Frederick York Powell

“ This period of Iceland's existence is torpid and eventless: she had got peace but with few of its blessings; all spirit seemed to have died with the commonwealth; even shepherding and such agriculture as there had been sank to a lower stage; waggons, ploughs, and carts went out of use and knowledge; architecture in timber became a lost art, and the fine carved and painted halls of the heathen days were replaced by turf-walled barns half sunk in the earth, and lasting at best a generation ”

“ The effects of the Reformation was deeply felt in Icelandic literature, both prose and verse. The name of Hallgrim Petersen, 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. ”

“ The art of poetry, which stood to the Icelanders in lieu of music, was, and is still, much cultivated in the island; 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. ”

“ With its isolated situation, inclement climate, scant natural advantages, and sparse population, Iceland is yet of high interest to the historian, philologist, and litterateur. To the first the excellence and exactitude of its historical records, the curious phases of life to which they bear witness, and the singular circumstances which have determined the existence and life of the Teutonic community for a thousand years apart from the rest of the European family, are all attractive. ”

“ When it was once accomplished, the little knot of able men who came to the front for two or three generations, stirred by the new life that had been breathed into the age, did nobly in preserving the records of the past for a later time to value and appreciate, while Odd and Hallgrim exhibit the noblest impulses of their time. ”

“ In early times before the Danish conquest there were no dialects, because, life being single, king and serf, soldier and peasant, merchant and priest must live and speak alike. So we see in our own days the newspaper, the state school, the railway, the conscription, and the theatre, all tending to bring about in each great European state a sameness of life, thought, and speech through every nook and corner of its area. ”

“ We may now leave the Eastern Scandinavian dialects to follow their own course, which has led them through a path not entirely dissimilar to that which English has taken, and confine ourselves to the Western Colonial dialects. Those in their earliest monuments, the rune-stones of Man, the coins of the “Danish” kings and earls in Ireland and England, the lays of the Western poets in the Edda collection, and the earliest poetry of such Icelandic bards as Egill and Kormak, exhibit certain idiosyncrasies which show them to have already started on their own career. ”

“ The only difference between them is that, while the fundamental characteristics of 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 up 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. ”

“ Iceland was not agricultural but pastoral, depending upon flocks and herds for subsistence, for, though rye and other grain would grow in favoured localities, the hay, self-sown, was the only regular crop. In some districts the fisheries and fowling were of importance, but nine-tenths of the population lived by their sheep and cattle, which gave them food, clothing, and such products for export as enabled them to import wood for building, iron for tools, and a few luxuries, as honey, wine, grain for brewing, and foreign clothes, fur, &c. ”

“ Iceland is emphatically a land of proverbs, which occur on almost every page of the dictionary, 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 have been completed by the magnificent collection of Jon Arnason (1862-64) , who, inspired by the example of the Grimms, spent great toil on his self-imposed task. Many tales are but weak echoes of the sagas ”

“ The absence of dialects in Iceland results from the essential unity of life in that island, and the lack of any of the conditions which during the Middle Ages produced dialects in England, Germany, and France, such as town-life with its guilds and varied interests, the great corporations, ecclesiastical, legal, and medical, which by their necessary use of Latin cut off the most highly educated classes from exercising any influence on the vernacular, and the caste influences of chivalry, &c., which sometimes, as in England, allowed the upper classes to use a separate foreign language. ”

“ Against such fearful visitations, which reduced the population by about a fourth, little could be done, and when the only man who might have roused the Icelanders from their misery, distress, and impoverishment, thenoble and patriotic Eggert Olafsson, a hero of the old type, was drowned in full career in 1768, it is hardly to be wondered at that tilings grew from bad to worse, and that a listlessness and torpidity crept over the national character, the effects of which it is only beginning to shake off. ”

“ It is also to be noticed that in few countries is it so easy to live with as little labour as in Iceland. On account of the climate, out-of-door work cannot be conducted for more than five months of the year at most, but even this time is not used, with so much energy and skill as it might be. The haymaking, carried on for two months in the year, is the only work which is prosecuted with anything like energy. ”

“ Sturla and his brother Olaf were the sons of Thord Sturlason and his mistress Thora. He was born and brought up in prosperous times, when all was fair for the Sturlungs, but his manhood was passed in the midst of strife and war, 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 lawbook, and served a second time as lawman. ”

“ The farms are therefore found along the shores and in short valleys cutting into the hills from the ends of the firths. The east coasts of Iceland present exactly the same character as that of the north-west peninsula. From the end of Eyafjörður a long and fertile valley, bounded on both sides by lofty mountains, runs due south into the country for about 25 miles. The north-east corner of the island, called Þingeyarsýsla, has good sheep pasturage, although its hills and slopes are covered with heather instead of grass to a greater extent than most other districts of the island. ”

“ The poorest franklin was the social equal of the proudest chief, and in a few generations the freed man or landless dependant might become their peer in public estimation, provided he got a homestead of his own. The thrall had a house of his own and was rather villein or serf than slave, having rights and a legal price by law. During the heathen days many of the great chiefs passed part of their lives in Norway at the king's court, but after the establishment of Christianity in Iceland they kept more at home, still visiting the Continent, however, for purposes of state, suits with clergy, &c. ”

“ One feature of the Icelandic eruptions, not from Hecla only, but from other orifices in the island, has been the prodigious quantity of fine dust discharged and the great distance to which this material has been carried. Thus in the year 1766 a column of ashes rose out of the crater of Hecla to a height of 16,000 feet into the air. Volcanic dust from the Icelandic vents has frequently been borne by upper air currents so as to fall upon the Faroe Islands, and has even been carried in considerable quantities as far as Norway on the one side and the north of Scotland on the other. ”

“ Wild crowberries and bilberries are the only kind of fruit found in the island.
Animals. The only wild animal in Iceland is the fox, of which both white and blue varieties occur; they are hunted for their skins, and also because they often attack the sheep. The domestic animals are the cow, the horse, the sheep, the dog, and the cat. The cows are of a small breed, resembling English shorthorns in general, and especially Alderneys. The horses are also of a small breed, the average height being twelve hands; they are hardy and enduring ”

“ Kristni-Saga, the story of the christening of Iceland, is also a work of Ari's, “overlaid” by a later editor no doubt, 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 personal 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.” ”

“ Modern poetry. The Reformation had produced a real poet, but the material rise of Iceland has not yet done so. Many have written, but few have shown any great talent; perhaps the best has been 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. ”

“ The most notable theological work Iceland ever produced is the Postill-Book of Bishop John Widalin (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 present century it has been 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. ”

“ They are very fond of gathering any amount of miscellaneous information, but their want of training prevents them from turning it to practical account. There is no doubt that they are endowed with intellectual faculties of a superior kind, and, with proper training, might make far more of their country than they do at present. It appears that the island could easily support eight times the number of the present population, if its resources were properly developed. Crime is rare; and the moral character of the Icelanders is about the same as that of the other countries of the north. ”

“ A peasant understanding several languages is no rarity, and the amount of general information which they possess might be envied by many who have had greater facilities for acquiring knowledge. Till within the last few years there were no elementary schools in the island; all children were taught by their parents or near neighbours. Now a few elementary schools have been started, but their number is still too small to make any general difference in the education. For classical and general education there is a college at Reykjavik, with seven professors and about one hundred students. ”

“ The old life in the commonwealth was turbulent and anarchic, but free and varied; it produced men of mark, and fostered bravery, adventure, and progress. The great chief's were indeed only greater franklins; but their wealth and comparative luxury gave them leisure and opportunities for culture which raised them as examples and leaders above their fellows ”

“ But that emigration should have begun, and families left the old home for Canada and the United States to seek a better climate, a richer soil, and the hopes of progress which are so distant at home, is certainly remarkable; and, if the difficulties which must surround emigrants who have never seen a road, a tree, or a plough, on their first taking up an agricultural life, are overcome, the results may be very important to the mother country. ”

“ Of the Iceland spar used for polarizing optical instruments, only one mine has been worked, that of Helgustaðir in the east of the island. Limestone is found near Reykjavík, and has been worked a few years. Iron-ore is found in many parts of the island, but not in paying quantities, as suitable fuel is wanting. Aluminium occurs near Cape Reykjanes, but no attempt has been made to work the mine. Coal has also been found in one place, but has not been worked. There are considerable quantities of lignite, called in Icelandic surtarbrandur, in the north-west peninsula ”

“ 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. ”

“ One does not find the abject poverty so often seen in large towns and among the agricultural population of some of the most civilized countries of Europe. On the other hand, wealthy men, or owners of extensive properties, are unknown, the richest man in Iceland deriving only £300 a year from his property. ”