people have since agreed with him that _Reykjavik_ was an
unfortunate place for a settlement and a capital. Destiny has proved too
strong for reason.
Following these pioneers, came a steady stream of chiefs and thralls
until an event in Norway changed the even flow of emigration into a mad
rush for the new lands in the lonely ocean. Among the sea-wolves whose
lair was in the Shetlands and the Orkneys were many Vikings who were
not content to ravage England, France and more distant shores, but they
turned to Norway to vent their spite upon the hated Harald. The old fire
was not quenched in the blood of Norway’s King. In 880 he came with
a great host, bearing fire and sword, determined to utterly rout the
Vikings and all their followers from their island fastnesses. He followed
his foes into creek and over cliff, wherever sailor could go or landsman
climb, from Orkney south to the Isle of Man he put them utterly to rout
and freed forever his native lands from the pirates west-over-the-sea.
There was but one place left in the then known world, whence these
liberty-loving, wild and dauntless men, driven from their haunts, could
go. Harald had taught the lesson most thoroughly; his foes were too weak
to cope with him longer. This was also a blessing to the struggling Saxon
kingdoms in England. Thus the Vikings fled to the fire-born island in the
north Atlantic, with many a southern kinsman and many an Irish bride.
Auth, daughter of Kettil the Flatnose, the queen of Olaf the White, King
of Dublin, went to Iceland in 889, as related in the _Erybyggja Saga_.
She was a woman of considerable wealth and a Christian. With her sister
Thorun, she settled in _Hvamn_. If we accept the account of Dicuilus, an
Irish monk who wrote in 829 that some of his Culdee brethren, whom the
Vikings called “Papar,” visited Iceland to secure retirement like other
anchorites, these two women were the first followers of the Cross in the
country. In 890 the women moved from the _Breiðifjörðr_ to _Eyjafjörðr_.
In 1890 the Icelanders celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the
landing of the first Christians.
We are apt to picture the Viking as a rover of the sea, making his
war-ship fast to that of his enemy and dealing skull-splitting strokes
in a mighty mêlée, where the shouts of the victor rose high above the
clash and clang of spear and battle-axe upon shield and helmet. War
was not his occupation nor was the sea his home. When he wearied of
the pastoral life he turned to the sea for plunder, excitement and
recreation. His wanderings were usually of three years’ duration. As he
returns from the southern isles or the Mediterranean his galley laden to
the water’s edge with spoil, let us view him in his real home.
The long ship is beached in a sheltered cove. On the green slope reaching
upwards from the shore, stands his dwelling and around it is the _tún_
or home field enclosed with a turf covered lava wall just as one may
see it to-day in the rural districts of Iceland. If our Viking is a man
of wealth and influence he possesses many thralls and owns a grand hall
and possibly a temple. In the center of the hall a row of fires flings
out a generous warmth while the smoke circles upwards, glaring and
spark-sprinkled, through the holes in the roof. In the center of the long
wall is the high seat or place of honor, its lofty pillars deeply carved
and crowned with images of Thor, Odin and Frigga. Upon the cushioned
seat sits the returning hero, his garments bound with plates of gold and
his sword, “Fire-of-the-Sea-King,” in a jewelled scabbard by his side. A
collar of engraved gold encircles his neck and his cloak is edged with
cloth of gold. On a raised seat at one end of the hall sits his wife
surrounded by her servants, her white head dress held with a coronet of
gold mingles with her flowing hair falling freely upon her shoulders
and over her cloak of royal blue. Her crimson gown from the far East is
girdled with golden ornaments and from her wrist hang her keys and well
filled purse.
Long rows of benches are occupied with friends and kinsmen who have
come to the feast to welcome the returning hero, who is giving a great
banquet in celebration of his victories and his safe return. The walls,
deeply carved with the stories of many conflicts in the southern waters,
are hung with trophies, shields and weapons. The dancing firelight plays
upon their burnished surfaces. In the fitful light the house carles glide
about, bearing to the benches huge joints of roasted beef and horse-flesh
and replenishing the stoups with sparkling mead. During the feast the
scald relates in impromptu chant with many a jest the story of the
exploits of the hero.
“Toil-mighty leader ruled
Westward the most of war-hosts;
Sea’s mare sped ’neath the lord king
Unto the English lea-land.
The fight-glad king let keel rest,
And winter-long there bided;
No better king there strideth
From out of Vimur’s falcon.”
_Translation of Wm. Morris._
The story of the life of the early Icelander is well told in the
introduction of the _Burnt Njal_ by Sir George W. Dasent from which I
quote the following:—
“From the cradle to the tomb the life of the Icelandic chief fetters
our attention by its poetry of will and passion, by its fierce, untamed
energy, by its patient endurance, by its undaunted heroism. In Iceland
in the tenth century it was only healthy children that were allowed to
live. As soon as it was born the infant was laid upon the bare ground,
until the father came and looked at it, heard and saw that it was strong
in lung and limb, its fate hung in the balance. That danger over, it was
duly washed, signed with the Thunderer’s holy hammer, the symbol of all
manliness and strength, and solemnly received into the family as the
faithful champion of the ancient gods. After the child was named, he was
often put out to foster with some neighbor, and there he grew up with the
children of the house, and contracted those friendships and affections
which were reckoned more binding than the ties of blood. A man was of age
as soon as he was fit to do a man’s work, as soon as he could brandish
his father’s sword and bend his bow.”
“But for incapacity that age had no mercy. Society required an earnest
and pledge from the man himself that he was worth something.”
“Place, King!” cries a new guest to a king of Norway.
“Place? Find a place for _yourself_! Turn out one of my thanes, if you
can. If you can not, you must sit on the footstool.”
“And so these savages spread themselves over the world to prove their
natural nobility. In Byzantium they are the leaders of the Greek
Emperor’s body guard. From France they tear away her fairest provinces.
In England they are bosom friends of such kings as Athelstane, and the
sworn foes of Ethelred the Unready. From Iceland as a base they push
on to Greenland, and colonize it; nay, they discover America in those
half-decked barks.”
“All this they do in the firm faith that the eyes of the gods are upon
them. Theirs was, in truth, a simple creed; to do something and to do
it well, so that it might last as long as the world lasted. They were
superstitious, that is, they believed in a false religion; but then
they believed in it, which is more than all the professors of the true
religion can say. They were proud; but humility is a plant of Christian
soil. They believed in luck; this, too, is a belief which a more
enlightened age has hardly shaken off. They were revengeful; but revenge
was the most sacred duty of a society, which knew no voice more awful
and impressive than that of a brother’s blood calling from the earth.”
“Nor let it be supposed that beneath these tall trees of the forest,
growth of emotions did not thrive, which are the crown and joy of
everyday life.”
“‘Weep not for me,’ says the dying warrior to his wife, ‘lest those hot
tears should scald my bosom and spoil my rest.’”
“‘I was given young to my husband,’ says a faithful wife, ‘and then I
promised to live and die with him,’ and this she sings when the house is
blazing over their heads, and the foes that surround it offer to let her
escape.”
“The Icelanders were the bravest warriors, the boldest sailors, and the
most obstinate heathen; but they were the best husbands, the tenderest
fathers, and the firmest friends of their day.”
Steadily the stream of the Northmen poured into Iceland until in sixty
years from the coming of Ingölfr the population numbered over sixty
thousand. So much land was taken by the first-comers that an agreement
was made by which all those who came later could take only as much land
as they could encompass by fire in a day. This was done by building a
huge fire in the center of the location, whence the claimant travelled in
a circle as far away from the fire as he could see the smoke.
They brought with them the customs of Norway and its worship of the
northern gods. Neighbors gathered in the _hústhing_, the freeholders in
the _móthing_ and the nation in the _althing_. While great reverence
was paid to their gods, who were high ideals of what the people aimed
to become, yet their system reveals the presence of an _unknown god_,
indistinct, shadowy and undefined, before whom even Odin, father of
the gods, himself must bow. After the diversified life of agriculture
and pillage was over, when the last feast had been given and the last
war-cry uttered, after Valhalla had received the hero, there was still a
lingering suspicion of something yet beyond.
Christianity was forced upon the Norwegians by Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf
the Holy. During the rule of the former, Thangbrand preached “Christ’s
law” in Iceland among the Eastfirthers, and in the _Burnt Njál_ in this
connection we read:—
“Hall let himself be christened and all his household and many other
chieftains also; notwithstanding there were many more who gainsaid him.
Thangbrand abode three winters in Iceland and was the bane of three men
or ever he departed thence.”
When Icelanders journeyed to Norway, Olaf gave them their choice between
taking christening or imprisonment. Among the prisoners were Hjallti
and Gizur the White, the latter a prominent character in the _Burnt
Njál_. They agreed to go to Iceland and preach the new faith if Olaf
would release the prisoners. In the year 1000 they went to the Althing
at _Thingvellir_. During a stormy debate a runner came from the _Ölfusá_
stating that a stream of lava was overflowing the homesteads. The heathen
men cried out,—
“No wonder that the gods are wroth at such speakers as we have heard!”
Then Snorri the priest said,—
“At what then were the gods wroth when _this_ lava was molten and ran
over the spot on which we now stand?”
They could not answer him.
The following law was then passed,—
“This is the beginning of our laws; that all men shall be Christian here
in the land, and believe in one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost, but leave off all idol-worship, not expose children to perish,
and not eat horseflesh. It shall be outlawry if such things are proved
openly against any man; but if these things are done by stealth, then it
shall be blameless.”
The last clause of this law disappeared in a short time and shows the
growing hold of the new faith upon the heathen. At first, it was a
difficult task to induce the Icelander to be baptized. The difficulty was
removed by the agreement that the warm springs should be used as fonts.
We may infer from this incident that the rite as administered by King
Olaf and his followers was that of immersion. A few churches were built
and we read that Snorri the priest erected one at _Holyfell_. Says the
_Eyrbyggja Saga_,—
“This whetted men much to the building of churches, that it was promised
them by the teachers that a man should have welcome place for as many men
in the Kingdom of Heaven as might stand in any church that he let build.”
We do not see in this the softening influences of the Christ-life,
forgiveness and salvation; it is rather the mediaeval conquest of the
Church, which satisfied itself with the symbol of the cross and the rite
of holy water. Christianity in this form was powerless to subdue the
stirring passions of alienated families, who had long been trained to
pay homage to such a god as Odin and to whom the blood-feud was just as
sacred as the cross. Thus we see the spears and battle axes, blazoned
with the emblem of Christianity, returning from foreign conquests to
stain themselves anew in homicidal strife. This very strife gave birth to
Icelandic letters.
During the long winter nights the nobles gave lengthened banquets in
their halls as their ancestors had aforetime done in Scandinavia. During
the progress of the feast the scalds recounted the heroic deeds of their
masters. In the fitful glare of the firelight the joyous mead-bowl
circled and dissolved in song and cheer the sternness of the north.
Here were fought again the terrible Heath Slayings. Here were recounted
the deeds of Howard the Halt, the quarrels of the Ere-Dwellers and the
stirring scenes of the Water Dale. The returning Viking related his
exploits in distant and fairer lands. The legends and folk-lore, through
repetition, were clothed with choicer phrasing. These are vivid pictures
of the ancient days, simple, straightforward tales that bear the stamp of
truth and reveal the germ of a splendid dramatic power.
With the introduction of Christianity came the use of letters. The scalds
and story tellers hastened to avail themselves of this method to place
in rhyme and prose the idyls, the mythology and the history of the race.
Every strong and original race has vented its emotions in literature. The
Iliad and Odyssey express the life of the plastic period of the Greek;
the Aeneid does the same for the Roman. Through the force of the example
set us by our schools, we turn to the study of Greek and Latin, forgetful
of our own rich expression of the past or ignorant of its existence. Our
early tongue had its great epics. Presumption, it may be, to compare
them with the Iliad, but of great merit nevertheless. Its chronicles
were replete with the doings of the people. This literature possesses a
mythology that, in its purity and noble sentiments, in its heroism and
spiritual aspirations, was never equalled.
Thus came into existence the Eddas and Sagas. Mr. York Powell says that
the earliest poets were a mixture of Norwegian and Irish. And Howell
adds,—
“Hence the Keltic grace that softened down the Gothic strength.” The
Eddas relate the earliest mythology, the ancient Scandinavian religion.
The first Eddas were written by Saemundr the Wise in poetic form and
the later Eddas were put into beautiful prose by Snorri Sturlason at
_Reykholt_. The Landnamabók, the doomsday book of Iceland, was written by
several hands but chiefly by Ari the Wise. The names and homes of all the
early settlers are given. Snorri Sturlason also wrote the Heimskringla,
“round world.” In it we read not only the history of Iceland from the
beginning but of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and England. The list
of Sagas is long and each has a special interest. First of all is the
_Njála_, so beautifully translated by Dr. George Dasent, of which he
says,—
“It bears away the palm for truthfulness and beauty.”
In the middle of the eleventh century the Icelandic feuds had reached the
point where all the great families were weary of bloodshed and in the
year 1262 they surrendered their freedom to Hakon, King of Norway. The
people still held their own laws and met as customary at the Althing.
Says Howell,—
“But with the freedom passed the fruits of an heroic age. The stream of
spoil from foreign lands had ceased to flow. The curb upon the chieftain
checked the scald; copying took the place of writing, and then the land
began to live upon the memories of the past.”
The century before the Reformation was one of sadness, poverty and misery
for Iceland. In 1360 Denmark took possession of Norway and Iceland. In
1420 the Black Death visited the little nation and took for toll two
thirds of its population. In the fourteenth century the Reformation
which was sweeping Europe reached Iceland, the gospel was given to the
people and in 1584 the first complete Bible was produced in Icelandic by
Bishop Guthbrandr Thorlaksson. With the reformation, also came a revival
of letters. In 1602 Denmark gave to a Copenhagen company a monopoly of
all Icelandic trade. This wrought an evil that was not remedied until
1874, the effects of which are still experienced by the people. In the
seventeenth century, pirates from England, France and Barbary wrought
great havoc upon the unprotected coasts and carried away hundreds of
captives. Calamities came rapidly. In 1707 the small pox claimed a toll
of eighteen thousand people. Fifty years later half a million sheep and
nearly all the cattle died of pestilence and as a result famine stalked
throughout the land. In 1783 a volcanic eruption destroyed thirteen
hundred people, many cattle, twenty thousand horses and one hundred
and thirty thousand sheep. The heroic nation had reached the limit of
its endurance and Denmark relented. In 1800 the Althing which had met
in the sunken plain of _Thingvellir_ for over nine hundred years left
the Lögberg to history and removed to _Reykjavik_ to sit beneath a
roof. Then arose the Icelandic patriot, Jon Sigurðsson, and through his
labors Iceland received from the hands of the King of Denmark, at the
celebration of its one thousandth anniversary, its constitution and its
practical freedom.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The data for the preceding chapter have been drawn from the following
works. To their authors, dead as well as living, the writer is pleased to
make acknowledgment.
HEIMSKRINGLA, _Snorri Sturlason_, Trans. by _William Morris_ and _Eirikr
Magnusson_. This is in six volumes, published in London in 1895. _Rare._
BURNT NJAL, translated by _Sir George W. Dasent_, Edinburgh, 1861, two
volumes. The Introduction is especially recommended. It has long been out
of print but Grant Richards, London, in 1900, published the translation
but with a great abridgement of the classical Introduction.
JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN ICELAND, _Henderson_, during 1814 and 1815,
Edinburgh, 1819. This work is a classic but very rare.
BY FELL AND FIORD, _E. J. Oswald_, Edinburgh, 1882. Valuable for the Saga
data. Out of print.
ICELAND PICTURES, _W. W. Howell_, F. R. G. S., London, William Clowes and
Sons. The first chapter, The Exodus of the Vikings. Out of print.
THE FAROES AND ICELAND, _Nelson Annandale_, Oxford, 1905, largely
scientific. The characterization of the Icelanders does not accord with
my experience.
SUMMER TRAVELLING IN ICELAND, _John Coles_, F. R. G. S., London, 1882, a
personal narrative. Out of print.
ICELAND, Routes Over the Highlands, Daniel Bruun, Reykjavik, 1907.
HANDBOOK TO ICELAND, for Sportsmen and Tourists, Geo. V. Turnbull, Leith,
1906.
ICELAND, A Handbook for Travellers, Stefán Stefánson, Reykjavik, 1911.