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WINTER IN
ICELAND AND LAPLAND.
VOL. I.

WINTER

ICELAND AND LAPLAND.

THE HON. ARTHUR DILLON.
IT* IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1840.

LthouSu. 83M-D

WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.

CONTENTS
OF THE
FIRST VOLUME.

ICELAND. CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Voyage from Copenhagen to Keikiarik — Prince of
Denmark — Visit to Bessestad . . . • . 1
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SETTLEMENT IN ICELAND.
Naddodr — Gardar — Ingolf — The reasons that made him
emigrate — Supposed visits of Christian Irish to Iceland
before Ingolf 's time — The first settlers— Their manners
— Dress — Commerce — Amusements ... 23
CHAPTER III.
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.
A code of laws introduced — The form of government
adopted;— The Hrepp — The Thing — Religious 'ceremo
nies — Human sacrifices — The courts — The Laugmadr
— Althing — Laws — Ordeal — Exposition of Infants —
Bersekir — Discovery of Greenland — Of America —
Introduction of Christianity  42

VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MISFORTUNES OF ICELAND. PAGE
Early attempts of the Kings of Norway to gain possession
of Iceland — The voluntary surrendering of the island —
The consequences of it — Saarti Daudi — Eruptions —
The Reformation — The last great volcanic eruption in
1783 — Jorgensen's revolution in 1809 ... 59
CHAPTER V.
Winter in Reikiavik — Living among the natives — Town
of Reikiavik  78
CHAPTER VI.
Domestic economy of the Icelanders .... 94
CHAPTER VII.
Icelandic houses — Dress — Poor-laws — Leprosy — Na
tional character  116
CHAPTER VIII.
Division of the country — Laws — Courts — Excommuni
cation  135
CHAPTER IX.
Laugarness — Kialarness — ¦ Dulness of the winter —
Amusements  155
CHAPTER X.
Cod-fishery — Arrival of a French corvette — Warm spring
at Langain — A leper *. . ..... 172

CONTENTS. Vll
CHAPTER XI. PAGE
Journey to the Geysers — Thingvalle — AUmannagiaa —
Hekla— Bruaraa  189
CHAPTER XII.
The Great Geyser— The Strokr  217
CHAPTER XIII.
Esiuberg— Skalholt— Eruption of Skapta Yoku), 1783 238
CHAPTER XIV.
Vidoe — The eider-ducks— The Icelandic printing-press —
Icelandic poetry — A magazine — The Runic characters
— Codex Argenteus  256
CHAPTER XV.
Kieblivik — Poverty of the clergy — Education at Bessestad
— Provision for Icelandic students at Copenhagen —
Trade with Iceland — Mortality of infants in Westman
Isles  279
CHAPTER XVI.
Population — National character — Weddings — Funerals —
Departure from Iceland — Eld Eyar — Feroe Isles . 294

ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.
Reikiavik (Iceland)  Frontispiece.
VOL. II.
A Laplander of Koutokeino on
Snow-Shoes  Frontispiece.

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER I.
Voyage from Copenhagen to Reikiavik — Prince of
Denmark — Visit to Bessestad.
In the beginning of 1834 I determined on
seeing Iceland, and learning something of the
manners of the natives of that country. After
many inquiries at Lloyd's and other such places,
I found that there existed no direct commu
nication between England and Iceland: 1
VOL, i. u

2 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
decided, therefore, on proceeding at once to
Copenhagen, and taking a passage in one of
the regular traders that leave Denmark every
spring for that island. In order to avoid the
almost impracticable road between Hamburg
and Lubec, I chose the way of Gottenburg.
A newly-established steamer took me from Hull
to that port in sixty hours, but on landing I
found that owing to the bad management of the
steam-packets in that quarter, three days would
elapse before the arrival of the Prinds Carl, a
vessel plying between Christiania and Copen
hagen, and calling on her route at Gottenburg.
At the moment the delay occasioned by this
was no source of regret, as it gave me an op
portunity of visiting whatever is remarkable in
the town and its environs. Great, however,
was my disappointment on reaching the Danish
capital, in finding that the last ship destined
to sail for some time to Iceland had weighed
anchor the night previous, and actually passed
us under the Castle of Helsingore. The mer-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 3
chant from whom I got this unwelcome in
telligence, could only offer me the chance of a
passage in one of two ships which he expected
would return to Copenhagen about the middle
of July.
To employ the intervening time, I wandered
through Sweden from Gottenburg to Stockholm,
and from the confines of Lapland to Malmoe.
After getting scorched by day and frozen by
night in the forests of Bothnia, viewing the
treasures in the depths of the silver and copper
mines of Dalecarlia, every where delighted by
the beauties of the scenery and the urbanity
of the inhabitants, I returned again to Den
mark. ' Here my expectations were again to be
disappointed. Of the two ships that were
looked for in Copenhagen, the merchant in
formed me, one had been wrecked on the
Icelandic coast, and the other was not yet
returned. He endeavoured to dissuade me from
undertaking the voyage that year. The season
he- said, was! too far advanced, and should I
b2

4 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
reach Iceland, my stay there must necessarily
be very short, as the ship would delay its return
to Denmark as little as possible. If, however,
I was determined on proceeding, he recom
mended me as a preferable alternative to try to
procure a passage in a Danish man-of-war,
which would shortly be sent to fetch back the
Prince of Denmark. This personage, owing to
some disagreement with his father-in-law the
king, had been sent to spend the summer in
that remote quarter of the world.
Such a boon was hardly to be looked for ;
but upon mentioning the subject to a gentleman
of the English Legation, he had the goodness
to give me a letter to the admiral at the head
of the marine. This officer mentioned my
request to the king, who was pleased to allow
me a passage to Reikiavik. On the 10th of
August we set sail, but, owing to the wind being
unfavourable, we anchored the same afternoon
at Helsingore.
The Nyad was a corvette, of twenty guns,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 5
chiefly used for exercising the cadets of the
royal navy. Instead of being put on board
men-of-war from first starting, the youngsters in
Denmark are kept at a naval college till they
are considered qualified to be appointed to ships
as lieutenants, and are sent out in the summer
for a three months' cruise to give them an insight
into seamanship. The officers consisted of the
captain, commander, and four lieutenants, who,
as is the case with all their naval officers, spoke
English as well as natives ; two of them had
been for some years in the French service, and
wore the cross of the legion of honour, for being
at Navarino and Algiers.
I found a fellow-passenger on board, with
whom I had much conversation during the
voyage, and who gave me much information
about the country we were going to. He was
a native of Iceland, who had distinguished him
self as a boy at the school of Bessestad, and had
subsequently attained the highest honours at the
University of Copenhagen. At the conclusion

6 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
of his studies, he had undertaken to travel over
the greater part of Europe, and had traversed
France, Italy, Greece, and had been a short
time in England. As a reward for his exertions
the King of Denmark had conferred on him the
church of Breide-Bolstadir, which is considered
to be the most lucrative benefice in Iceland.
He had not been home for several years. The
prospect of returning with classical honours, and
in possession of comparative independence must
have been particularly delightful, as he left his
country a poor and solitary student with little
hope of advancement. He understood English and
French pretty well, but finding that he spoke Ita
lian very fluently, I preferred using that language
with him, which had become habitual to me
during nine years' residence in Tuscany.
There was no change of wind till the third
day, on which we weighed anchor, and as
the guns of Kronberg, the castle commanding
the Sound, responded to the corvette's salute,
we bade farewell in good earnest to Denmark.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 7
The battlements on which Hamlet's father
revisited the glimpses of the moon — the beau
tiful gardens of Marienlyst in which the tomb
of Ophelia's lover, as well as the pool in which
the damsel is supposed, by the ardent admirers
of the fable, to have really drowned herself,
are still pointed out ; and lastly the isle of
Hveen, where Tycho Brahe made his astrono
mical discoveries, gradually faded from the
sight, and we continued on our course up the
Cattegat. On the evening of the thirteenth day we
passed by Fair Isle, a small, lofty rock, inha
bited by a few fishermen, and lying midway
between the Shetlands and the Orkneys. Early
next morning we were welcomed into the
Atlantic by a gale of wind, and Foul Island,
the most westerly of the Shetlands, appeared
under our lee. A large three-masted ship,
at first close to us, kept driving rapidly to
leeward, and in all probability long before night
left its wreck on the ill-omened isle. After a

8 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
lapse of three days the weather moderated,
and we passed to the southward of the Feroe
Isles, though not sufficiently near to see them.
The change of latitude began now to be appa
rent by the temperature, and the thermometer
fell twenty degrees of Reaumur, in the course
of half as many days.
On making the south-western extremity of
Iceland we encountered another heavy gale, ac
companied with much rain and thick weather.
After four days we had a favorable change,
and the horizon being clear, we were enabled
on the 21st day to see the land bearing N.E.,
and found that we were near the northern side
of Fax& Fiord. The land before us, as viewed
from the deck, formed a deep semicircular bay,
bounded on the N.W. by the snow-capped
Sncsfiell Jokul," and its southern extremity was
enclosed by a range of mountains, that run
through the whole of Gulbringe Syssel, among
which rose conspicuously a single mountain,
called Koile and Sukkertopper from its pre-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 9
senting the form of a perfect cone from every
point of view. Along the coast lofty black
mountains frowned in bleak majesty, terminat
ing close to the water's edge, and strongly
indented by deep friths, which penetrated into
the interior as far as the eye could reach.
In the morning a pilot, for whom signals had
been fired overnight, made his appearance in
the distance : he presently came on board with
two companions. The latter were in very sorry
plight; they had been out all night, and their
drenched clothes, together with their long hair,
and unshaved faces, gave them by no means a
prepossessing appearance. They steered us
through some small islands, and brought us to
anchor within a quarter of a mile of Reikiavik.
There were but five ships in the harbour, and of
these three were only awaiting our arrival to set
sail, which they did that very evening. From the
anchorage the town presented little more than
an assemblage of red flags, as it is so low that
b3

10 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the roof only of the houses are visible from the
water. The captain, followed by some of his officers,
ray fellow-passenger, and myself, proceeded at
once to the government house, a long stone
building, formerly used as a prison. The exterior
resembles a farm-house, and is whitewashed.
Its only floor is surmounted by a lofty wooden
roof, which contains garrets. In front a pretty
well cultivated garden, with a stream flowing
along the bottom of it, is entered by a neat
wooden bridge. Altogether, though not very
viceregal in its appearance, the house bore ex
ternally a far greater look of comfort than
would have been expected by a stranger. On
either side of the entrance were four good-sized
windows, and at the back peeped out some
smart timber buildings, painted red, evidently
offices, which gave a relief to the white walls of
the house.
M. de Kreiger, the governor, was at the door

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 11
in a scarlet uniform, waiting to receive the
party ; and having read a letter which I put into
his hands, from a friend of his in London, he
presented me to the exiled prince, who was
lately returned from the interior, and had been
anxiously waiting to embark for Denmark. This
personage, who is the heir presumptive to the
Danish- throne, but whose chances of succession
are at best problematical, was a young man of
about five-and-twenty, rather short and slight,
and of a general appearance not much calcu
lated to draw attention. His suite consisted of
two naval lieutenants, as aides-de-camp, and a
physician, and a painter, though not exactly at
tached to his establishment, accompanied him
in his excursions. The hurry of the prince to
quit the seat of his banishment was such, that
at first he proposed departing at once; but, upon
consideration, his sailing was postponed till the
following evening, so as to give him an opportu
nity of taking leave of the people in the neigh
bouring villages.

12 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
The governor invited me to dinner in the after
noon, where I met about twenty persons, chiefly
officers, and a few merchants who had not yet
returned to Copenhagen. The viands on the
table in every respect surpassed what the cli
mate of Reikiavik would have led me to expect.
Among the numerous dishes there was no lack
of vegetables, though they were necessarily
limited in kinds and size. Broccoli, potatoes,
salad, and cabbages about the size of a small
orange, formed the principal. After dinner, the
company adjourned to a neighbouring room, to
indulge in cigars and coffee; and an Icelander,
who had learnt to speak English during the
course of several voyages to Leith, in the war
time, took me to a house kept by the merchants
for the purpose of social meeting and card-play
ing. The latter amusement was not attempted
that night, as a considerable number of the
members appeared inclined to keep wassail
after the true Danish style. One little round
man in particular, whose rubicund face beamed

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 13
with universal benevolence, was bent on doing
the honours of the place, and pursued me every
where vociferating in an unknown tongue,
which I afterwards found out was intended for
French. The only foreigner there, was a
countryman from Liverpool, who had been
settled there upwards of twenty years, and had
married an Icelander. After midnight, finding
that the company,though diminished in numbers,
was only increasing in joviality, I took my leave
of the merry companions, and made the best
of my way in the dark to my lodgings.
My clerical friend had procured me apart
ments in the house of a merchant, who had
sailed that morning for Copenhagen. They
consisted of two rooms, much too lofty for so
severe a climate, and destitute of stove or fire
place: an objection which obliged me three
months afterwards to quit them, and seek for
comfort in an humbler dwelling. As the furniture
had been brought from Denmark, nothing but
its scantiness would have been remarked ; its

14 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
great cleanliness, however, a quality not every
where found in Iceland was enough to make
one overlook many deficiencies.
Walking down the street next morning, I
heard my name called out of a very neat farm
house, by one of the corvette's lieutenants, and
was asked in to breakfast by the owner of it,
the landfoged; or treasurer of the land. The
repast was of the most substantial kind, season
ed by copious libations of champagne, in
honour of the toasts which the prince proposed
in taking farewell. At the announcement of
each new toast, the whole of the company stood
up and touched each other's glasses, an opera
tion which took up several minutes, and pro
longed the breakfast to the period usually
allotted to a long dinner.
After breakfast we all mounted the horses
of the prince, and started in a party for Havni-
fiord and Bessestad. At our departure, and
indeed during the whole of the day, it rained
heavily, but to bad weather most of us had been

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 15
so much accustomed that no one noticed it.
The first hour's ride was over ground alternately
marshy and rocky, over which the ponies
scrambled with great agility. The coasting of
three deep fiords considerably lengthened the
way, and compelled us to cross as many streams.
Leaving behind us the last of these, we entered
a part of the country entirely covered with lava ;
the ground had lost all appearance of vegeta
tion, and presented nothing to the sight —
but a field of black cinders, produced by
the burning of the stone. The track along.
which we now followed one another in single
file, appeared formed by nature, and had been
but little worn by the continued tread of horses
for the last thousand years ; for the eruption
which has laid waste this plain occurred before
the discovery of the island, and it is remarkable
that no volcanic mountain is to be found in the
immediate neighbourhood, so that the plain itself
must have been in a state of combustion. The
path is very tortuous, and descends into ravines

16 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and hollows from fifty or sixty feet deep. At a
sudden turn in the road, the roof of one of the
houses of Havnifiord peeps out, and a large bay
is discovered surrounded with lava, that gives
shelter to the buildings clustered between it and
the sea. When seen for the first time, this
" Hraun," as it is called in Icelandic, has a most
awful appearance, and the mind can hardly
form a more terrible picture of a tract of country
over which the arm of a destroying angel has
been stretched. A deathlike silence reigns on
all sides, only occasionally broken by the shrill
note of the golden plover, and the frequent
recurrence of beacons, points out to the stranger
the inevitable fate that attends in winter the
traveller who deviates but a few inches from the
intricate path.
Four timber dwellings and several warehouses
of the same materials, together with about forty
or fifty Icelandic cottages, constitute the trading
town of Havnifiord. The latter are universally
distinguished from the houses of Danes by the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 17
name of « Bai," and are little better than hovels
constructed of turf and stones. Their owners
live chiefly by fishing in the bay ; an occupation
in which, from the shelter afforded by the sur
rounding lava, they are seldom interrupted by
bad weather. At a short distance these huts
are scarcely distinguished from the ground they
stand upon, and merely look like knolls where
the grass has found enough soil to grow.
The arrival of the prince was greeted by a
display of the national colours from each of the
commercial establishments, and while he and
his aides-de-camp were bidding adieu to the
merchants, their wives brought in wine and choco
late, which are almost always offered to strangers
on paying a visit. As we had still many miles
to ride, we quitted Havnifiord after an hour's
stay, and crossing the " Hraun" by another
path, we entered a large circular space about
half a mile in diameter, which had not been
touched by the lava. It was, in fact, an oasis
in the desert ; no outlet was to be seen, and it

18 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
seemed that the liquid mass, in running towards
it from every quarter, had been suddenly checked,
and left this green spot to show what had been
the state of the rest before the catastrophe had
happened. A narrow and almost invisible passage let us
out of this meadow, and brought us, after a
couple of miles, to Alftances, a promontory co
vered with fishermen's huts. Among a few
houses of a better sort, was to be marked that
of the late Justitiarius of the Land's-over-Rett,
or High Court, who had rendered his dwelling
and the surrounding grounds as pleasant as the
situation would allow. The principal object,
however, at Alftances is the school of Bessestad,
which was removed to this place from Reikiavik
about forty years ago. The house, formerly
inhabited by the governors of Iceland, was,
on their removing to their present residence,
given up with the adjoining buildings to the
teachers and students. The house, before its
change of inhabitants, rejoiced in the high-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. ' 19
sounding name of Kongens Gaard, or King's
Residence, and has large and lofty rooms, some
of them painted with various designs, but alto
gether in a rather dilapidated state. The apart
ments on the ground-floor have been converted
into lecture-rooms and refectories, and some cham
bers for the " GSconomus," who superintends
the domestic arrangements of the institution.
The garrets are fitted up as dormitories for the
forty scholars, while the professors have houses
provided for them at the back.
None of the scholars were there when we
called, as the term only begins in October, and
ends in May. The object of this division of the
year is to give the youths an opportunity of re
turning home and assisting their parents in
agricultural labours during the summer, and of
employing that time in study when little more
than fishing can be done. The expense of re
siding at the college during the eight months
amounts to the trifling sum of thirty-three
dollars and a third, and even this is, in many

20 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
cases, paid by the king. I do not believe that the
number of scholars exceeds forty, nor is it likely
that many more than that number would seek
admission, as none but those intended for the
church, or some judicial capacity, ever think of
undergoing that which with them is looked upon
as a sort of university education. Their studies
consist in acquiring the Danish language, and a
considerable knowledge of divinity, history, and
the principles of astronomy. The classics also
form a principal part of their pursuits ; they are
allowed to choose between Greek and Hebrew,
in neither of which, I believe, they make any
progress beyond the first elements ; but all learn
Latin, and to some more purpose than boys in
England, for I never met with any one who had
been brought up at Bessestad who could not
in some way carry on a conversation in that
tongue. The church attached to the college is the
largest in Iceland, and one of the only four that
are built of stone. In form it is but a mere

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 21
oblong, with a tower at one end, which is the
only thing that would prevent it being taken for
a barn. The interior is filled with open seats,
and has a glazed pew elevated in the form of a
gallery, over the heads of the congregation, in
tended for the use of the governor, while at
tending divine service. On the left of the chancel
the stone effigy of a governor of the seven
teenth century, which had been lying many years
in the entrance porch, has lately been restored
by the QEconomus. The viceroy is represented
about the size of life, in complete armour,
bearing a two-handed sword; the execution is
indifferent, and is probably foreign. The other
ornaments are some wretched daubs of saints,
painted on the panels of two shutters that
cover the altar-piece ; during prayers these are
opened, and present the writhing countenances
of a dozen men, in as many varieties of contor
tion. The pulpit has also its compartments
ornamented with figures of apostles or evange
lists, in the execution of which the artist has

22 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
carefully avoided a breach of the second com
mandment, i
In the evening the governor, who was to
leave the country, repeated his invitation to
dinner, where I found a still larger party than
the day before. On this occasion the prince
made a long valedictory speech, and when the
due quantity of champagne had been drunk,
and the glasses had been sufficiently often
clinked, the royal exile rose and proceeded to
the beach, accompanied by his suite. The
Esiuberg mountains on the opposite side of the
bay of Reikiavik re-echoed, perhaps for the
first time, with a salute ; and, before the follow
ing morning, he was far from the Icelandic
coast on his way to Fredericks, a small town
of Jutland, of which he had been appointed
governor.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 23

CHAPTER II.

FIRST SETTLEMENT IN ICELAND.
Naddodr — Gardar — Ingolf— The reasons that made him
emigrate — Supposed visits of Christian Irish to Iceland
before Ingolf 's time— The first settlers — Their man
ners — Dress — Commerce — Amusements.
The history of Iceland can be traced, with
certainty, up to the time of its discovery to
wards the end of the ninth century. It has
had more historians than many countries of far
greater population, and thanks to its remoteness
from all others, and the absence of the wars
which have destroyed so many records through-

24 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
out the rest of Europe, their works have been
handed down to posterity unimpaired. They
present to us a minute picture of the manners,
during almost a thousand years, of a people, in
whom we may behold all the characteristics
of the Scandinavians, ferocity excepted, un
changed by either time or intercourse with
other nations.
Secluded as this island is, by its position, from
the rest of the world, we cannot expect to have
our attention drawn to such stirring events as
those which have occurred in the rest of Eu
rope. The space, however, which in the
annals of other nations is taken up with wars
and revolutions, is, in theirs, filled by still
more appalling misfortunes. The devastations
of earthquakes followed by famine, form the
principal features of their history. But they
have a still higher claim on our sympathy: 
our respect and admiration are due to a people
who, surrounded by difficulties, and struggling
with poverty, emerged from the barbarism

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 25
which then shrouded Europe ; and though since
fallen from their original state of independence,
yet continue to maintain a character which
would reflect credit on the most civilized
nation. Naddodr, a pirate of some celebrity, was the
first person known to have landed in this
country on a voyage from Norway to the Feroe
Isles; he was driven, in A.D. 860, by tem
pestuous weather on the eastern coast, not far
from a mountain called Riedarfiall. His account
of this newly-discovered country, stated it to
be entirely destitute of inhabitants, and covered
with snow — whence he gave it its first name
Snceland.. A Swede named Gardar Sverison,
hearing of this discovery, resolved to visit
the new country ; he touched on the eastern
coast and continued his course to the north, he
passed the winter of the year 864 in a bay of
the northern district, called Skialfonda, and
named the harbour Husavick from the houses
which he had erected for his crew during their
VOL. I. C

26 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
sojourn. On his return home he changed the
name of Snceland to Gardarsholm, or Gar-
dar's isle, having been the first to circumnavi
gate it.
The reports of these adventurers having en
couraged others to follow in their track, the
next who directed his course that way was
Floki Vilgerdarson, also a pirate. Setting sail
from a port in Norway named probably from
himself Flokiwarda, he arrived at Shetland, at
that time called Hiatland : his daughter Geir-
hilda who accompanied him, being lost in a
swamp, he left that place, and steered towards
Iceland ; having no better way of keeping a
right course he had taken some ravens with him
from Hiatland, the first of these that he liberated
returned to its home. After proceeding on his
voyage for some time with a favourable wind he
released another which hovered awhile above
him and then settled on the yards. The third,
however, which was freed when the voyage was
more than half concluded, took its flight in ''

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 27
direction of the island. Following in its track,
Floki, like his predecessors, first got sight of
land on the eastern coast. Shortly after he
entered the bay between Reikiances and Snce-
felsnces, a distance of twelve Icelandic miles.
A Scottish sailor named Faxe whom he had on
board pronounced this bay to be the estuary of
a river ; Floki to ridicule his ignorance called
it Faxe-os, or Faxe's-mouth a name which it
retains to the present day. Thence he passed
on to Beidafroid, and wintered in Vatnsfiord
in the Syssel of Bardastrand. During that
period he supported his crew on fish, which
abounded in the bay ; on the coming of spring
the weather did not abate in rigour, on the con
trary the bay was soon filled with sea-ice, driven
probably from Greenland ; this circumstance
caused a second change in the name of the
island and induced Floki to give it the one it
now bears, in consequence of finding his ship
enclosed in the harbour, and every thing in sight
bearing the same frozen appearance. The seve-
c 2

28 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
rity of the cold and the hardships which he
underwent, do not, however, seem to have
daunted him, for we find that he passed a
second winter in the southern part of the island
and at last returned to Norway, when in conse
quence of the use he had made of ravens on
his voyage, he was surnamed Rafne Floki.
Such is the account given of the discovery
of Iceland by the first three men who landed in
it. They each represent it not only as a desert,
but entirely without traces of any inhabitants,
a condition however in which it was not destined
to continue much longer. The state of Norway
was undergoing a very material change, in
consequence of the resolution that Harold
flaafagre had formed of uniting the whole of
that country under his sway. It is said that
he was first incited to this desire of supreme
dominion by the taunt of a princess who
refused to accept his hand in marriage, while he
remained a mere yarl, the title given to the
numerous petty sovereigns of Norway.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 29
Fired at this rebuff, Harold made a vow to
leave his hair uncut, till he should have reduced
the whole of the Yarls, and hence arose the
name of Haarfagre, or Fair-haired, that was
from that time applied to him. Justice to his
neighbours was incompatible with the strict
fulfilment of his vow; but the Norwegian did not
allow any scruple to stand in the way of his
wishes, his acts of aggression were such as to
drive many of the weaker nobles from their
country. It is to the civil war that was thus
lighted up in Norway, and to the numerous
expulsions consequent on it, that the rapid
colonization of such a dreary country as Iceland
is to be attributed ; and it is also owing to the
same causes that the first emigrants, far from
being the dregs of their own nation, were chiefly
from the noblest and most independent families
in Norway.- As the reason that induced the first
settler, Ingolf, to seek a new home, arose from
different circumstances, the account of it is dwelt
upon more at large in the ancient Sagas,

30 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
Ingolf, the son of On, a Norwegian of noble
extraction and distinguished valour, had a sister
named Helga, who is represented as graced with
exquisite beauty, and adorned with every virtue
and accomplishment that the Scandinavians
admired in the female character. This damsel
was beloved by her cousin, Leif, more commonly
known by the surname of Hiorleif, which he had
acquired in Ireland from having taken the sword
of one of its petty kings in battle. In the same
part of Norway as Ingolf, anil in habits of inti
macy with him and Hiorleif, dwelt three youths,
who rejoiced in the euphonous names of Hallstein,
Holmstein, and Herstein. At one of those noisy
feasts which, together with battles, furnished
the Skalds with the principal subjects of their
songs, the youngest of the three brothers raised
the cup to his lips, and made a vow either to
obtain the hand of Helga, or to forego marriage
for the rest of his life. Ingolf, greatly irritated
by this declaration, announced to the assembled
guests his intention of withholding his sister's

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 31
portion unless she married her cousin. As the
affair seemed to be taking a serious turn, Holm-
stein promised, if called upon, to be arbiter in
the matter, and to enforce his decision if neces
sary; and upon the other parties assenting to
this proposition, the meeting broke up.
Shortly afterwards, Helga was united to
Hiorleif, and, as might be naturally expected,
a deadly feud arose between the families of the
rivals. Hostilities were commenced by the
rejected suitor, who, attended by Holmstein,
manned six ships and went in pursuit of Hior
leif. The latter was proceeding peaceably on
a voyage, with only three unarmed vessels, when
he was unexpectedly attacked, and, but for the
timely interposition of some friends who fell in
with him, he must have succumbed to the
superior number of his foes. The new comers
not only prevented the bridegroom from falling
into the hands of his exasperated rival, but so
far turned the scales in the conflict as to put to
flight the aggressors, after slaying their leader.

32 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
Maddened by this defeat, and by the death of
his brother, Holmstein determined on bringing
the quarrel to an issue by attacking the other
party at his own dwelling. The brothers-
in-law, however, got scent of his intentions,
and prepared themselves for resistance ; and,
consequently, the issue of this second enterprise
ended as fatally to the aggressor as the first.
His followers were repulsed, and he himself
was left dead on the field. The surviving
brother had abstained as yet from interference,
and to him now, Hiorleif and Ingolf referred
the arbitration of this dispute. His decision
was, that Herstein had deservedly met with
death for his treacherous attack, but he con
sidered that his second brother was justified in
revenging the death of the first, and for killing
him he adjudged Ingolf and Hiorleif to leave
Norway. They at once submitted, not so much
through fear of Hallstein, as from the appre
hension that Harold Haafagre might interfere,
and be less lenient in his judgment. Accord-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 33
ingly, after turning their landed and other
property into money, they sailed for Iceland
without their families. The two exiles first
landed there in 870 ; and, having made all
necessary arrangements, they returned at the
end of four years, and carried away from Nor
way their wives, families, and property. When
in sight of land Ingolf threw overboard the
doorposts of his late Norwegian dwelling, in
compliance with a custom which appears to
have prevailed at that period. The settlers
noticed in the Sagas, are frequently recorded
to have selected for their future residence, the
spot upon which their Penates were washed
ashore. Though Ingolf-hofda, the most southern
extremity of the land, was the first point made,
the posts having floated away in a westerly
direction, Ingolf steered the same course, and
after a tedious search of three years, discovered
them at the place now called Reikiavik, where
he finally fixed his habitation.
Hiorleif following the example of his friend,
c 3

34 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
as regarded his choice of a location, settled at
Hiorleif- hofda, and constructed there, two con
siderable edifices, in which he spent the short re
maining period of his life. At the end of the first
year's settlement, while sowing the land about
his house, he was murdered by some Irishmen,
his slaves, whom he had threatened with punish
ment for destroying his horse. These men,
after putting his adherents as well as himself
to death, fled with the wives of the slain to
some small isles which lie to the south of
Iceland, and have thence been called West-
manna Eyar, Westman being the name used by
the Norwegians, to distinguish the inhabitants
of the British isles from the people who bor
dered on the Baltic. The news of the massacre
soon reached Ingolf, and the delinquents, after
a smart pursuit, were to a man destroyed by
him. The first settlers found the country so com
pletely covered with woods, that they were
ohliged to cut their way through them with

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 35
axes, and clear the ground intended for tillage,
in the same way as is now practised in North
America. The height of the trees is not men
tioned, but they must have far surpassed those
of the present day ; as any thing that now bears
the name of a forest, in Iceland, would offer but
little impediment to the traveller. The stunted
birch near Efstadal, is more like copse than
timber, and I have been informed will not grow
to the height of three or four feet in less than
forty years. Yet the great quantities of turf
every where to be met with, and the account of
Hiorleif's sowing grain, would argue that in
earlier ages, the climate was more genial than
at present.
Though Ingolf found no inhabitants, it is
certain that some mariners had touched there,
probably without making a long stay; for crosses
and other symbols of the Christian religion,
were found in the south. The owners of these
articles are supposed to have been Irish fisher
men who were already converted, and were

36 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
called by heathen Norwegians, " Papoe." This
fact is the only one that would plead for the
truth of the assertion of Geoffrey of Monmouth,
who relates that King Arthur subdued Iceland.
This event is stated to have taken place in the
year 516; and in another book of travels, pro
bably equally veracious, a British king named
Malgo, is said to have recovered Iceland, which
it asserts had been before reduced by Arthur.
Both these accounts are so clearly fabulous, as
hardly to call for refutation. The Icelandic
Sagas are explicit in their relation of the time
and manner of the colonisation of the island,
and very soon after the arrival of the first
settlers, a book called " Landnamma Bok" was
drawn up, which contained every particular that
regarded the original proprietors of the soil.
For the first fifty years after Ingolf's arrival
the distance between the different families was
such, as to make each an independent commu
nity ; nor was it till the close of that period
that the want was felt of a bond of union and

A WINTER IN ICELAND, 37
of national institutions. Their settlements were
not formed in towns: their mode of living
would not have admitted of that way of lo
cating themselves. Relying for sustenance in
this new land on the produce of the earth, each
man fixed on a spot removed from his neigh
bour, and the apparent richness of the soil, or
the advantages of contiguous rivers and springs
were the principal inducements in the choice of
a home. From the account of Arngrim Jonas, in his
" Crymogcea," the way of living was in many
respects the same in the first era of the island
as among their descendants of the present day.
Their houses were built either of sods alone,
or of alternate layers of stone and turf. This
mode was adopted as calculated to exclude
external frost more effectually than timber.
The windows were more generally placed in the
roof than the walls ; and the roof itself was
covered with earth, and yearly clothed in grass.
The timber used in the construction of the

38 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
beams, rafters, and other woodwork, was either
of native growth, or washed on shore by the
tide. The farm offices were separate, though
contiguous to the dwelling-house, the stables
formed an outer circle to the mass of building,
and the general stores were placed in isolated
spots for fear of fire.
Though the greater number of houses were
of a very humble description, in many cases a
rude magnificence was exhibited in fitting up
the interior ; mention is made of ceilings and
panels carved with representations of historical
events, and in size some of the mansions of the
richer people were by no means inconsiderable,
if we are to judge by the account of the houses
of Hiorleif and others. The ground around the
house was generally enclosed, and reserved for
pasture. Their customary drink was whey, and they
added to it a kind of porridge rendered
more palatable by the admixture of honey, arid
the juice of small blue berries. With the use

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 39
of malt liquors, they were not unacquainted,
from their continual intercourse with Europe.
After enumerating the above articles, which,
with fish and mutton, formed their whole diet,
Arngrim states his conviction that if his early
countrymen were not addicted to luxury or
gluttony, their temperance is not to be attri
buted to their inability to indulge in these vices,
but to their judgment and innate good qualities.
He declares that there was no deficiency of
entertainments among them, nor were these
wanting in splendour, either as regards the
number of the guests, or the length of time the
feasts lasted. Thorar and Thoralder, two bro
thers in the north, entertained at their father's
funeral 1200 men for fourteen days, of whom
none departed without presents. Another in
stance of the same ostentatious liberality is
given by him in the case of Olavr Pa, an in
habitant of the western province, who, with his
twrj "brothers, feasted nine hundred for a fort
night. Both these banquets were given at the

40 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
private expense of individuals, and without pro
ducing any inconvenient effects on the fortunes
of the donors.
On common occasions, the dress of the an
cient Icelanders was of native manufacture of
wool, spun and woven by their wives and slaves.
The richer class sometimes added a coat or cloak
of foreign cloth ; the linen for the dress of the
women was imported, though, as Arngrim re
marks, it was unadorned with the bright colours
which were prevalent in his own days. At a
later period, he continues, when the age had
degenerated from the ancient frugality which
characterizes the early inhabitants, it was found
necessary to pass a sumptuary law with regard
to dress, and to restrain the passion for inor
dinate display, which was making rapid progress
through the land.
There is no appearance of their having made
use of coins : the general practice of bartering
goods made it unnecessary to have recourse to
money in their commercial transactions. Silver,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 4l
however, was common, and its value reckoned
by its weight; rings also and bracelets were
employed, chiefly as remembrances from supe
riors to private individuals, and from friend to
friend. In exercises and amusements, the present
generation is, no doubt, very inferior to their
forefathers. In former times, before poverty
had struck them, various were the sports which
kept up the spirit of their youth and developed
the powers of the body. Among them was
wrestling, perhaps the only one which has lasted
to the present day. They had also hurling-
matches, and archery; and slinging was not
neglected; but the most exciting amusement
was the " hestaweg," in which the parties con
tended on horseback; wounds and even death
frequently occurred in this pastime ; and when
foul play was suspected, it was not uncommon
for them to fight in earnest, and for the majority
to leave their lives in the field.

42 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER III.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.
A code of laws introduced — The form of government —
adopted — The Hrepp — The Tiling — Religious cere
monies — Human sacrifices — The courts — The Laug-
madr — Althing — Laws — Ordeal — Exposition of
Infants — Bersekir — Discovery of Greenland — Of
America — Introduction of Christianity.
About fifty-six years after Ingolf's arrival,
the population had so much increased that it
was considered necessary to form a regular go
vernment. In 928, Ufliot, who had two years
before brought over a book of Norwegian laws,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 43
proposed that a selection 'should be made of
such statutes as were applicable to their infant
colony. At a public meeting "Thorlief, hin
spake," or " the wise," was requested to compile
a code, with the assistance of some other chiefs ;
he complied with the demand, and gleaned from
the Norwegian laws whatever he judged to be
serviceable to Iceland.
The new form of government given to the
country was that of an aristocratic republic.
The island was divided into four provinces,
called after the cardinal points of the compass*
These were again subdivided, each into three
districts, with the exception of the northern
province, which, on account of its superior size,
was divided into four parts. These were again
subdivided into portions called " Hreppar," a
term which in many respects is analogous to
our hundred ; ten of them were generally con
tained in one district, though the number
varied. The Hrepp was inhabited by at least ten

44 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
farmers, each in possession of a fixed value of
property. In each of the districts was a court
of justice called "Thing," which was also con
secrated to religious uses, and was built with
considerable magnificence for the country it was
in. Two of these edifices were 120 feet long,
the one in Wassdall in the northern province,
the other at Kialarnes in the southern, and
the latter was also sixty feet in breadth. —
Attached to each " Thing," was a temple which
was considered most sacred, and contained the
statues of their gods, elevated on pedestals and
surrounded with sheep reserved for sacrifice.
Thor, the principal idol, occupied the centre, and
was supported on either side by Freyer, Niordr,
and As, and many inferior deities, whose
numbers are uncertain ; as, however, the names
of the three last only occur in the ancient form
of oath, it is probable that As, who is supposed
to be Odin, and his two children Freyer and
Niordr, were the only gods in much considera
tion. Before the pedestal of the chief figure

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 45
stood an altar called " wiigdann," covered with
iron, on which a fire was kept burning; in
the centre of it a large caldron of bronze re
ceived the blood of the victims, and served
for sprinkling the bystanders. A silver ring of
the weight of twenty ounces, lay on the altar,
for persons to hold while taking an oath, after
it had been dipped in the blood in the caldron.
The victims in general were quadrupeds,
though the priests did not consider that their
gods could be propitiated at so easy a rate ; at
Kialarnes, human beings were the peace-offer
ings which were presented to their idols. The
unfortunate sufferers were plunged headlong
into a deep well, called the " blodkelda," that
was dug before the doors of the temple. In
Thornes Thing, in Westland a different, but
equally horrible, mode of sacrifice was adopted :
the human victims were dashed to pieces against
a large stone that stood in the middle of the
court. After the abolition of heathen rites such
a horror was felt at these acts of barbarity, that

46 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the stone was said to have retained the colour
of blood though washed by the rain of many
centuries. This abominable practice does not appear to
have lasted long in Iceland, or to have prevailed
in any places except those just named; neither
were these acts approved of by the majority.
From the first, many of the settlers, though
brought up in heathenism in Norway, showed
a decided aversion to the worship of idols ; and
one went so far as to burn down a temple at
Esiuberg, and destroy all the idols that were in
it; an act that was resented by the pagans,
whose first work was to rebuild the scene of
their iniquities.
To return to the division of the country under
its new constitution, the " Hrepps," were under
the care of officers called Hreppstiores, whose
qualifications were reputed integrity and posses-
soin of immovable property. They had the
charge of the poor, and it was their duty not
only to relieve the indigent, but to guard against

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 47
others falling into the like difficulties. In order
to effect this, not only very severe laws were
enacted against persons who attempted to get
themselves supported by the labours of the indus
trious part of the community ; but as a further
preventive against pauperism, the settlement
of a new comer in a Hrepp required the sanction
of its inhabitants, who might reject a person
likely to be a burden to the society, or con
victed of a crime. Losses by fire were ascer
tained by an inquisition, and half the damage
incurred by the sufferer made good to him by
a levy on the inhabitants of the Hrepp. In
like manner a man, who lost a fourth of his flock
by pestilence, had the same relief extended to
him ; but in neither case was this claim allowed
to be repeated more than three times, nor was
the loss of treasure compensated for at all.
An inferior court was held by the Hreppstiore
to which the people were summoned by the
hammer of Thor being sent round by each to his
nearest neighbour; a symbol which, after the

48 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
introduction of Christianity, was changed for a
wooden cross. The magistrate immediately
above them, who presided over the thirteen
districts, also ma'de use of emblems to announce
extraordinary meetings. They varied according
to the nature of the business to be transacted ;
such as a spear when an inquest was to be held
on a dead body ; or a wooden axe, when the
taxes were to be collected ; and they were
known by the general name of " bod," or
summons. The superior magistrate was called Laug-
madr, or law-man ; and it was his duty to
enforce and interpret the laws, and to preside
also at the general court of the whole island,
called the Althing. At first it was held at
Armansfell, in the south, and was after a time
removed to Thing-valla, where it continued till
the year 1800. During Iceland's independence
this species of parliament — for it not only em
ployed itself in the decision of grave cases,
reserved for its consideration, but also in the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 49
enactment of new laws — met yearly about the
middle of May, and continued its deliberations
for fourteen days. No building was used on
the occasion, and people, who flocked from
all quarters, merely pitched their tents on the
banks of the Oxeraa, and carried on their dis
cussions in the open air. The meeting of the
Althing was also the time when capital punish
ments were inflicted on delinquents; the men
being#decapitated on a small island in the river,
and the women drowned in a deep pool close
by, after an hour's exposure to the view of the
assembled multitude. The latter peculiar pu
nishment seems to have been general among the
northern nations, as we find in Tacitus, that
death was inflicted on cowards in Germany, by
drowning them with a hurdle over the head.
The form of government was essentially aris
tocratic in all its details, and in many respects
resembled that of the Saxons. The laws, which
in some cases, particularly such as regarded the
chastity of women, were very severe, allowed
VOL. I. D

50 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
murder to be compensated for by a fine payable
to the relatives of the deceased; thus, while
adultery was visited with death, one, or at most
three hundred ounces of silver were considered
an equivalent for the life of a freeman.
In cases where there was not sufficient, evi
dence to convict a suspected person of a crime,
a kind of ordeal was resorted to, which, though
not as terrible as that by fire among our ances
tors, was equally absurd. It consisted in the
prisoners passing under a strip of turf, placed in
the form of an arch, without any prop to keep
it in that position. If the turf remained un
moved during his transit, his evidence in his
own favour was credited ; but did it fall in. his
guilt was considered substantiated, and his
doom was irrevocably fixed. In making a
solemn agreement, a similar ceremony took
place ; the contracting parties stood under the
turf, which in this case was supported by a
spear, and mingled together a quantity of
blood drawn from the bodies of each, and by

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 51
this act bound themselves, besides assisting
their companions during life, in case of surviving
them, to do their utmost to revenge their
deaths. Many other barbarous customs are frequently
noticed in the Sagas, which had evidently been
brought over from Norway, and ceased to exist
when the mild spirit of Christianity was diffused
among them. Of these none was perhaps more
horrible than the practice of destroying their
children, when the inconvenience of bringing
them up, or the whim of the moment, tempted
a father to reject his offspring. An instance of
this custom is to be found in the Landnama bok,
which, though partly fabulous, gives us a notion
of what common occurrence it must have been.
Thoracta having been delivered of a child, her
husband, Asgrim, without any further remark,
ordered it to be killed; while the slave, who
was to execute his command, was digging a hole
for its grave, the child, says the legend, who was
d2

52 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
lying on the floor, sung the following lines to
him : " Lattit mic til moder
Mer er kalt a golfi
Hvar man svennin soemri
En a sins fodurs aimum
Tharf eigi jam at eggia,
Ne jardarmen skerda ;
Lettit leoto verki.
Lifa man ek med mannon." — Land v. cap. 6.
" Take me to my mother ! I am cold upon
the floor ! where is a boy more seemly than in
his father's arms ? You need not sharpen steel,
or cut up the turf; leave your loathsome work ;
it is fate for me to live among men."
The appeal was not, it appears, fruitless, for
the boy was taken up by his father, and in the
sequel became a distingished hero.
Another feature which brutalized many of
their principal warriors was that of habituating
themselves to give way to passion, till it became
a disease over which they had no control. On

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 53
such occasions they were like maniacs in the
highest state of phrensy ; their force was irre
sistible, and they slew alike friend and foe.
Stripping themselves to the skin, they would
attack armed men, and seize their weapons with
their teeth ; but on the passing away of the fit,
this supernatural strength was followed by a
languor that placed them completely at the
mercy of the merest child. This class of persons
at one time was numerous, and known by the
name of Berserkir ; they, however, gradually
disappeared after the eleventh century, when
society would no longer tolerate their outrages.
Such were the manners of this people nearly
a thousand years ago ; manners from which they
have changed but in a trifling degree, and to
which they cling as much as is in their power.
The principal difference in the country, at the
former and present period, consists in the
number of powerful men in the old times;
whereas now an almost perfect equality of rank

54 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and fortune reigns throughout. This, perhaps,
may be explained by the number of Thrcel or
slaves that they owned, the possession of
whom obviated the necessity of the freemen
tilling the land themselves, and gave them the
opportunity of attending to other pursuits.
Commerce, in particular, occupied many of
them, and that considerable energy was dis
played in their maritime affairs is apparent by
the discovery that they made, at the close of the
twelfth century, of two countries at that time
unknown to the rest of the world.
Erick Raude, in 982, discovered Greenland,
and left there some of his people, who formed a
settlement of considerable extent; for his son
Hans was sent by Olaus Tryggeser, King of
Norway to convert the inhabitants. The co
lony was afterwards formed into a diocese,
and besides three monasteries, contained
twelve parish churches, and two hundred and
ninety villages. This flourishing state of things

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 55
continued till 1466, when the last bishop was
sent over; from that time the ice began to
collect along the eastern coast to such an extent
that no ships have been since able to approach
it, and the fate of the whole colony has re
mained a mystery to this day.
The second discovery to which the Icelanders
lay claim, is no less than that of North America.
A few years after the discovery of Greenland,
one Biorn Heriolson was driven westward, on a
voyage to that land, and proceeding in a south
westerly direction, reached a country to which
he gave the name of Vinland from the wild
grapes which he found there. Several other
mariners went there afterwards, the last of
whom, after a stay of three years, was killed by
the natives, who were known to the Icelanders
by the name of Skrcelinger.
Finnur Johnson, Bishop of Skiilholt, is of
opinion, in his Ecclesiastical History, that this
country must either have been Virginia itself,
or in the same latitude, for the shortest winter

58 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
days were about nine hours long, and the pro
ductions of the earth such as belong to that
country. Another passage, which seems to
refers to America, is to be found in the Land-
nama Bok, where Air is mentioned to have
sailed to Vinland, that lies in the Western
Ocean, six days' sail from Ireland. Both these
accounts appear improbable ; yet no great diffi
culty was to be encountered by these islanders
in reaching America, as they were already half
way across the ocean.
About the same time as these discoveries, a
change took place in Iceland by the introduc
tion of Christianity, which was begun in 982,
and completed within eighteen years of that
date. It was originally owing to one Thoralder,
who brought over a Saxon named Frederic ;
after preaching for four years with little success
they retired to Constantinople, and left the
work to be completed by Olaus, king of Nor
way. This prince, elated with his success in
converting his own subjects, and the inhabi.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 57
tants of the Feroe isles, sent over several mis
sionaries, and wrought a considerable change in
the people.
The new religion preached among them had
called the attention of all to it, and as opinions
were much divided on the subject, it was re
solved that the discussion should be referred to
the Althing at its next meeting. The mission
aries of Olaus were allowed to plead in favour
of their tenets, but while yet speaking, were in
terrupted by the news that the Yokuls, to the
east of Thingvalle, were in a state of eruption,
and had already covered the surrounding country
with flames and destruction. This event was con
sidered as a judgment of the higher powers,
and the Pagans at once exclaimed, that it was
no wonder that the indignation of their gods
was excited by the new religion which it was
attempted to introduce. But they were quickly
answered by Snorro Godi, a priest, who re
torted by asking them what had called down
the anger of the gods when the very rock upon
d 3

58 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
which- they stood, had been reduced to a molten
mass by subterraneous fire ?
The sight of the surrounding scenery, where
every thing that is terrible and sublime are
combined, the tremenduous effects of volcanic
fire which appeared on every side, and lastly
the reflection that this eruption had taken place
prior to the arrival of Ingolf, had an immediate
effect on the assembly.
At the same time the eloquence of the Laug-
madr Thorgeir, who vigorously advocated the
cause of Christianity, came to its support, and
turned the tide in favour of the proposed
change. Fifty six years after, Isleif, the son of one
of the missionaries, was appointed bishop of
Skalholt, and having journeyed to Rome, was
duly consecrated by the Pope. In 1106 the
want of a second bishop being felt, Holum, in
the northern province, was erected into an
episcopal see.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 59

CHAPTER IV.

THE MISFORTUNES OF ICELAND.
Early attempts of the Kings of Norway to gain pos
session of Iceland — The voluntary surrendering of the
island— The consequences of it — Saarti Daudi —
Eruptions — The Reformation — The last great vol
canic eruption in 1783 — Jorgensen's revolution in
1809. The eleventh and twelfth centuries passed
over Iceland without producing much change
either in its government or the manners of its
inhabitants. Men of learning, at least for those
ages, contributed to acquire for these islanders

60 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
a reputation in the north of Europe, which has
not even yet altogether passed away. Added to
this they were so famous for their poetry, that
they were always welcome guests at the court
of Norway and Sweden, where it was believed
that there was a kind of magic hidden in their
verses, whereby they could summon the demons
from the infernal regions. Gradually the aris
tocratic kind of government under which they
had thrived degenerated into the worst species
of oligarchy, and dissension took the place of
order and quiet. A few powerful men aspired
to the supreme command ; the laws fell into
contempt ; and violence, rapine and sedition
kindled a civil war among them. Such errors
can seldom be committed without punishment
and that incurred by Iceland was great, for it
amounted to no less than the loss of its inde
pendence. Not long after the departure of the first
fugitives, Harold Haarfagre perceived the in
convenience of an independant people rising up

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 61
from among his subjects ; he therefore at
tempted to check the emigration, by imposing
a fine upon all who quitted Norway with that
intention. Failing in this, he had recourse to
more violent measures, and determined on
making himself master of the island. To ac
complish this he brought into his views Uni,
the son of Gardar, above mentioned, and pro
mised him the hereditary government of Iceland
if he should succeed in gaining possession of it.
The Swede agreed to take the command of the
enterprise, and considering that stratagem would
be more likely to prevail than open violence,
took only twelve men, and put on the mask
of friendship, intending to assassinate the
chieftains, and gradually make a diversion in his
own favour. He landed on the southern coast
and mixed with the inhabitants ; but failing
to prevent suspicions of his conduct, they
put him and his comrades to death, before he
had had time to enter upon the execution of
his plans.

62 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
The thoughts of Saint Olaus were too much
taken up with their spiritual condition, to give
him time to militate against their political in
terests ; but his successor, Olaus the Fat, also
surnamed the Holy, from some miracles attribu
ted to him, followed up the intentions of
Harold. Avoiding the errors of that king,' he
tried milder measures, and sent over ambassa
dors with presents, proposing to the Icelanders
that they should acknowledge his superiority,
and rely on him for assistance. This after being
rejected, he begged of them to give up to him a
small island on the northern coast, called Grim-
sey. They were on the point of falling into the
snare laid for them, but were prevented by
Einar of Threera, who remonstrated on the
folly of complying with the king's request, and
showed them the dangerous consequences of
such a concession. Exasperated at this second re
pulse, Olaus imprisoned the Icelanders whom he
had at his court, and was meditating on pro
ceeding to still further lengths, when his life, as

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 63
well as his iniquitous designs, were put an end
to by intestine seditions.
Similar, though not such open, agressions
were made by his half-brother, Harold the
Cruel, which met with no better success; the
country, however, by the middle of the thir
teenth century, had been reduced to the state that
is adverted to in the beginning of the chapter.
Owing to these deplorable disorders, the king
of Norway, Hagen, gained what his predecessors
had so much thirsted after: for it became ap
parent to the natives, that no more expeditious
or certain way was to be found of restoring
public tranquillity, than by subjecting the
aristocracy, as well as the people, to a power
able to coerce and punish their intemperance.
Three of the provinces, therefore, agreed, in
1261, to recognise the king of Norway upon cer
tain conditions ; and the eastern part, which at
first resisted the proposition, gave its consent
three years later.
By the conditions of cession it was stipulated,

64 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
that the ancient laws should remain in force*
The Icelanders were to be on a footing with the
Norwegians, and, furthermore, were not to be
bound by any oath of allegiance to the king,
unless their privileges were maintained inviolate.
The act of surrendering had the desired effect:
tranquillity was restored, the laws were again
put in force, and the evils which had over
whelmed the country disappeared. The change
was, nevertheless, dearly bought : with their
independence disappeared a great portion of
the enterprise that had marked the character of
their ancestors. Being no longer called upon to
attend themselves to their national welfare, their
energies became palsied ; they returned to a
state of pupilage, and instead of directing their
affairs, their only duty became obedience to
those set over them, and reliance on the exer
tions of others in their behalf. Forming an
insignificant province, though never treated with
tyranny, they were often neglected : from this
period, therefore, their history is a mere blank—

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 65
chequered, unfortunately, but too often with
calamities brought on by their climate and the
volcanic nature of their soil.
The century that immediately followed the
loss of their independence was particularly me
morable for these visitations. In the course of
the first forty years no less than six series of
eruptions destroyed their cattle, swept away
their habitations, and rendered a great part of
the land, hitherto useful, unavailable for pas
ture ; and when, in 1387, by the crown of Nor
way coming into the hands of Margaret, the
Semiramis of the North, Iceland became part
of the Danish dominions, the change of masters
brought no change of condition with it to the
country. The reign of the new dynasty was
ushered in by the appearance of a pestilence so
deadly as to obtain for it the name of " Suarti
Daudi," or Black Death. Before its ravages
had subsided, two-thirds of the inhabitants had
fallen victims to its virulence, leaving their sur
vivors to feel the following year the additional

66 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
misery of famine, as the disease that had before
attacked human beings transferred itself to the
cattle, and carried the greater part away.
It is not to be wondered at, that in the midst
of such a complication of evils, this unfortu
nate people sunk rapidly, and that the learning
for which it had been remarkable, disappeared
from among them ; it is rather astonishing, that
overwhelmed as they were on every side (for in
addition to other miseries their coasts were at
this time infested with English and Irish pirates),
they bore up and preserved those few remnants
of literature which after the Reformation were
partially revived. The very tone of their writers
partakes of the gloominess which pervaded
their country; and the simple recital of their
woes is made in the words of men whose spirit
is broken down, and who have been so long ac
customed to misfortune as to despair of any
change for the better.
The Reformation which was spreading in the
north of Europe found its way to Iceland ;

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 67
not, however, without bringing with it troubles
and dissensions. The two bishops of Holum
and Skalholt taking different sides, these two
prelates commenced hostilities against each
other, which ended in the beheading the one
who adhered to the Pope, and in the adoption
of the Lutheran creed, which is to this day the
only one known in the land. A new spring was
also given to learning by the foundation of two
schools at the sees of the bishops, which owed
their origin to Christian III. Both were after
wards united, and are at present represented by
the school of Bessestad.
The reader must be wearied with the recapi
tulation of horrors which follow close on one
another, without one incident to dissipate the
gloom that covers the whole narration ; and it is
a relief to approach near to our own time, and
feel that the recapitulation is coming to a close.
The last century, however, seems to have con
centrated the horrors of all the preceding ones ;
and has, perhaps, been altogether the most

68 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
terrible that has passed over Iceland. In 1707
the smallpox found its way into the island, and,
out of a population of 47,000, swept 16,000
into the grave in one year ! In 1759, after a
succession of inclement years, the almost entire
loss of their cattle brought on a famine, and
another gap was made in the numbers of the
people, who were barely recovered from their
last scourge. Starvation succeeded disease,
and 10,000 fell victims to this second visita
tion. The third and greatest calamity, was the
unparalleled eruption of several volcanoes in
1783. The waters of the river Skaptaa were
suddenly dried up, and a torrent of liquid fire
rolled in their stead. This was followed soon
after by other streams of lava, that came down
with such rapidity as to drive the inhabitants
from their houses: frequent earthquakes were
felt; and a phenomenon, not before witnessed
in such cases, appeared in the form of a dense
cloud, that covered the whole island, and in
volved it in total darkness. The consequences

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 69
were terrible ; the air became infected : the
ground covered with volcanic ashes, produced
grass that poisoned the cattle that fed on it.
The inhabitants of the country near Skaptaa
Jokul were attacked with an epidemic of a
putrid nature ; the loss of cattle brought on a
famine ; and, to crown the whole, the smallpox
made its appearance a second time. Assistance
was sent them from Denmark, and every at
tempt was made to arrest the ravages of the
disease; but all that could be devised could not
prevent one quarter of the population being
carried off by this complication of ills.
Since that period no physical revolution has
disturbed the tranquillity of Iceland ; the volca
noes have ceased from their labours, and, with the
exception of one. that emitted smoke about six
or seven years ago, have remained in a quiescent
state. Little more remains to be told ; and were it
not for a laughable occurrence that took place
in ] 809, this brief sketch might close here ;. as,

70 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
however, the melancholy greatly preponderates
over the ludicrous in every thing that regards
this country, it would be unfair to omit any
thing that has a portion of the latter in it. In
the month of January, in the above-mentioned
year, the people of Reikiavik were struck with
the unexpected arrival of a ship in the depth of
winter. On entering the harbour she hoisted
American colours, the United States being
neutral ; but, upon a representation being made
that no foreign vessel was allowed to trade with
the island, the captain hoisted the English
flag, and declared himself an enemy. It proved
to be a ship from London, sent by a Mr. Phelps,
an extensive soap-boiler, on the representation
of one Jorgensen that tallow, then a scarce
article in England, was to be procured in
Iceland on very advantageous terms.
This Jorgen Jorgensen was a prisoner of war,
who had originally begun life in an English
collier, and subsequently served as midshipman
in a British man-of-war. Upon the breaking

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 71
out of the war with Denmark, he returned to his
native country, and took the command of a pri
vateer, but had the ill-luck, in the early part of
his new career, to be captured by the Swan
frigate. While on parole in London, he met
with Phelps, and represented the advantage
of entering upon the Icelandic trade while the
Danes were excluded from it by the British
cruisers that hovered about the entrance of the
Cattegat. The soap-boiler was tempted by
what he heard, and dispatched his new ac
quaintance with a cargo, and with him sent
a half-French, half-English sort of character,
named Savignac, as supercargo, to whose bad
conduct much of the evil that followed has been
attributed. Upon their arrival, the governor interdicted
all dealings with the English, and Jorgensen,
finding it of no use to attempt any at that time,
discharged his cargo, and returned in ballast,
leaving Savignac behind him. Phelps was
not discouraged by this misfortune, but pro-

72 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
ceeded to fit out another vessel, called the
Margaret and Anne, and provided himself with
with a letter of marque. He determined on
going himself this time, and set sail with twelve
guns prepared for hostilities, should they suit
his views. On his arrival he seized a Danish
vessel, called the Orion, in virtue of a let
ter of marque. Savignac, also, gave his em
ployer to understand that the governor had
offered a reward for Mr. Phelps's head.
Upon hearing this, the merchant ordered his
captain to seize the person of the governor, who
was accordingly arrested on a Sunday afternoon,
as the people were coming from church, and put
on board the Margaret and Anne, where he was
kept in strict confinement.
Jorgensen, who had hitherto been quiet, now
came forward, and seized upon the reins of
government. He began by issuing a proclama
tion, by which he declared Iceland an inde
pendent republic, to be placed under the pro
tection of Great Britain, and decided upon three

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 73
white stockfish upon a blue ground for its flag.
He also undertook to put the country in a state
of defence, and to restore the ancient form of
government; but as these changes would re
quire some time to effect, he took upon him
self the labour of ruling the land, until such
time as the constitution should be sufficiently
established to work without his aid ; and he
satisfied himself with taking the modest titles
of Protector of Iceland and Commander by Sea
and Land.
As he felt the utility of pecuniary resources,
he declared all the property belonging to Danes
forfeited to the state ; and in order to render
himself popular with the natives, he sold them
the grain belonging to the former at half price.
Among other means that he took to turn the
trade into the hands of his employers, and to
prevent any attempt at resistance, he ordered
all the Danes to give up their arms, and for-.
¦ bad them, under pain of instant death, to stir
out of their houses. Backed by the guns of
VOL. I. E

74 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the Margaret and Anne, which could blow up
the town and its inhabitants in less than half
an hour, Jorgensen was too formidable to be
resisted by the Danes, who were, besides, dis
pirited by the loss of their governor, and he
quietly took possession and installed himself in
the dwelling of the latter.
Having now formed a body-guard, from some
thieves that he picked up and rigged out as sol
diers, he set about his changes, turning out one
magistrate, imprisoning another, and plundering
Danes wherever he had an opportunity. To
redeem his promise of putting the island in a
state of defence, he caused six rusty guns to be
dragged from Bessestad, where they had lain
for near two hundred years, and with them
mounted a battery for the protection of the
town. The wool that was purchased by Phelps
during the summer, was put up in bales so as
"to form a breastwork, and as military an ap
pearance as possible was given to the whole.
It is uncertain how far he would have carried

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 75
his plans into execution, had he met with no
foreign obstacle. It has been said that he was
backed by some influential Icelanders, who pre
ferred the English to the Danish government,
and, no doubt, the prudence of many of his
orders indicate, that he was directed by persons
who were well acquainted with every detail
relative to the country. The people, however,
were too dispersed and too unaccustomed to
agitation to take a warm part in the revolution,
and Jorgensen was too regardless of private
rights not to make many enemies. Though he
must have fallen of himself, his usurpation was
put an end to by a much more powerful engine.
While he was playing the dictator at Rei
kiavik, and amusing himself with tormenting the
Danes, the Talbot sloop of war, under the
command of the Honourable Alexander Jones,
entered the port of Havnifiord, and received
information of what was going on at the capi
tal: the captain immediately went there, and
seeing the new flag waving over the town,
e 2

76 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
ordered it to be taken down, and the Danish
colours substituted. The battery, too, was de
stroyed. The governor having desired to be
taken to England, to represent what had hap
pened to the English government, Captain Jones
appointed the two next officers in rank, named
Stephenson, to govern in his absence.
As for Jorgensen, the captain insisted upon
his going to England, as he had broken his
parole. The Margaret and Anne sailed with
the best cargo that ever left Iceland : but,
before she lost sight of land, she was discovered
to be on fire ; and the crew were only rescued
by Jorgensen coming up to them in the prize
Orion. The fire was attributed to the Danish
prisoners ; but, there is every reason to believe
that it arose from the wool, that had been used
for the battery, having been put on board
wet, and consequently ignited. Jorgensen, on
his return, was put in confinement, and having
committed two felonies, was transported .to

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 77
Botany Bay : and Phelps, unable to recover the
loss of his ship, became a bankrupt.
Thus ended this singular business : and after
the departure of the Talbot, the affairs of the
isle again took their usual course, and no evil
consequences arose from this attempted revolu
tion, except the losses by a few individuals who
had been plundered under the plea of " Univer
sal Good." Since that time the people, who
were subject to many privations during the war,
have been reaping the advantages of peace, and,
have been blessed with milder seasons than had
been usual. The consequence has been increase
of comforts throughout the land ; and it is to be
hoped that their present improved condition
may not make them neglectful, or forget that
such visitations, as have been here enumerated,
may occur again, and overwhelm them with
even greater misery.

78 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER V.

Winter in Reikiavik — Living among the natives — Town
of Reikiavik.
The departure of the corvette left me alone
to look about me, and make my arrangements
for the winter. The chief disadvantage that I
laboured under was my ignorance of both
Danish and Icelandic, both of which are spoken
in Reikiavik, and I soon found that English,
with one or two exceptions, was unknown.
My only plan was, therefore, to make myself as
quickly as possible acquainted with Danish,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 79
which I understood was by far the easiest of
the two tongues ; and with this view I took my
meals with a Sysselman of a neighbouring dis
trict, who was obliged to remain at Reikiavik
during the winter. My new messmate was a
clever lively man, possibly well imbued with a
sense of the dignity of a Sysselman, and desi
rous that others might have the same feeling,
but on the whole an entertaining companion.
Our conversation was at first carried on in
Latin, and from daily exercise we soon lost the
difficulty we felt in expressing ourselves. Some
embarrassment was also occasioned by our dif
ferent pronunciation, the Icelanders adopting
that of the Italians. It was not long, how
ever, before we left off the learned language,
and, by mutual consent, exchanged it for the
Danish, to which we both stuck during the
remainder of our acquaintance.
It will be easily believed that our meals ex
hibited no great luxury, either as regarded the
materials or the cooking ; yet on the whole,

80 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
for the two first months our fare was as good as
might be expected in any other part of the
North of Europe. As the winter, however,
advanced, a great falling off in the victualling
department took place. Fresh meat gradually
disappeared ; smoked mutton, that raised blisters
on the tongue, was substituted ; and the daily
repetition of cod-fish, without any sauce but
the water it was boiled in, gave a very in
sipid character to our ordinary dinner. Oc
casionally, salt salmon, or a piece of veal, from
a calf slaughtered a few hours after its birth,
was added ; but in general such delicacies were
reserved for high days.
Even this was far superior to the ordinary
living of the natives; their diet, of course, may
be supposed to correspond with the poverty of
their dwellings and the general simplicity of
their lives. Dried cod-fish, prepared without
salt, is the principal article of subsistence of
the mass of the people ; it, in fact, is the substi
tute for bread, which they seldom taste, and is

A WINTER IN ICELAND. -81
eaten raw, with butter spread upon it, after
undergoing a sufficient pounding with a heavy
stone mallet, to shiver it into thin shreds. In
this state it is, by no means, unpalatable by
itself ; and, were fresh or salted substituted for
the rancid butter which is always used, there
would be nothing to object to this kind of food.
Their preference to stale over salted butter
one must attribute to salt being an imported
article, and a luxury to be attained, in the
interior, only by a few. However this may be,
salt is very little used even in the preservation
of their meat, the mutton being always smoked
for winter, and the fish merely split and dried
in the sun. Though bread itself is not eaten
out of Reikiavik, rye gruel, forms one meal in
the day, and flat cakes of the same grain are
occasionally to be met with. Windmills are
scarce ; probably the two best are at Kieblivik
and Reikiavik, and as water power is nowhere
resorted to, though the waterfalls and rapids
every where offer great hydraulic advantages,
e3

82 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the farmers are contented to stick to the primi
tive mode of grinding their corn in handmills,
called by them " quern," though the labour and
time expended in the process is far greater, and,
after all, inadequately performed.
The little use of vegetables made by the Ice
landers, and the necessity they labour under of
confining themselves to animal food, produces
many cutaneous diseases, that, from neglect
in the first instance, often become very terrible
in their consequences. The few vegetables that
they use are at best but stunted pigmies of
their kind, and are besides very scarce, seeds
seldom finding their way into the interior from the
ports. The almost only native vegetable dish that
they indulge in, is a sort of gruel prepared from
the lichen called " Fiall grass," or .mountain grass
{Lichen Icelandicus), that in some respects re
sembles the dandelion, having brownish- green
leaves, with jagged edges. It is found in great
plenty in the valleys, and as it abounds in
mucilage, it is made into a very palatable soup

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 83
by the addition of cream and sugar, after being
boiled in several waters, to extract its bitter
ness. But the article of food that is most prized, is
the flesh of the " Haukall," a species of dog
fish or shark, that abounds on the coast of
Iceland. Before it is fit for use it must have
been buried for a couple of years in the sand ;
when arrived at a state of maturity by this
inhumation, it is said to resemble pork in fla
vour, but is so offensive as to render it impos
sible to approach a person who has tasted the
least morsel of it for three weeks before. This,
however, is not considered a sufficient reason for
rejecting it, and I may say that, on the whole,
they display as great a love of haut gout as any
aldermanic epicure ; whether reindeer's meat or
skait engross their attention, a few weeks' wind-
drying is all that is considered necessary to either.
If it were not ill-natured, they might also be
accused of eating horseflesh, though it is but
justice to say that the preference shown to the

84 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
latter food is confined to certain places, and has
gained for these persons the name of " Hross
eiter," or horse eaters, which is looked upon as
a term of special reproach.
Our mess, however, was never reduced to
such extremities, though for a time we were
deprived even of potatoes, which did not make
their reappearance at our table till the arrival
of a postship. Five or six times during the
winter a bullock was brought to the town, and
bought by one or other of the merchants, who
sent a notice of this extraordinary occurrence
round the place, that each might write down
what quantity he wished to have reserved for
him. The beef was generally poor, and sold at
about two pence per lb. ; yet even this price re
stricted its use to the wealthier inhabitants. The
mutton, however, is proverbially good, and, till
October, very fat ; after that period it is not in
general eaten fresh, as the sheep fall off in
weight, and a sufficient quantity are slaughtered
to last them out the winter.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 85
Reindeer are plentiful but very inaccessible,
keeping in the mountains, and only descending
into the valleys when driven by starvation ; the
few therefore that are shot, principally in the
neighbourhood of Thingvalle Vatn, are so re
duced by hunger as to render them hardly
worth the chase. Unlike their brothers in
Lapland, they have never been put to any use,
and since their introduction from Finmark, about
sixty years ago, have multiplied wonderfully ;
for though now to be seen at times in herds of a
hundred together, this stock was derived from
only three individuals, the survivors of thirteen
that the king; sent over.
Ptarmigans are far easier got at, and their
abundance may be imagined, when eleven
hundred are sometimes caught by one man from
December to March. They are occasionally
shot; but the best, as well as most expeditious
mode, is to snare them in the snow, and when
left to freeze many are packed up in close barrels

86 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
with their feathers on, and sent in that state to
Denmark, two and three months afterwards.
During the winter about a dozen of the
merchants met every evening, and continued,
with the most laudable perseverance, to play
from six till twelve, and often even later, at one
solitary game of cards. Indeed I do not even
recollect to have heard any other game but
Ombre mentioned among them ; the " sable
Matadors" took up their undivided attention,
and except to light a cigar, or drink a glass of
punch, the players seldom raised their eyes off
the cards, even to venture upon a remark. The
only advantage that I could ever discover in fhe
game that they had selected, and kept to with
such fidelity, is that, being interminable, it could
be made to last as long as their own winter
nights ; and, to all appearance surpassed them
in dulness.
Reikiavik is of modern date ; for till within
half a century of the present time, it could

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 87
scarcely be called a town. The two sees of
Skalholt and Holum are generally marked as
such in the maps, though they consisted of
only a school, beside the residences of the
bishops. In each of the ports was also to be
found a timber house, belonging to the king,
built for the purpose of carrying on the trade of
the surrounding district, and occupied by the
factors and their families. Gradually a few of
the poorer people, attracted by the employment
which the merchants gave them during the
summer in discharging the ' ships, as well as by
the fishery, settled on these spots, and built
themselves a few cottages of the most wretched
description in each harbour. The rest, however,
of the population, with the exception of Rei
kiavik, remains dispersed in single farms over
the country.
The first attempt at raising a town was made
by the king, Christian VII., by establishing a
woollen manufactory on the site of the pre
sent capital. The trade of the port before that

88 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
time had been carried on in a small island called
Ephersce, which at low water is connected with
the mainland by a reef. In consequence of the
washing away of one side, and the perceptible
decrease of its extent, it was considered advis
able to transfer the house that stood on it to the
mainland. The name of Ingolf's Havn, or
Ingolf's harbour, which the port bore till this
time, was now changed for Reikiavik, from the
smoke of a hot spring in the plain between it
and the bishop's house at Laugarnoes. The
manufactory itself did not answer so well as
might have been wished, and though the king
sent over for several boys and girls, and caused
them to be instructed in various trades, his ex
ertions in favour of this part of his subjects was
not repaid with the success they deserved, nor at
this time is any article exported but in its raw
state, if we except some woollen knit goods, and
a small quantity of brimstone, refined in the
northern province. Three or four years ago
an attempt was made by an enterprising indivi-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 89
dual to establish similar works at Krusedvik,
where sulphur abounds, but after the land that
produced it had been purchased, and consider
able expense incurred, so little encouragement
was met with, that the affair was gradually
dropped. The governor at the same time removed
from Bessestad to a house at Reikiavik, now
used for the meeting of the High Court, and
the two schools of Holum and Skalholt were
united in one, and transferred to the same place.
Since then the students have again shifted their
quarters to their present house at Bessestad, the
building at Reikiavik has been pulled down, and
the only vestige of this defunct seat of learning
is a clump of cottages built on its site, that still
retain the name of Skola Bai. To render the
seat of government complete, it was deemed
requisite to add a prison, and accordingly the
only stone house in the place was erected ; but
as it was found to be not only unnecessary but
to encourage vice, by affording more comfortable

90 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
quarters to criminals than many honest people
could aspire to, it underwent the strange
change of being converted into a residence for
the governor, in whose more honourable occupa
tion it remains to this day. -
The cathedral has been built in the centre of
the town in an open space called Ostervall,
which in summer is generally covered with the
tents of those who come to trade. It is built
of hewn stone, with a wooden tower and roof,
and has attached to one of its sides a sacristy,
and a small room for the reception of coffins
till the time for the funeral arrives. The pews,
into which the lower part of the church is
divided, are reserved for the women alone; as
it is not customary for the men to sit in any part
of the church except the chancel or gallery ; and
the governor has the same sort of glazed pew
for attending divine service as at Bessestad.
The decorations of the altar remind one of a
catholic church, as also the candles that burn
on it before an indifferent painting of the de-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 91
scent from the cross, which, however, is the
best specimen of the pictorial art to be met
with in the country. To the left of it a railed
seat is reserved for the bishop, who takes no
part in the service himself, except at ordina
tions. On these occasions, the prelate wears
over his satin rochet, a splendid stole of purple
velvet covered with embroidery. The candidate
is conducted to the steps of the altar by two
priests in surplices, and after a long exhortation
in Latin, which, I believe, is only made use of
in this church ceremony, he is admitted into holy
orders, the greater part of the service being
chanted. At the back of the town is a lake which
communicates with the sea by a small stream,
that separates the governor's house from the
rest of Reikiavik. It has been suggested, that
by widening this stream into a canal, the piece
of water might be converted into a basin for
shipping, but it is very doubtful whether the
returns would repay the expense of the first

A WINTER IN ICKLAND.
outlay, and the subsequently keeping it in
a condition to be taken advantage of. In
the spring, when the snow on the hills to
the east and west of the town begins to
thaw, the water in the lake is so much in
creased as not to find a ready exit by the
stream, and the whole of the plain round the
church is overflowed and impassable, except in
boats. The timber houses are tarred over, and
only one story high; nor would it be safe to
build any more lofty of such slight material,
from the great prevalence of gales throughout
the winter. I was at first sight struck with the
cleanliness of the streets, and, to do the people
justice, they are kept in better order than most
in other parts of Europe.
When viewed from the bay, the houses ap
pear so low, as scarcely to expose more than
the upper part of the window to the sight, an
effect produced by the beach rising higher than
the street, and the large heaps of stones that
are piled along it to press down the fish when

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 93
dry. The middle of the town is not much above
the high water-mark, and in stormy weather I
have, more than once, seen the sea make its
way into the streets. The winter before I was
there, the water flooded the lower parts of many
of the houses, at some distance from the sea;
and unless some check in the form of a break
water be not attempted, it is not impossible that
some of the houses in the centre may be shifted
from their places, particularly as they merely
rest upon stone platforms, and are not secured
to any foundation.

94 A, WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER VI.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY OF THE ICELANDERS.
In giving a sketch of the occupations and
domestic economy of the Icelanders, the ac
count must chiefly be limited to the considera
tion of them as an agricultural community, for
in a country in which a population under 60,000
is dispersed over an extent equal to that of
Ireland, it cannot be expected that many can
confine themselves to distinct trades, or that
much beyond the cultivation of a small portion
of the soil can be undertaken. We accordingly
find, that with the exception of a small number,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 95
who form the clergy and magistracy, the whole
of the people are peasants, dependent either on
agriculture or fishing ; and even as regards
these two solitary professions, their followers
are, in many cases, obliged to add farming
to their other occupations, to enable them to
earn a moderate subsistence. Yet, though
the tilling of the land is the ostensible
pursuit of all, many of the peasants, when at
leisure, turn their attention to some handicraft,
and employ their time in winter in constructing
those few field implements which are of a form
peculiar to the country, and therefore not
imported. The farms are mostly occupied by the land
owner, and in cases where rented, an annual
payment is made by the tenant, — a part in
butter, and the remainder in money, based on
the number of " fiording," or ten pounds weight
of that article, which can be produced on the
farm. Indeed butter and fish are very generally
used as a standard of value in most transactions

96 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
between the peasants : wages to servants are
usually paid in the former, and in the latter are
computed the taxes due to the king. There is
a fixed standard of size for the fish, without
which the Sysselman will reject] them, as the
deficiency, arising from bad condition, or any
other cause, will have to be made good to him.
The Icelandic way of measuring land resem
bles the old English mode, by hides, the value
and not the extent being ascertained. The
word hundred is used to signify any quantity of
land, however extensive, which can support
a horse, cow, and six sheep; and this mode of
calculating originated in the ancient custom of
valuing property by the number of ells of
" wadmal," or cloth, producible on it.
The landlord's rights are very limited, for
when once in possession, the tenant cannot be
ejected, unless a farm of equal value be provided
for him, as long as he continues regular in the
payment of his rent ; nor is the landlord allowed
to raise the rent when he pleases, as on a dispute

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 97
about the increased value of the land, the deci
sion is referred to the Hreppstiore, and two other
competent judges. On the other hand, a rem
nant of feudalism appears in the obligation of
a tenant who holds land on the coast, to serve
in his landlord's fishing-boat throughout the
season. Though he receives his share of what
is caught, the tenant is often injured thereby,
particularly when in possession of a boat him
self. This custom is so much at variance with
all their others, that it can be only ascribed to
the scantiness of population, which makes it
a matter of difficulty to man all the vessels
built for fishing;.
The only portion of this extensive island,
from which profit is derived, or to which any
idea of property is attached, consists of the long
valleys and plains which run between the lesser
mountains on the sea-coast. The centre is a
vast desert, covered with " Jokuls," a name
used to distinguish mountains perpetually clad
in snow ; these extensive glaciers forbid the
VOL. I. F

98 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
approach of man, for as even the land at their
bases is too elevated to admit of the growth of
grass, the greatest obstacle is placed in the
way of penetrating among them in the shape of
want of forage for the horses necessary to the
undertaking;. In travelling; from the south to
the north coast, a track is selected which
avoids these mountains as much as possible;
but even this pass will take up thirty-six hours,
during which time the horses must continue
without any food whatever. In summer this
part of the journey is usually got over with as
little delay as possible; but in winter it must
often be accomplished on foot, from the depth
of snow precluding the use of horses.
Sledges are not in use in Iceland, the country
being too mountainous, and the weather too
stormy. Nor did I see more than one pair of
snow-shoes while among these people. In form
they differed materially from those used by the
North American Indians, and in my opinion not
so well calculated for supporting a weight, as

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 99
they were made of one piece of wood, about
four feet long, and very narrow, with the ( oints
turned up. The pair I saw belonged to a man
who had brought the mail from the North, — a
journey which is often, in winter, attended with
danger, not merely from the excessive cold, but
from the sudden drifts of snow that overtake,
and but too often overwhelm the traveller, who
finds sufficient impediments to his progress
in the darkness that shrouds him for twenty out
of twenty-four hours. Yet I have heard it
asserted that there are people living among the
Jokuls, and that smoke seen in the distance is
supposed to issue from their dwellings. Though
I have heard this from more than one person, I
can hardly give credit to the tale of any one
having chosen such a residence; and attribute
the whole to a popular belief that a band of
robbers, who had fled at different times from
j ustice, have selected this part of the country as
a retreat, in which they can defy pursuit, and
f 2

100 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
form a society of their own, unrestrained by laws
human or divine.
Between these Jokuls and the sea are chains
of lesser mountains, partially covered at the
base with a scanty verdure. Their summits,
when not clothed in snow, that is hardly three
months out of the twelve, present a black ap
pearance, which spreads a gloom over the sur
rounding scenery, which is already far from
cheerful. The valleys that intervene are, in
general, extensive marshy plains ; and it is in
the more fertile part of these that the majority
of the population is to be found.
These marshes often produce very good
grass, and only require some expense, and more
industry, to convert them into capital grazing
land : but the almost insurmountable difficulties
thrown in the way of any attempt of the kind,
by the limited number of hands, and the rigour
of the climate, would check the ardour of a
more enterprising people than we are now con-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 101
sidering. Their short summer scarcely suffices
for the labours of the Sveit-Bonde, or upland
peasant, who depends entirely on his flock for
subsistence. Small as is his crop of hay, he. is
obliged to call in the aid of those who live on
the coast, and are principally occupied in fish
ing. The latter, as soon as the fishing season
is over, go to the Northern Amt for what is
called Kaupa vin, or hired labour, and assist in
the harvest, which takes up about six weeks,
and then return to their former occupation.
The winter rapidly sets in ; and, during the ten
months of its continuance, the intensity of the
cold, the tempestuous state of the Weather, and,
more than either of these, the shortness of their
days, render even the care of their flocks a diffi
cult and often dangerous employment. For the
loss of persons in quest of sheep is by no means
an unusual occurrence ; and on a snow-storm
arising, it is absolutely necessary to collect
them in hovels built for their shelter near the
farm-house.

102 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
At such times it is impossible to see or hear,
for the wind surpasses in violence any idea that
can be formed of it ; yet it is to this wind that
the shepherd must trust as a guide. Marking
its direction he dashes into the storm ; the dis
tance to be accomplished is indeed, perhaps,
short ; but should he swerve from the right way,
the least deviation is sure to be fatal ; and woe
to him should the wind chop in the least, while
on this employment ; such a change will inevi
tably seal his fate, and he will wander in the
dark ; till, numbed by the cold, he will fall into
a sleep which soon becomes that of death.
" Alas !
Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold,
Nor friends, nor sacred home ! On every nerve
The deadly winter seizes, shuts up sense,
And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold
Lays him along the snows a stiffened corse,
Stretched out and bleaching in the northern blast.''
Thomson.
Instances of such accidents are not unknown
even in the immediate neighbourhood of Rei-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 103
kiavik. About Christmas, 1834, a young woman
imprudently quitted the church alone before the
service was over, with the intention of nursing
a child that she had left at home. Before she
had got out of the town a violent snow-storm
was raging, which rendered it impossible to
see an inch before her. Maternal solicitude,
however, overcame her fears, and she hurried
on towards her house, which was not more than
a quarter of a mile distant; but she lost her
way, and wandered about, till, becoming drowsy,
she fell asleep. Upwards of one hundred per
sons went in quest of her for many successive
days, and though the search was repeated se
veral times during the winter, it proved unavail
ing, till the end of the following March, when
a partial thaw discovered her corpse frozen in
a sitting posture, within a few yards of her
home! Though so great a part of the year would
seem from its inclemency to preclude labour,
the winter is perhaps the period of greatest

104 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
activity, and these tenants of the v frigid zone
can scarcely boast of
" Their long nights of revelry and ease."
In summer the fatigue of mowing, and
carrying home the hay, is comparatively light,
and is rather a time of merry-making than
of labour; but in winter each member of the
family has his appointed share of business,
to which he applies in earnest till the return of
summer. It is usual for one individual to be
sent out to the coast, and there engage himself
to serve in a fishing-boat for the season. An
other has the care of the cattle allotted to him ;
the making of horseshoes, and other smith's
work, employs a third ; and the remainder of
the family of both sexes occupy themselves in
making nets, and knitting their clothes.
In some houses of a better description, a loom
of a rude construction, serves to supply the
inmates with a kind of native cloth called
Wadmal, which is used for trousers and petti
coats ; but the knitting of frocks and coarse
stockings for exportation, as well as their own

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 105
use, is a more general occupation than weaving.
The clothes are not dyed until they are com
pleted, and then undergo the operation by being
wrapped up with indigo and logwood scattered
in the folds, and in that state boiled till they
have acquired the desired depth of colour,
which is mostly a blue black. The making of
ropes, by the tedious process of plaiting the
wool by hand, also takes up no inconsiderable
part of their time, as well as the providing
themselves with sandals, which being of raw
hide last but a very short time.
Huddled together in a small apartment,
usually the loft, without stove or any warmth
. but that arising from the confined atmosphere,
and the packing of twelve or fifteen persons in
a place of just sufficient capacity to contain
their bulk, the family continue their labours till
a late hour in the night, often till two and three
in the morning, enlivened by listening to one
of the party who chants some Saga out of a
book by the light of a dim seal-oil lamp. At
f 3

106 A WINTER IN ICELAnD.
times the monotony of the single voice is relieved
by a hymn, the kind of music most relished by
the Icelanders, in which the whole family join.
Occasionally they indulge in instrumental music,
and the Longspeil is taken down from the wall
to serve as an accompaniment to their mourn
ful ditties.
This is the only musical instrument known
among them, and is by no means calculated to
enliven their spirits ; indeed, if its gloomy tones
are capable of producing any effect, I should say
that it is that of instilling a black melancholy
into the mind. In form it is a mere oblong
tapering box, about two feet long and three
inches wide, terminating somewhat like the
head of a fiddle, and played upon with a violin
bow. When in use it is laid upon a table, and
the forefinger is applied only to the outer one
of its three steel wires ; and were it not for this
difference it would give one the idea of a guitar
in a rapid state of decline.
Besides this mode of recreation, it is rare

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 107
to enter a house that is not provided with
a considerable number of books, in the selection
of which, as in other matters, the seriousness of
their national character is displayed, as besides
the old Norse poems and sagas, works of a
devotional tendency, are almost always to be
met with. Yet, notwithstanding the universal
attention paid to religion, which is remarkable,
there appears no fondness for ostentatious dis
play of that kind, nor do any set up claims to
superior sanctity. In every family the morning
work is commenced, and the evening concluded,
with a prayer, in which every member joins ;
the fishing-boat is not launched, before the
" formadur," or chief, has implored divine pro
tection for the crew while they remain at sea ;
nor even in travelling will an Icelander com
mence his day's journey, before he has covered
his face with his hat, and repeated a short
supplication that he may accomplish it in
safety. At church it is not always possible for them

108 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
to attend ; rivers and other natural obstacles,
added to the distances that intervene between
their churches, prevent them from assembling in
as large numbers in winter as they do when the
weather is at all favourable ; but when there is
a possibility of joining in public worship, there
are, perhaps, few countries where so large a pro
portion of the inhabitants are to be found col
lected at one time in church. Indeed, during the
winter I remained among them, I do not recol
lect the congregation of the church at Reikiavik
having ever been thin, though many of those
that attended it came five or six miles from their
homes. The shortness of the summers puts the cul
tivation of grain out of the question, or, indeed,
the raising of any thing but a few vegetables in
gardens, the introduction of which is of modern
date. During my stay, I made a small kitchen-
garden, and sowed it in the month of July, for
the frost was not out of the ground in the mid
dle of June, but the produce was in no great

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 109
state of forwardness on my leaving Iceland at
the beginning of September. I was able, how
ever, to take away a few potatoes and turnips ;
the first had reached the enormous size of
tennis-balls, and the turnips might have well
passed for very large white radishes. Cabbages
and lettuces had succeeded the best ; yet, alto
gether, it must be allowed, that it is not exactly
the place to exercise the talents of gardeners, as
the time for sowing and that for reaping come
too near together, and the rapidity of the vege
tation is not proportionate to the time that it
lasts. The soil itself does not seem unadapted to
the raising of grain, for rye has been found in
some places growing wild. I have also seen
some wheat in the garden of the Landfoged,
which at the beginning of October was well
looking, and about two feet high ; yet it gave
no indication, after that, of any intention of
ripening. The total absence of corn in the
present day has subjected the people to many

110 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
ills, by restricting them, in a great measure,
to the use of animal food, and especially fish,
which nourishment, added to their neglect of
cleanliness, has probably tended to keep the
leprosy among them, as well as many other
cutaneous disorders which but too frequently
offend the sight of the stranger wherever he
goes. The whole of the valleys are used as pastures ;
but the only part of the farm upon which ma
nure is deposited, or care bestowed, is the
ground immediately round the house. The
size of this meadow varies considerably, and
depends upon the quantity of live stock that
the rest of the farm is able to support in sum
mer, and is, in fact, the land upon which the
cattle must depend for winter sustenance. As
the house is generally built on a slope, or gentle
eminence, to keep it dry, the meadow improves
its appearance, and being covered with innu
merable small hillocks, has much the appear
ance of a country churchyard in England. A

A WINTER IN ICELAND. Ill
stone wall, or low earthen mound, generally
encloses it, though the necessity of this defence
is often obviated by the numerous dogs that
prowl about the farm-house, and are taught, at
the sound of a rattle, to chase any horses or
cattle that are tempted by the superior quality
* of the grass to trespass on the " toon," as it is
called; and its privacy is further secured by
a law that allows the detention of any strange
horse found on it after the 1 st of May, till a fine
of three silver marks is paid by the owner.
Of late years an attempt has been made by
the more industrious to level these knolls, an
operation rendered very slow by the scantiness
of hands, and in which they have not been much
encouraged, by finding not unfrequently, that
after the lapse of some time the ground sinks,
and reassumes its former appearance.
After a mild winter, the month of May gene
rally finds the ground in a fit state for tillage.
The first step is the collecting of manure, and
spreading it on the toon, but as the horses

112 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
lie on spungy turf instead of litter, the land is
not overburdened with richness. It is then
beaten into the soil with clubs, and about the
middle of June the grass begins to grow, with*
some rapidity, and is fit for mowing in August.
When in its prime it is about six inches high,
and of very unequal length, and is moreover
much beset with every variety of weeds. From
the unevenness of the surface, and the number
of stones that are never removed, the haymakers
are obliged to employ small scythes, with a
straight handle and blade about eighteen inches
long, in shape like a carving-knife. With this
implement they rather shave than mow the hil
locks perfectly bare, rarely leaving a blade even
between the intervals, which are so narrow as
not to admit of more than a man's foot. Yet,
however expert they may become in the use of
this scythe, the Icelanders can hardly mow
a quarter of the same space that is usual in
England in a day, and would probably be over
taken by the winter before the harvest was over,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 113
did they not employ strangers to assist them.
Both men and women work, the former receiv
ing, besides their board, from two to three " fibrd-
ing" of butter a week, and the latter half that
quantity. While I was in Iceland, a fiording,
or ten pounds weight, was considered equivalent
to four-and-sixpence ; but as work in summer is
paid very highly, the general rate of wages must
not be judged of by this particular payment.
The month of July is chiefly taken up by the
preparations for the journey to the coast with
their tallow, wool, and other commodities, and the
bartering of their produce in the different ports*
On their return, after an absence perhaps of
two or three weeks, the whole of the hay is
stacked, and it is customary for the farmers to
give a feast to those who have assisted at the
harvest. Much merriment prevails at these fes
tivals, and the simplicity of the fare, consisting
of rye-porridge and fish, with the addition of the
first mutton killed that year, is compensated
for by large bowls of rum punch, and the

114 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
broaching of kegs of corn brandy. To the im
moderate use of the latter spirit the majority
are but too much addicted, when within their
reach. It is more fiery than any British spirit,
and cannot be drunk otherwise than raw, as the
least addition of water makes it turn as white
as milk; yet its cheapness (for in summer it
does not exceed the price of porter in England),
causes great quantities to be consumed, and
encourages the people to destroy their health,
and abridge their lives, by this pernicious poison.
Before the winter sets in, the only remaining
business to attend to, is the gathering of the
wethers and barren ewes that have been sent
among the mountains for the summer, to save
as much of the grass as possible round the
homestead. For this purpose, at the beginning
of September the Hreppstiores call upon every
farmer in their district to send a man in search
of the sheep. On reaching that part of the
country to which the flocks generally resort, the
whole body divide into parties, and drive all the

A WfNTER IN ICELAND. 115
sheep they find into pens ; and proceed in this
way every day, until they have gathered the
whole number that had been turned out in May.
Occasionally some of the sheep stray so far as
to preclude their recovery that year, and the
owners have to wait for them till the following
season. The business of each man claiming his
own stock then follows, and the party separates
after two or three weeks of roving in the moun
tains. The name given to this annual expedi
tion is Rettys, derived probably from the fair
adjudication of each man's property; and the
whole proceeding seems to be carried on with
much good faith, as few complaints occur of
the sheep getting in the hands of any but the
real owners.

116 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER VII.

Icelandic houses — Dress' — Poor-laws — Leprosy —
National character.
It has often struck me as a matter to be re
gretted, that in a country where manners and
customs have been so little affected by the lapse
of time as in Iceland, and where even the lan
guage has scarcely undergone any change for
ten centuries, the buildings, which in other
countries are the principal objects that recall
past ages to us, should have, from the first,
been constructed of such perishable materials
as to require renewal from each generation into

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 117
whose hands they have passed. This has
caused the island to be perfectly destitute of
antiquarian remains ; in fact whatever in it is
ancient is the work of nature, and it would be
vainer to look for reliques of antiquity in it than
even in North America, where the rude Indian,
in handing down to his children the customs
of his forefathers, leaves behind him no more
lasting memorial than the birchen wigwam
which has sheltered him in his last moments,
and will ere long disappear.
There is, I believe, at present but one solitary
vestige of any ancient edifice to be found
throughout the island, and that in a very imper
fect state. The neighbourhood of Esiuberg is
noted as the spot where human sacrifices were
offered to the heathen gods during the tenth
century ; and the people at Kialarnoes, still
point out the almost imperceptible remains of
the temple where these horrors were committed.
Many traditions are of course current, but little
more, probably, than the site of the temple is to

118 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
be depended upon ; and it is not unlikely that
several stone barrows found about have an
equal claim to antiquity.
Judging from the account of their old writers,
I should think that their rude architecture had.
not undergone much change in its style, and,
with the exception of their wealth being lessened
since their loss of independence, it is probable
that a modern Bai is distributed much as their
ancient houses were in their more palmy state.
I remember an old book being shown me that
contained a print if the principal hall in the
house of one of their chieftains. At the upper
end is represented the " Ondveige," or seat of
honour, mentioned in Regner Lod brag's Death
Song, at which the master presided, supported
by distinguished guests. The walls on either
side were concealed with curtains, behind which
were the sleeping-places of the family, and
the light appears to have been admitted through
openings in the roof, such as the skylights in
Gothic halls.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 119
The most usual site selected for the farm
houses is the northern side of a valley, so as to be
protected from the wind by the mountains at the
back, and to enjoy as great a share of sunshine
as possible. The various buildings cover a con
siderable extent of ground, and each apartment
has a separate roof. The gables all face the
front of the house, and are mostly ornamented
with fanciful vanes, and wooden crosses, painted
red. The entrances are on the south side, and only
the principal one admits into the interior where
the family dwell ; the others lead into the dairy,
smithy, and tool-house, which do not communi
cate with any other apartment. The stables
and cow-houses, form the extremity of the build
ing, to which is attached an enclosure, sur
rounded by a wall, about six feet high, where
the hay is piled up in small stacks, and to
which, as there is no gateway, the only access
is by a ladder.
The walls of the house rarely exceed eight
feet in height, and are pierced with a window or

120 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
door under each gable. Their thickness, and
the necessity of making the openings of the
windows wider on the outside than at the case
ments, gives these holes the appearance of the
embrasures of a rampart, which is further in
creased by the house being covered with grass,
and built on a gentle slope. I had often ob
served a number of cows' skulls lying on the
wall of the hay-yard, and had been at a loss to
discover to what use they could be put, till I
found that they were universally kept as stools
for milking. Occasionally a very small garden
is to be met with in front of farm-houses, in
which a few dwarfish vegetables live, but can
scarcely be said to grow. Round about are
scattered numbers of small hovels, sufficiently
high to admit of sheep taking shelter in them
during stormy weather; and on the sea-coast,
an additional building, called a Hiattle, is al
ways to be found, which serves to dry their fish
in, its four sides being made of open bars of
wood to admit the wind from every quarter.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 121
As yet we have only viewed the exterior of
the house, which is certainly not very inviting ;
and I fear, that on examination, the interior will
not tend to change our opinion. Entering by
the principal door, we proceed up a damp stone
passage, ornamented with saddles, bridles, and
all kinds of horse furniture. At every step the
light diminishes, and, as it entirely vanishes, we
are left to grope our way through low doorways,
till we arrive at the " Eld Huus," or kitchen, in
the centre of the building, the only place in
which a fire is ever kindled, except among the
richest people. To the right and left are various
apartments destined for household purposes ;
and, after many twistings and turnings, we
reach the " guest rum," reserved for the pur
pose indicated by its name. It has the advan
tage of being panelled, and contains the best
furniture in the house. When not occupied by
a stranger, it serves as a receptacle for every
article not in immediate use. The side-saddles,
spinning-wheels, &c, are piled on the bed, in
VOL. I. G

122 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the greatest confusion, and the rest of the
apartment is crowded with large chests, which
do the double duty of containing the attire of
the family and serving as seats ; and as all this
takes place in rooms which rarely exceed twelve
feet by ten, it may be easily conceived that
there is not much space left for the live in
mates. The garret, which is the place principally
occupied by the family, is approached through
an opening in the ceiling, by the assistance of a
ladder. The form of the garret will not admit
of standing upright, except in the middle ; but
the whole is made available by having berths,
like on board ship, along each side. The room
is lighted by a small window at each end, and
not more so than is sufficient to see one's way.
In this style of apartment the whole family
sleep, and the necessity of a fire is thus avoided
by the numbers that are crowded together.
In this dark room, it is often dangerous
to move along from the prevalent custom

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 123
of leaving some of the boards in the flooring
loose and unplaned. In case of a death occur
ring in the house, at a time when it would be in
convenient to fetch timber from the coast, re
course can at once be had to this part of the
floor for materials for a coffin, and the deficiency
caused thereby can be made good the following
summer. While at work in winter the women generally
sit on their beds cross-legged ; and to counter
act the effects of remaining long in the same
position, they acquire a habit of swinging their
bodies from side to side. This is not en
tirely confined to the females ; and it becomes
so powerful, that I have often observed men,
while standing in the open air, in conversation,
keep up this sort of perpetual motion, without
being conscious of it.
The common costume of the men is a knit
jacket and waistcoat, fitting close to the body,
and devoid of collar. A red or green edging is
usually added to this part of the dress, as well
g2

124 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
as numerous small silver buttons down the front
and the sleeves : a very deep blue is the univer
sally adopted colour. On journeys, overalls,
almost wholly covered with leather, are worn ;
and in stormy weather a diminutive blue cloak,
hardly reaching to the knees, is added as a
riding-habit. The every-day dress of the women is of the
deepest blue, and consists of a knit jacket,
fastened up to the chin with hooks and eyes,
and long bunchy petticoats of "wadmal." The
the throat is protected by a black silk kerchief
worn as by men amongst us ; and the hair falls
unconfined on the shoulders from beneath a
conical cloth cap, to the end of which is fast
ened, by a gold or silver acorn, a long silk
tassel that hangs on one side of the face.
During the warm months the jacket is thrown
off, and a scarlet bodice is discovered, orna
mented with stripes of gold lace over the seams,
and fastened in front with a silver chain that
runs through eyes of the same material.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 125
At church a smart jacket, called a "treja," is
worn over the bodice, short enough to display
the scarlet beneath it. Every seam is covered
with velvet of a colour that will set off the
ground on which it is sewn, which varies ac
cording to the taste of the owner. Round the
neck a stiff velvet ruff, worked in silver lace, is
surmounted by a rather gaudy neckerchief. A
massive silver belt, made of plates handsomely
worked, encircles the waist, and from the front
of. it three or four ornaments in filligree, of the
size and form of an old-fashioned watch, are
suspended. Both the petticoat and apron, which
is never dispensed with, are garnished with nu
merous rows of velvet, which give the costume
a rich though somewhat heavy appearance.
With- this dress, the hair is turned up and
concealed under a high cap, resembling nothing
of the kind worn in any other country that I
have ever been in. The principal part of the
head-dress is a skull-cap, with a peak like the
crest of a helmet, covered with white linen, and

126 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
studded with pins ; and the part that supports
this projection is covered with a silk handker
chief, crossed round the head, so as only to
leave the cone, which is called " skoit-faldur."
exposed to the view.
The absence of trees prevents the Icelanders
tanning skins, and obliges them to make use of
raw hides in every case in which they will at
all answer the purpose ; we accordingly never
find them wearing shoes, but substituting for
them sandals of raw sheepskin or cow-hide.
These are formed of a single piece, sewn to
gether at the heels, and puckered from the toes
towards the instep, and are bound round the
ankle by several thongs crossed over one an
other. The bits of their bridles are all of home ma
nufacture, and are made with very heavy bars
of brass, sufficient to keep in subjection far
more powerful horses than their quiet ponies.
It is the fashion to cover the saddle with a blue
and red shabrack, at the top of which a small

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 127
embroidered cushion is strapped. The stirrups
are frequently attached to the saddle by chains
instead of leathers, nor is it uncommon to see
half of the reins composed of iron links.
Females ride in side-saddles, made like elbow-
chairs, and rest their feet on a board hung from
them. Those used by wealthy persons have the
outside, as well as the headstall and crupper,
completely covered with plates of brass, curi
ously embossed. The poorer women, however
rarely use the side-saddle, but ride astraddle on
a pad, with their feet fixed in wooden stirrups,
so short as to raise the knees considerably above
the horse's back.
As from the absence of wheel-carriages, every
thing has to be transported on the backs of horses,
it might be expected that the Icelanders would be
particularly expert in loading their beasts of bur
den, and avoid galling them ; but, perhaps, no
people attend less to the state of their horses'
backs than they, and almost every second
animal used for carrying, is in a continual state

128 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
of torture, from the sores to which they are
subject from the kind of pack-saddles in use.
These are nothing more than a square piece of
turf, selected from the marshes for its pliancy ;
the sort used is called " reidinga," and consists
entirely of fibres, and in appearance resembles
a very thick mat. When the back is severely
galled, the only remedy ever thought of is the
insertion of two or three horse-hair setons in
the chest, which, instead of giving relief, only
produces new wounds, and inflicts additional
torture on the poor animals.
Before concluding the chapter, it will, per
haps, not be superfluous to say a word con
cerning their management of the poor. The
charitable institutions themselves are limited,
both as regards number and means ; but as
every individual is bound by law to support his
needy relatives, as far as the fourth degree of
kindred, and as the smallness of the population
gives scope for the employment of all who are
able and willing to work, the claims upon indi-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 129
vidual benevolence become comparatively few.
Mendicity is unknown, and the wants of those
who have no relations to look to, are supplied
by the operation of a system adapted to the
habits of the people, and rendered effective by
good administration.
The care of the poor is committed to the
Hreppstiore, who is assisted by the clergyman of
the parish, and an individual who acts as
treasurer. By these three persons, rates, ac
cording to the urgency of the case, are levied
on the inhabitants: but the more usual way,
except at Reikiavik, is to billet the old and in
firm upon the peasants of the Hrepp. Although
the latter are not bound to keep a pauper in
their house longer than six months, and may
require the Hreppstiore at the end of that period
to remove him to the next neighbour, they rarely
avail themselves of this power, but keep him
for the rest of his life. In the same way, a
widow left with several children, will find no
difficulty in bringing them up; and it is very
G 3

130 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
common for persons to take them off her hands
and adopt them.
By a law, which I am not sure is always
strictly enforced, no man can contract marriage
unless he is possessed of a hundred of land ;
but as this would be difficult to procure on the
coast, a six-oared boat, in complete trim, is
considered an equivalent for the land.
The only hospitals to be found are for the
reception of lepers; and they were originally
instituted, not so much with a view of attempt
ing cures, as of separating from the healthy
part of the community persons afflicted with
that loathsome disease. They are none of them
within the immediate reach of medical aid ; and
the persons who have the care of the patients do
not pretend to do more than keep them alive.
As it is, the faculty of the whole island consist
of one physician and chemist at Reikiavik, and
four surgeons dispersed over the rest of the
country. Not more than five years ago both the
land-physicus and apothecary resided at the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 131
extremity of a promontory, more than two
miles distant from the town and it was necessary
to send that distance for the least article that
was wanted. The physician has a salary of
one hundred pounds per annum and a residence,
and the apothecary, besides the monopoly of the
island, receives an allowance from the king for
the annual distribution of a small quantity of
medicines gratis. The pay of the surgeons is
but small, nor is the addition of some trifling
fees from their wealthier patients adequate to
the labour of superintending the health of a
people scattered over such an extent of ground.
The hospitals are supported by the fishery,
the whole of the fish that is caught upon a
fixed day being divided into one more than the
usual number of shares, and that portion belongs
to the hospitals. A day closely following upon
Easter Sunday, is usually selected ; but should
the fishery fail to produce five fish to a share,
the hospital's right is not taken till it amounts
to that number.

132 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
I have never been myself in any of the leper
hospitals, and cannot therefore speak positively
as to their internal management; but I have
heard from Icelanders who had been in the one
which formerly existed at Skalholt, that filth
and misery were the principal features in it;
perhaps since that time some improvement may
have found its way even into these abodes of
wretchedness. The generality of houses are
but ill calculated to keep their inmates in
health ; and it can scarcely be expected that
when the system is in a state of corruption, it
can be renovated by crowding the patients into
dirty hovels, from which fresh air and light are
excluded, and where the food is of the same
unwholesome kind that perhaps tended to bring
on the disease.
In stature the Icelanders are considerably
above the middle height, and though not re
markably slight, I should say they were altoge
ther a spare people. This only refers to the
male part of the population, and may perhaps

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 133
be attributed to their clothes fitting rather tight
to their persons. The women, on the contrary,
exhibit the reverse, and are rather plump. Both
sexes are fair, but I was rather disappointed at
finding that white hair, instead of being univer
sal, is by no means as common as in Scotland
and Denmark. The women keep their good
looks longer than might be expected from the
rudeness of the weather, and have a much
livelier cast of countenance than the other sex.
The men occasionally wear their hair long, but
not so commonly as the Swedes ; nor do I re
collect more than two or three instances of the
beard being allowed to attain a patriarchal
length, though it is not at all unusual to see it
verge towards it through neglect.
In the character of the Icelanders I should
say gloom prevailed to a great degree, and cer
tainly the first impression on a stranger's mind
will not be favourable to them. His patience
will often be put to the test by their dilatory
habits, and his temper will be further tried by

134 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
their manners, many of which are very disgust
ing ; such as transferring milk from one bottle
to another through the medium of their mouths,
and several other customs too offensive to be
particularized ; but he will find much honesty
and wish to oblige1, when it is in their power.
Their hospitality should rather be measured
by their wish, than their ability to treat guests
well. Of pride they are by no means deficient,
and they add to it a great degree of stubborn
ness, which they mistake for independence, and
though rarely warm, they are always courteous
in their manner. As regards their intellect,
they are above mediocrity, and only want room
to exercise their talents, which cannot be denied
them, when we call to mind that the first living
sculptor, Thorwaldsen, is an Icelander.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. ]3i

CHAPTER VIII.

Division of the country — Laws — Courts — Excommuni
cation.
Till within a century of the present time it
was usual for the kings of Denmark to confer
the government of Iceland on admirals, who
occasionally visited, but did not constantly re
side on the island. In Stephenson's history of
the eighteenth century a list is given of all the
public officers during that period, from which it
appears that some only landed for a few days,

336 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and that others never even approached the seat
of their government. When they did remain
for any length of time, they took up their abode
at Bessestad ; but the governorship seems, on the
whole, to have been a sinecure given to reward
naval officers. As, however, this system was
found not to work well, a governor was sent
over, who remained there the whole time that
he kept the office, and the title of Stiff-Amt-
mand, was conferred on him, to denote that his
authority extended to ecclesiastical as well as
civil affairs, the word Stift signifying in Danish,
diocese, and Amt, province. Besides a general
control over the whole island, the southern Amt
is under his immediate care ; while Westerland
is confided to an inferior Amtman, and Nord-
land and Osterland are united under another
officer, of the same denomination. The chief
governor has, with one exception, been always
either a Dane or a Norwegian, but the infe
rior situations are generally intrusted to na
tives.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 137
The four provinces are subdivided into nine
teen Syssells, or counties, in the following
manner :
Westerland. Sudland. Nordland. Osterland.
Isafiord Borgafiord Hunavatn North Mule
Bardestrand Kiose and Gulbringe Hegranes South Mule
Strand Aarnes Thingeys WestSkapta Field
Sncenelds Ragga Vale East Skapta Field
Hnappadalls Westman Isles
Myre Over each division is placed a Syssellmand, to
whose decision all cases, both civil and criminal,
are submitted in the first instance. He acts as
auctioneer at all public sales, administers to the
effects of deceased persons, is notary public, and
collects all taxes due to the king. For these
multifarious duties he is remunerated by re
ceiving a third of the proceeds of the taxes. The
profits vary considerably in different Syssells-
Aarnes and Ranga Valle, the two best, are
worth about two hundred pounds a year each,
but the generality fall far short of that sum, and

138

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

I have heard of one in Nordland that did not
yield more than twenty-six rix dollars a year.
Before any one can be appointed to even the
least profitable of these offices, he must have
studied jurisprudence in the university of Co
penhagen; and those who have distinguished
themselves there are subsequently removed,
when vacancies occur, to the easier and more
lucrative places of Amtmen, and judges of the
Lands-over-Rett. Before a civil action can be commenced, the
dispute must be referred to two persons in the
Hrepp, who constitute the Forliks Connifior.
Should the mediation of these officers brino- the
contending parties to terms, the agreement is
final, otherwise it must be brought before the
Sysselmand, from whose decision there is an
appeal to the Lands-over-Rett, or High Court.
From this tribunal the action may be removed
again to the Cancellie, or Chancery, in Copen
hagen, and, lastly, to the king, whose decision
is in all cases final.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 139
In criminal cases, the Syssellmand forwards
his judgment to his Amtmand, who, on disap
proval of the sentence, sends it to be decided
by the High Court. But when a capital offence
has been committed, the law cannot be enforced
before the sentence has been confirmed by the
King's signature. A long period must naturally
elapse before a trial can be brought to this stage,
ships sailing but twice a year to Denmark ; but
the infliction of death is of such rare occurrence,
that a more rapid mode of checking offences is
unnecessary. Offences against property may
be said to be the only ones known, and even
these are both rare and trivial. During the year
I remained there, only one conviction for theft
took place at Reikiavik, and the value of the
article stolen did not amount to five shillings.
Horse and sheep stealers are transported to
Denmark, and confined in the goal of Copen
hagen ; but all other offenders, when their thefts
, are not accompanied by aggravating circum
stances, are let off with a flogging. The pain of

140 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
this correction must be supposed to be applied
more to the mind than the body, for the severity
of it does not exceed that of the punishment
daily administered to schoolboys in England.
The greatest number of stripes must not exceed
twenty-seven, repeated three days running, and
the sentence is put into force privately.
Adultery is also visited by the law with
a whipping, when repeated. The first infraction
of the statute subjects the delinquent to a fine*
and the third to hard labour at Copenhagen.
In later years this law has not been acted upon
with all its rigour, and the corporal punishment
has been sometimes commuted for a pecuniary
penalty ; and I know of one instance in which
a man convicted of repeated offences against
this branch of the code, was punished by a con
finement of eight days on bread and water.
As there is no prison in the island, when a
man is accused of an offence, the Hreppstiore
notifies to him that he is not to quit the district ¦
he lives in; and should he disregard this in-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 141
junction, the officer will at once confine him in
his house. The summary punishments of flog
ging and fining make any privation of liberty
unnecessary, and the difficulty of leaving the
country secretly adds to the security of the
delinquent, though left at large. I have, how
ever, heard of an instance of persons escaping
while under sentence. A man and his wife,
living at Havnifiord, had been condemned to
imprisonment in the gaol of Copenhagen ; as it
was winter and no opportunity offered of trans
porting them thither, they were left at home to
await the departure of the first ship ; but one
morning they were both missed, and upon
searching their Bai, a paper was found con
taining some money, with directions that it
should be employed in the support of a
child that they left behind, Neither of them
was ever heard of after ; and the only probable
conjecture about the matter is that they made
for the Shetlands, for it was never suspected

142 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
that they had committed suicide, which is an
act almost unknown in Iceland.
The court called Lands-over-Rett, or the
supreme court of the land, consists of three
judges, the chief of whom is styled Justitiarias,
and the others Assessors, and each has an equal
weight in the decision of the matter before
them. The proceedings are not carried on viva
voce, nor does the court sit longer at a time
than to receive the written affidavits and argu
ments of both sides, or to read the judgment it
has agreed upon. Its institution is but of
recent date, as it was only at the beginning of
this century that it took the place of the ancient
tribunal held yearly at Thingvalle. To give
the country the advantage of more frequent
sessions the present permanent court was esta
blished at Reikiavik, where it assembles every
month. As far as regards the ceremonial part, nothing
appertaining to a tribunal could evince greater

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 143
simplicity. On the morning of the meeting, an
officer announces' the fact by beating an old
drum round the town. The three judges take
their seats at the upper end of a very indifferent
room, dressed in crimson uniforms and cocked
hats, before a common table : the sitting of the
court is again formally proclaimed, the president
then rises, reads the sentences from a book, and
having signed them, the court adjourns till
the following month. The proceedings are
carried on in Icelandic, and afterwards translated
into Danish, that they be submitted to the
Cancellie at Copenhagen.
At present there is no sign of trial by jury to
be found in their judicial proceedings; but a
practice mentioned in the ecclesiastical history,
and somewhat similar to the wager of law in
England, would make it appear that such has
not always been the case. The practice alluded
to is the judgment by Tylftar Eidr, on the oath
of twelve men ; that is, a man able to find
eleven others to join with him in swearing to

144 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
his innocence was released from the charge
made against him. This species of challenge
is mentioned at a very early period of their
history, and has by this time been lost sight of;
but it is certain that no people have a greater
sense of the solemnity of an oath than the
Icelanders. They are at no time very willing to
take one, and I have known a man pay a dis
puted debt, though he might have avoided it
with a clear conscience, rather than be brought
to swear that it was not due.
Civil actions are but rare, and are limited
to matters of trifling consideration. Disputes
about the possession of landed property might
be more common, were they not checked by a
register of the transfer of estates called the
"Jord Bok," or land book, and by its means"
the various owners of the soil can be traced to
the remotest period, as well as the pedigree of
many who go back to the time of Ingolf. The
use of surnames is restricted to the few who
have found it necessary to take one while re-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 145
maining in foreign countries. The mass, in
general, distinguish one another by adding the
name of the place they live at, as Peter of
Engoe, John of Selsund ; in writing, the name
of the father takes the place of surname, with
" son" or " dotter" attached, as Gudmunder
Thorsteinson and Margaret Jonsdotter. Neither
is it usual to prefix any word to the names of
persons when addressing them, unless they have
some Danish title; and the only exception made
is in favour of the clergy, who are never spoken
of or to, without the word Sire being used.
The ecclesiastical establishment of the island
is on a greater scale than might be expected ; it
includes a bishop, a provost for each Syssel,
and about two hundred and fifty parishes; .and
as in many cases one, or even two, extra
churches are annexed to a living, and the
clergyman is obliged to keep a curate, the
whole number of priests may amount to about
three hundred. The office of provost, though
attended with some trouble, makes but little
VOL, I. H

146 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
addition to the income of the priest, except in
the single case of the provost of Garde, who
is styled the " Stift-Profastur," or Dean of the
diocese. The appointment of the latter, as well
as that of bishop, is in the hands of the king,
and the rest of the clergy are presented to
livings by the governor.
The support of the parochial clergy, is de
rived principally from the glebe land attached
to their benefices. To increase their trifling
income, a fixed annual sum by way of tithe is
paid by each parishioner, according to the value
of the land he occupies. The pastor can also
claim a day's work yearly, and the privilege of
having a lamb kept for him from October to the
following April, by each farmer. This, with a
small offering at Christmas, and a few trifling
fees for baptism, confirmation, marriage, and
burial, constitute the whole of his stipend.
The pittance derived from these various sources
does not in many cases amount to ten pounds
'Sterling, and with this sum he has to support

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 147
a wife and family. As, however, their ecclesias
tical dues alone would not suffice to support life,
clergymen labour like their neighbours, and
depend upon their cattle like other farmers.
Although some few of the priesthood are re
lieved from absolutely labouring themselves, by
holding the best livings, by far the greater part
are rather below than above the peasantry in
pecuniary circumstances ; and were it by money
that the respect for the clergy was kept up,
they would long ago have sunk below the level
of the people. It is, however, to their education
that they owe the deference at all times shown
them, and the priest, who has during the week
days been employed like a simple peasant, rises
to his proper position on Sunday, and is as much
respected, and probably more beloved, by his
parishioners, than his brethren in countries were
the church and wealth go together.
For some time subsequent to the introduction
of Christianity, the appointment of the clergy
remained in the hands of the landowners. The
H 2

148 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
two bishoprics of Skalholt and Holum, which
were founded in 1056 and 1107, were subjected
to foreign control till the reformation ; they were
first placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishops
of Bremen and Hamburg ; at a later period in
cluded in the Archbishopric of Lund in Swe
den ; and lastly they were transferred to the
care of the Bishops of Drontheim in Norway.
By degrees the power of the church of Rome
extended itself even to this remote land, and
the prelates availed themselves of it to claim
the right of nominating to benefices. The
monastic institutions also increased in number,
and were disseminated in various parts of the
country ; but both their possessions, and the
patronage of the bishops, were seized by the
king at the Reformation. The present king,
however, has reserved to himself the gift of
only the four best preferments, and those he
confers on the Icelandic students who have dis
tinguished themselves the most at the university
of Copenhagen.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 149
Until the end of the eighteenth century the
original divisionin to two sees continued in force ;
but the funds for the support of two prelates
having become inadequate, the island was, by
an order of the king in 1797, formed into one
" Stift," or diocese. The lands whence the
bishops derived their revenues were sold, and an
income of 1000 specie dollars, drawn from the
public treasury, was granted in their place to the
sole prelate.
For many years the marriage of the clergy
was permitted, and we even find that Islief, the
first Bishop of. Skalholt, was succeeded by his
son. At first, also, the ecclesiastical profession
was much sought after by the higher orders,
and many united civil and religious offices in
their persons. The church of Rome, however,
made objections to this practice, and in A.D.
1190 succeeded in abolishing it; though the
effect of this injunction was by no means advan
tageous to the priesthood, either as regarded
their interests or respectability. Many who had

150 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
their means reduced by this change, were obliged
to have recourse to handicraft, and some who
disliked this new mode of obtaining a livelihood
became dissolute characters, and brought dis
grace on their order.
The popes, meanwhile, did not overlook the
possibility of drawing some fiscal advantages
from the people. Accordingly a crusade was
preached in 1275 in Iceland, and the inhabit
ants were enjoined to come forward with their
quota for the expedition. The Pontiff at the
same time prudently sent over a number of
indulgences for sale. The novelty of the un
dertaking, and the promise of eternal happiness
to those who embarked in the holy war, so
worked upon the feelings of the people, that
numbers took up the cross ; but when the en
thusiasm of the moment had passed away, and
they considered the uncertainty of the under
taking, they purchased dispensations from the
obligation of proceeding to the Holy Land, and

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 151
relinquished the glory of defeating the Saracens
to their southern neighbours.
The experiment had succeeded so well, as far
as the interests of the church were concerned,
that it was repeated in 1289. The same argu
ments were used, and the same alternative was
offered to them, of compounding for money, but
both failed, and the age of crusades passed
away without one Icelander being recorded to
have " Streamed the ensign of the Christian cross
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens."
A tenth of the revenue of the church was
afterwards claimed by the popes, and though
not annually exacted, it appears to have been
frequently collected, under the name of " Pava
tiunde," or Pope's tithe. They also contributed
their mite to the tax known as Peter's Penny,
the payment of which was commanded in 1305
by the King of Norway, and enforced under the
penalty of excommunication.

152

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

This last stretch of priestly power did not find
its way into the country till near two hundred
years after the introduction of Christianity.
Until that period the clergy had been satisfied
with mild remonstrances ; when their power was
increased, they were not able to resist the tempt
ation of upholding their authority by the terror
of their punishments, rather than the respect
due to their virtues. Accordingly the first
sentence of excommunication was passed in
1180, and it appears that this mode of disposing
of persons obnoxious to the priests, was after
wards not unfrequently resorted to. The minor
excommunication (for the punishment was of
two kinds which differed materially in severity)
was called "Forbod," and subjected individuals
to privation of worship, and to separation
from the congregation.
The greater punishment which the church
made use of when it intended to crush an in
dividual, was of a far more serious nature. It
was called Bann, and as its consequences were

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 153
terrible, the pronouncing of it was attended
with much ceremony ; the form was in Latin,
though it was also at times repeated in Norse,
and Icelandic, to increase the effect produced on
those present. On the appointed day the
bishop entered the church, in full canonicals,
attended by the clergy of his diocese each
bearing a taper in his hand. The prelate began
by calling down curses on the culprit in the
name of the Deity ; upon every part of his
person, and upon every act of which he was
capable, individual curses were pronounced ;
not a function of nature was omitted, whether
moving or still, sleeping or waking, the ana
thema was to be upon him. After having cursed
him in detail, the bishop declared the recusant a
component part of the devil, and ended with
these words : " As these lights are extinguished
so may thy soul be extinguished in Hell to all
eternity !" As the last denunciation passed
from his lips the whole of the priests immersed
their tapers into water, and the church remained
h 3

154 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
in complete darkness, while the victim was
expelled from it, an outcast from society, and
divested of every privilege that a human being
can lay claim to.
The reformation swept away these abuses,
and the clergy gradually returned to their pri
mitive position. The right of marriage was
also restored with the introduction of the
Lutheran religion, which is the only creed that
is allowed in the island, and is also likely to
remain the only one, for as yet but one soli
tary case of dissent from it has occurred, in the
person of a Socinian.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 155

CHAPTER IX.

Laugarness — Kialarness — Dulness of the winter —
Amusements.
My arrival in Iceland took place at too late
a part of the year to admit of my wandering
very far before the setting in of the winter with
all its rigour. I was therefore obliged to confine
my rambles to a journey to the Geysers, in the
month of September, and a few visits in the
neighbourhood of Reikiavik. As, however, I
made another trip to the boiling springs the
following year, at a time when none of my

156 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
countrymen have seen them, I think it pre
ferable to give a detailed account of my second
journey, which afforded me an opportunity of
judging of the effects of the seasons on these
fountains. I took an early opportunity of paying my
respects to the Bishop Steingrimr Jonson, at
his residence at Laugarness about three miles
further up the Bay of Reikiavik. His prede
cessor, Geir Vidalin, had lived in the town,
and at his death the King of Denmark had a
stone dwelling built for the present bishop,
which he now inhabits. The house, though by
no means large, and but one story high, was
built by the government at an outlay of about
three thousand pounds, which was chiefly in
curred by the masons and other workmen being
all sent over from Denmark, and being em
ployed three summers in the work. The in
terior is comfortable and has'several good sitting-
rooms, besides offices for depositing the eccle
siastical records of the island. The bishop

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 157
possesses also a considerable library, and must
be a voluminous writer if we are to judge by
his manuscripts, which filled many of the
shelves : I do not believe, however, that he has
as yet published any of his works.
On our entering the house he received us
very cordially, and had cakes and wine placed
before us; he then took us into his library, and
among other curiosities showed us some parch
ment records, with seals attached, of the earliest
bishops of Skalholt and Holum. Before our
departure he insisted upon our taking a cup of
coffee, which had been prepared for us while
looking at his books, a custom universally ob
served towards visiters.
I was induced to ride over to Kialamess to
see the site of the ancient heathen temple, very
faint traces of which are at present visible. It
is situated on the side of the bay opposite to
Reikiavik, and the journey to it by land is
twenty good miles, and at high water even
more, as the mouths of several rivers have to

158 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
be cro ssed on the way. A range of mountains
called Esian, about fifteen hundred feet high,
rises almost perpendicular, leaving a plain of
about two miles width between their foot and
the sea. This strip of land is continued to the
northward, till another bay called " Hvalfiord,"
or Whale frith, breaks off the connexion of Esiu-
berg, the name by which the plain is known,
from Akrefield in Borgarfiord.
The land is fine pasturage, and at that time
belonged to Biorn Stephenson, the secretary of
the Lands-over-Rett, who died while I was in
the country. He invited me in, and bade me
join him at dinner ; as this was the first time
that I had dined with an Icelander, I was much
struck at seeing his wife, who has the title of
" Fru," or Lady, assisting her servant-girls in
laying the table, at which she placed no cover
for herself. She presently brought in a joint
and other dishes, but did not sit down herself;
she continued her attentions during the meal
changing the plates, and when dinner was

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 159
over removed the dishes and brought in the
coffee. However disconsonant to our feelings
this custom may be, it bears the marks of the
greatest antiquity, and is observed in every
thorough Icelandic house!
With such short trips round the country
I managed to kill the time for the first month ;
but I am afraid that after the beginning of
October the time would have hung very heavy
on my hands, particularly when there was an
almost total absence of daylight, had there not
been a library kept over the chancel of the
church. The collection was originally begun
at Copenhagen, and it owes its existence prin
cipally to voluntary contributions, and to the
aid of the King of Denmark, who has presented
to it several very valuable Danish works. At
present, though it is not easy to be exact as to
the number, owing to the little order observed
in their arrangement, there cannot be fewer
than from four to five thousand volumes. As
may be expected, the majority are Danish and

160 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
Icelandic; next to these the English works
surpass those in any other language in value
and number. Most of the classics, both Latin
and Greek, are to be found ; and a good number
of German, together with a sprinkling of Swedish,
French, and Italian books complete the cata
logue. The English portion has at different
times been sent by some learned society in
London, but which it was I was unable to
discover ; it contains some valuable histories,
travels, and many religious and miscellaneous
works. Once a week the governor's secretary
attends for an hour in the middle of the day,
and persons are allowed to carry away any
number of books upon leaving a receipt for
them. Occasionally half a dozen persons pre
sented themselves, and took away a volume or
two ; but a very large proportion of the books in
foreign languages which I perused, bore evident
marks of not having seen the light since their
arrival in their new country ; and when I restored
them to their places on the dusty shelves,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 161
I could not help reflecting on the long repose
which they would enjoy before they were again
awakened by some future traveller.
A ship is engaged every year at Copenhagen
by the government, to convey official papers
and letters to Iceland at the commencement of
winter. This vessel is bound to leave Elsinore
on the first of October, and after landing the
mail at Reikiavik, it is laid up till the month
of March in a creek of the bay of Havnifiord,
where it remains frozen up. Though this voy
age is always attended with very bad weather,
it is remarkable that only one vessel has
been lost on it for the last twelve years. The
principal danger is the approaching the coast in
November, when the shortness of daylight, and
thickness of fogs that hang round the island,
make the trip extremely perilous. From the
end of October every one was on the look-out
at Reikiavik for this ship, which is the most
welcome that reaches their shores. Day after
day the people were to be seen climbing, with

162 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
telescopes in their hands, to a slight eminence
which commands a view of Faxefiord, and
straining their eyes to descry the wished-for
sail on the horizon, which did not gratify their
expectations till the middle of November. She
had been seven weeks on the passage, which
was by no means one of uncommon length.
The news of he rarrival spread like wildfire,
every body was in a state of restlessness, and
each person I met repeated the intelligence
which I had heard a hundred times within an
hour. Even the morning after, as I was stand
ing on the beach, looking at the solitary galliot
rocking violently in the harbour, two or three
Icelanders could not refrain from pointing her
out to me, and announcing her arrival. The
chests which contained the correspondence of
the whole island, were hurried on shore, and
carried to the government house to be distri
buted. The tide now turned in that quarter,
and every one was seen rushing out with letters
and every variety of countenance. Of the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 163
latter I unfortunately was not one, from some
mistake in the direction of those addressed to
me ; and when I attempted to get some infor
mation concerning the general state of Europe,
the only news that I could extract from the
captain, was the death of the Emperor of
Austria. In a few days the ship had discharged her
cargo and sailed, to take possession of her
winter quarters at Havnifiord. The usual dul-
ness again resumed its sway till Christmas,
when the severity of the weather increased and
the darkness became almost total. These did
not, however, prevent the Danish enjoying
themselves and keeping the festival ; and the
king's birthday, which followed soon after,
gave them another opportunity of dissipating
the gloom peculiar to the season of the year.
Flags were hoisted on every house belong
ing to a merchant, and even the little wooden
windmill outside the town was ornamented with
the national colours. Preparations were made

164 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
for a public dinner which was to be followed
by a ball, at which all persons in office were to
be present. The dinner began at four and was
very good, considering the difficulty of pro
curing materials. Soup, flanked by pieces of
beef and mutton, and followed by swans, wild
ducks, and ptarmigans, formed the principal
ingredients of the feast, which was washed
down with numerous bottles of champagne,
which put the company in the best possible
humour. Before the entertainment was con
cluded, copies of a song composed for the occa
sion by one of the party were handed round,
and the whole table joined in chorus.
About nine o'clock the tables were cleared
and the dancing began. The locale consisted
of two low rooms, and a smaller one between
them in which punch was imbibed copiously by
the male part of the company, while the next
in size was occupied by the ladies, who were as
busily employed in drinking coffee and talking
scandal — for scandal has reached even this

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 165
distant spot. The largest apartment, illuminated
with about fifty candles, was reserved for
dancing. This consisted of what they were
pleased to call English country-dances, though
as 1 am not a frequenter of balls, I cannot
answer for its resembling any thing of the sort
in our country. There was much running up and
down, and clapping one another's hands, and
the heat produced by the exercise, soon became
visible on the faces of those who joined in the
pastime. Later in the evening there was
waltzing, though the music elicited from two
violins and a drum, which represented the
band, was not favourable to that kind of
movement, and, added to the confined space for
action, produced nothing but jostling. Those
who did not join in the dance, went up into the
loft and passed their time in smoking cigars and
playing at the eternal Ombre, in a place pro
bably only a few degrees hotter than an oven,
and continued there with the greatest persever-

166 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
ance, till five in the morning, when the party
broke up. At neither this nor any subsequent
dancing-party, did I see any woman present
who habitually wore the national costume.
Their cloth "trejas," fastened tight up to the
chin, and their lofty head-dress, are so pon
derous that they soon make dancing more a-
labour than an amusement.
The rigour of the weather continued un
abated during the four following months.
Storms were of daily occurrence ; at one time
the sea made a clear breach into the town ; at
another the wind surpassed even its usual
violence, and lifted the boats off the beach.
Windows of houses distant a quarter of a mile
and even more from the sea, were darkened
with salt spray. The sea repeatedly froze near
the shores ; but, in exposed situations, the force
of the waves broke it up and strewed the beach
with masses of salt ice. Most, however, of
the bays that were sheltered from the wind

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 167
remained fast. That between Reikiavik and
Bessestad might be crossed on horseback
where it was six miles wide.
During the month of February, the thermo
meter several times fell ten degrees below zero
at Reikiavik, and within twelve miles from it in
the interior, the mercury had fallen several de
grees lower. I had my coffee freeze one
morning in the saucer while I was drinking it
out of the cup, and this happened in a very
small room with a stove full of fire. (I have
since been in North America, and though the
cold indicated by the thermometer was greater
than in Iceland, the frost was far more sensible
in the latter country.) The lowest that I have
ever seen the thermometer was in Quebec, when
the mercury fell thirty-two degrees below zero ;
and, though I have never seen it by many de
grees so low in Iceland, I can remember many
occasions when the cold has appeared to me far
more intense. I account for this difference by
the serenity of the weather in Canada, and the

168 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
awful gales that never cease to blow in Iceland.
Often have I been obliged to turn back, finding
it useless to attempt to urge my horse against
the wind. He was, in fact, unable to stem the
storm, which in an instant covered him with
icicles and froze the stirrups to my boots.
The force of hail is not to be compared to
that of snow, when driving on a comparatively
mild day in Iceland. Many exposed spots of
ground are left bare the whole winter, and in
others hills are formed, that cover every thing
in the shape of houses. On two occasions,
when returning home I have found my entrance
quite put out of the question, by the whole
front being snowed up to the roof; windows,
door, every thing had disappeared, and all in
the course of an hour.
I have no doubt, but this wilF be deemed an
exaggeration, and that many will question the
possibility of existing in such a climate ; all I
can answer is, that the winter I passed in Iceland
was considered the severest there had been for

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 169
half a century. For the last twenty years the
winters had been particularly mild, as, I believe,
has been the case in Europe. It seemed it was
intended to balance the advantages derived by
the people from good weather, by the extraor
dinary rigour of this winter. This, the majority
had strongly impressed upon them, by the great
loss they suffered in the death of their cattle.
Many were obliged to kill several of their
horses ; even the bishop, who was probably as
well supplied with forage as any farmer, was
necessitated to have nine of his slaughtered, for
want of food to give them. The winter was
even protracted beyond its usual limits, and
upon no day in the summer that followed it,
did I feel as much heat as in the month of
November, on my return to England.
If, however, the days were gloomy, their
dreariness was in some measure compensated
for by the brilliancy of the nights. I had, some
years before, witnessed the Aurora Borealis in
the Orkney Isles, and had been struck with its
VOL. I. I

170 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
beauty, yet its partial light in that quarter could
bear no comparison with the splendour it as
sumes in Iceland. There its brightness per
vades the whole expanse of the sky, and fills it
with a stream of ever-varying colours. During
frosty weather it is visible every night, giving
even more light than the moon, and it has the
additional charm of being continually changing.
It is perpetually melting into new forms, and
presenting every variety of hue that the eye can
fancy ; it has, alternately, blue and green mixed
with its prevailing pink, which imperceptibly
fades into yellow, and as gradually revives and
becomes a bright flame-colour.
By the 1st of March, the post-ship reap
peared at Reikiavik, and waited only for some
letters from the north of the island to return to
Denmark. After some days' delay, the men
charged with them arrived in a most pitiable
state. They had been fourteen days on the
way, and had undergone the greatest privations.
In crossing the mountains, the cold had been

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 171
so intense, as to strip the whole of the skin off
their faces ; their fingers and toes were so much
injured, that they expected to lose several of
them, and yet these men were preparing to
leave Reikiavik on the delivery of the mail, to
enter on a life equally laborious and hazard
ous. The fishing season had commenced in the
south, and they had started before their com
panions and carried the letters for the paltry
remuneration of about fifty shillings. Nothing
now delayed the departure of the ship, except
the ice that had bound the harbour, when
luckily a strong breeze parted it, and in fourteen
days she was at anchor in Copenhagen.

i 2

172 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER X.

Cod-fishery — Arrival of a French corvette — Warm
spring at Langain — A leper
The commencement of the cod-fishery re
lieved the monotony that reigned every where,
and even gave some animation to the town.
Peasants were daily arriving from the interior
to man the numerous boats that covered the
beach ; the merchants and their agents were
more than usually diffuse on piscatory matters,
and estafettes were continually going and coming
with intelligence from Kiebli vik . For the first two

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 173
or three days the news were favourable, the
boats had returned loaded with fish, and every
thing raised expectations of a most capital
season. Nevertherless, before the week was
over, all these delusive hopes vanished ; the
weather changed, and remained steadily bad ;
the boats were unable to put to sea more than
three days in six, and when they did, their nets
were carried away or damaged by the storm.
The conversation then took a different turn,
and each talked of what was due to him by
the fishermen, and discussed the chances of his
getting paid.
The -fishery is principally carried on in the
west, and is sufficiently extensive to give em
ployment to many farmers and labourers from
Nordland and Osterland, independent of the
regular Soe Bonde, or sea peasants. Both
Breidfe and Faxe Fiords swarm with fish, but
altogether the northern coast of Gulbringe
Syssell, from Havnifiord to Kieblivik, is the
most productive part, and it is consequently

174 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
crowded from March to May with boats from
all parts. For the cod-fishery two different-
sized boats are used in this district which is
usually called the Strand. The name of the
smaller is Boad, it holds two men, and the
larger class, termed Skip, requires a crew of six.
Both kinds are rigged for sailing, which they
do pretty well when right before the wind.
They are long and narrow, with a high stem
and stern, and altogether are allowed to be
good sea-boats.
Immediately on their arrival at the fishing
places, the peasants engage to serve in the
boats, and the owners select out of each crew
a " formadr," whose business it is to summon
the men when the weather admits of their going
out, and who commands at sea. It is usual
for the peasants to bring but little provisions
along with them, as, while they remain fishing,
their principal food consists of the heads of the
fish, which are separated from the bodies imme
diately on landing them. In places like Kieb-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 1 75
livik, where the merchants are the chief owners
of boats, they have built several houses capable
of containing from twenty-four to fifty men
each. They are long stone hovels, with berths
along the walls, and the same distribution in
the loft. Though the wind finds admission in
every corner through the loose stones, the men,
though drenched by remaining at sea the whole
day, seem no way affected by the cold and wet,
and are satisfied with a blanket and a little hay
for bedding.
The boats continue at sea twelve and eighteen
hours together when the weather is at all favour
able, and, during that time, the crews do not
taste a particle of food. They merely provide
themselves with a small keg of valle, a kind of
fermented whey, which they find well adapted
for cutting the thirst. With a view of keeping
as dry as possible, they wear sheepskin dresses
over their ordinary clothes, and, by continually
smearing them with train oil, they succeed in
rendering them somewhat waterproof, though

176 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the benefit derived by this precaution is not
great, as the majority of those employed in fish
ing are subject to rheumatism, and premature
decay is visible in almost all. They appear to
be more careful of their hands, and will neither
row nor haul in their lines without mittens,
which are remarkable for having two thumbs.
By this contrivance they are able to turn the
side against the palm when saturated with wet,
and have the dry part against their fingers. As
they carry a dozen or two of these mittens out
every day, they are thus enabled to preserve
their hands against chafing and chill. By the
end of the fishing season they become shrunk,
and, being too stiff, are sold for a trifle for ex
portation. The partition of the fish depends upon the
mode of taking it. When hooks are used, the
day's produce is portioned out into eight shares.
The formadr divides the whole as equally as
possible, and the rest draw lots for their por
tions. After the six fishermen have been satis-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 177
fied, the two remaining shares go to the owner
of the boat, one for the use of the skip, and the
other for providing hooks and lines. In the
smaller boats the two fishermen and the owner
have each a third. When nets have been
supplied instead of lines, the shares are in
creased to twelve, and one half of the whole
belongs to the owner. In the Westman Isles,
larger vessels, carrying from eight to ten men,
are employed, and some few of this kind are
used at Reikiavik for taking " haukall," a kind
of black shark, eight or ten feet long, from
which a considerable quantity of train-oil is
drawn. Towards the end of April, great anxiety be
gan to be felt for the arrival of ships from Den
mark, and, in the following month, we were
again cheered with the sight of ships which
entered the harbour in twos and threes of a day.
The wooden jetties were again lowered from the
places to which they had been drawn up during
the winter, and every one not employed in the
I 3

178 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
fishery, as well as most of the women, were
busy helping to discharge the ships.
We had entered upon summer, which had be
gun in the middle of April, the Icelandic calendar
dividing the year only into summer and win
ter. The snow had begun to melt, and had
flooded the town, yet the frost remained on the
ground till the month of July. The shortest
day had been of rather less than three hours
duration ; and about Christmas, the influence of
the sun was so weak as scarcely to give more
than twilight. The Icelanders do not reckon
the time of day by hours, but by watches of
three hours each. Hactei and Midnat denote
those that end at twelve o'clock in the day and
at night ; and the other divisions are called
Otta, which follows midnight, Dagmoul, Mid-
mogen ; Noon, which is from midday to three
in the afternoon, Mid-after, and Natmoul.
In the month of May, the occasional appear
ance of a tolerably bright day, gave indications
of the approach of summer, though the advance

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 179
of the season was much checked by the drift-ice
from Greenland, which began to surround the
island. Among the first arrivals appeared a French
corvette. The sensation caused by this unex
pected visiter was great, but, unfortunately,
there happened to be no one in the town but
myself that could speak French ; I was, there
fore, requested by Mr. Finson, the governor, to
interpret for him.
In the morning the captain came ashore, and
announced that he had been sent by his go
vernment, to make inquiries concerning the loss
of a man-of-war brig, called La Lilloise, that
had been employed in protecting the French
fishing-vessels in those seas, and had not been
heard of for three years. Every inquiry had
been made without success ; and, as the last
place where she had been seen with certainty
was near Vapnifiord in Osterland, it was con
jectured that she must have foundered near
Iceland, or about the ice that obstructs the

180 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
coast of Old Greenland. Another ship had been
before sent in search of her, and considerable
interest for her fate having been manifested in
France, it had been deemed advisable to satisfy
public feeling by fitting out a second expedition.
The present ship, which was named La
Recherche, from the nature of her mission,
had undergone such changes in Cherbourg, as
would fit her for her present voyage. She was
entirely double planked, and was well calcu
lated to resist any slight pressure from the ice.
With a view also of making her as manageable
as possible, she had been sent out with only
four carronades, instead of her whole comple
ment. She brought with her two physicians,
who were ordered by the French government to
travel over Iceland, and bring back an account
of the natural curiosities of the country. One
of them had already made a voyage round the
world, in the capacity of naturalist of the
Astrolabe, which Charles X. sent to the South
Seas in search of La Perouse.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 181
One important point, however, had been ne
glected, for neither officer nor man could speak
any but his native tongue. The men had been
pressed at Dunkirk from among the seamen
who fish on the coast of Iceland, and some
pretended to be able to speak the language
of the country fluently; yet, upon one whom
they pointed out as their • best linguist, being
questioned by Mr. Finson, in Icelandic, he
did not understand a word of what the latter
said ; and in his turn addressed him in a jargon
in use between the Dutch fishermen and the
natives. At first the Frenchman looked rather
blank at his discomfiture, but immediately re
covering from his confusion walked away, de
claring that his antagonist could not speak his
native language.
A few days after their arrival, I accompanied
the captain and the savans to the bishop's
house, of whom they made inquiry respecting a
priest in Westerland, who had casually said,
that a Dutch skipper had told him, that he had

182 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
seen La Lilloise founder in Breid& Fiord. As
this intelligence, though vague, might be a clue
to some discovery, the bishop gave them a letter
to Jon Sivertson, the priest, requesting him to
give the French officers all the information in
his possession concerning the matter.
About this time one of my brothers arrived
at Reikiavik, and, as the time was very limited
that he could remain with me, I was desirous
of getting horses immediately to take him to
the Geyser. Every one to whom I mentioned
my intention, tried to dissuade me from attempt
ing what might be impossible, and certainly
would be attended with many difficulties at that
early period of the year. The winter was hardly
ended in the interior, the thawing of the snow
would render many places impassable, and
above all, I was told we should find the greatest
difficulty in getting hay.
I therefore gave up at once the idea of
entering on such an arduous journey, and we
spent the following days in accompanying the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 183
two naturalists in their excursions. One of
them determined on giving a dinner on shore to
the principal people of the town, and to the
officers of La Recherche before she left Reikia
vik for Westerland. Much of what was wanted
was to be had on board, still fresh provisions
would be required, and all that the cook could
be supplied with, were the hind-quarters of
a calf, not bigger than those of a grass lamb,
from which anatomy might have been studied,
the muscles being beautifully displayed and
perfectly divested of any fat.
The " Chef" had been bent on astonishing
the natives, and asked me how people could exist
in such a country. He, however, after various
shrugs of the shoulders set up a complete
batterie de cuisine, and having lighted numerous
Journeaux in the open air, to the imminent peril
of the surrounding timber buildings, proceeded
to dress a dinner that did infinite credit to his
power of availing himself of every thing. The
dinne-rparty consisted of about twenty guests,

184 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
among whom were the bishop and other magis
trates of the land; and what with Danish,
French, and a small quantity of French-latin, all
were enabled to join in the conversation.
After the departure of the corvette, the natu
ralists established themselves on shore, and
entered on their researches, the one apply
ing himself to zoology and botany, and the
other confining his attention to mineralogy.
On one occasion, we accompanied them to the
stream at Laugarn that gives the name to
Reikiavik, and passed a whole day in trying
its temperature in different places, and making
experiments by boiling eggs in it. The stream
itself is cold, and owes its heat to a spring rising
out of a rock in the middle of it, which mixes
with the rest of the water and raises its tempe
rature almost to boiling. As it gets distant
from the spring the water gradually cools till
it flows into the bay, and in its course forms
several pools in which the people of the town
occasionally bathe. We found that an egg

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 185
upon being immersed in the hottest part, could
be boiled in eight or ten minutes, according to
the depth it was sunk to.
The difference of weather does not affect the
temperature of the spring materially, but I have
been informed that during heavy rains it is little
more than lukewarm. The only purpose that it
has been put to is to wash the clothes of the
inhabitants of Reikiavik, and to turn a very
small mill, the only one I saw in the island. A
small timber house has been built close to the
spring for the accommodation of those who
come to wash, and in general it is to be found
full the whole twenty-four hours together, as the
distance between it and the town, with the
morass to cross, renders it a troublesome busi
ness to go backwards and forwards. The course
of the brook can be observed from afar by the
smoke that skirts it, and the banks the whole
way to the sea are covered with verdure, while
the plain is still frozen over.
One of the objects that most excited the curi-

186 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
osity of the doctors, was a case of leprosy —
the only one, I believe, in Reikiavik : we ac
cordingly visited the unfortunate patient in the
most miserable of the wretched hovels of the
place. After groping through the dark, we
came to a small apartment, partially lighted by
the smallest possible window. We here found
the poor man sitting up in a bed laid on a shelf
against the gable over the door at which we
entered. The placing him there must have
given no little trouble, and it was clear that it
was not intended to remove him .alive from his
present perch ; for it could not be called any
thing better. He was too horrible an object to
look at ; his face had almost lost every vestige
of features, his eyes had quite disappeared, and
most of his fingers and toes had dropped off.
Though he had been afflicted with this terrible
scourge for eighteen years, it was only for
the last three that the symptoms of his com
plaint had taken their more deadly appearance,
and reduced him to the pitiable state in which

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 187
he will still linger some time. His intellect did
not seem impaired, nor did he complain, except
in very cold weather. In the same room were
several beds, where his family lay ; for, as le
prosy is not considered contagious, but heredi
tary, by the Icelanders, they make no objection
to the company of persons attacked with it.
This distressing disease is not uncommon in
the country ; and though I have never known
but two cases, I have often been in houses
where such persons were living ; it was not,
however, till afterwards that I became acquainted
with the fact, as they dislike strangers to see
them. The two Frenchmen, to whom, as phy
sicians, no such objection could be made, told me
they had seen as many as five-and-twenty, and
that the case at Reikiavik was one of the mildest.
There are several kinds of this disease in
Iceland, the most common of which is the
one I saw ; it is called in Icelandic Lima-
falsike, probably from the falling off of the ex
tremities. Another sort, which covers the body

188 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
with horny scales, occurs, but is rare. The
general name of the complaint is Spetalska, the
same given for leprosy in their bible ; it rarely
attacks them before the age of forty, when the
disease gradually creeps on till the whole flesh
is vitiated, and the patient, after many years of
loathsome suffering, sinks into the grave, of
which he has long before appeared a tenant.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. • 189

CHAPTER XI.

Journey to the Geysers — Thingvalle — AUmannagiaa —
Hekla — Bruaraa.
We had given up all idea of seeing the Gey
sers, and my brother was waiting for the sailing of
a ship to Liverpool, when, one morning, I was told
that four horses were come for me from a clergy
man at Kialarness for the journey. We lost no
time in preparing for our departure ; a few ne
cessaries in the shape of bread and meat, and
some bottles of spirits, were packed up in a
pair of saddle-bags, and secured on the back of

190 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
one of our steeds. I had a horse which, I
bought on my first arrival ; my brother and the
clergyman's son, who was to accompany
us, rode two others, and the fifth was allowed
to follow loose as a reserve.
Our equipment was none of the smartest, as
we had not the means of carrying more than
a change of clothes with us. The difficulty we
anticipated in procuring forage, made us limit, as
much as possible, the number of our horses;
and a blanket strapped over the saddle was the
only luxury we allowed ourselves for sleeping
on in a tent.
The weather, when we started, was by no
means inviting ; the wind was high, and rain fell
in torrents ; the way, however, was pretty good,
and the distance to our first halting-place short.
The word road would convey a wrong notion,
for nothing worthy of that name is to be found
in Iceland. Where the ground is rocky, a path
is made by removing the stones, and this track
is kept up by each farmer in the Hrepp giving

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 191
up a day in summer to the business of clearing
it of any stones that have fallen into it. Where
the land is swampy, little is done to make it
passable, except occasionally a rude causeway
is thrown over a few yards of the most danger
ous part.
Half-an-hour's ride over a stony plain brought
us to the first river we should have to cross. It
is called the Lax-aa, or salmon river, and pro
nounced in Icelandic Laxow ; at the ford it
divides into three streams, each deep enough to
cover a horse's legs, though at this time, from
the partial melting of the snow, the current was
increased in depth and rapidity. A little below
the crossing-place are the salmon-leaps which
have given the name to the river. The fishery
belongs to the king, and is rented by two mer
chants in Reikiavik who have established a
regular system of taking the fish at stated times.
It would be well if the natives would follow
their example, as streams producing salmon and
trout are numerous all over the island ; and it is

•J#§ A WINTER IN ICELAND.
only the difficulty of transportation that deters
the peasants from giving greater attention to
this branch of industry than is necessary for
their home consumption.
We continued our route along the coast up to
the top of the bay of Reikiavik, and then turned
our backs upon the sea, and proceeded to pene
trate into the interior. The land improved as we
receded from the coast ; a few horses were to be
seen here and there picking a few blades of last
year's grass where a patch of ground was free
from snow, which was rare enough, as we found
on advancing that the season was much more
backward than at Reikiavik. At last, we reached
Mosfield, and were glad to conclude our first
day's work at four, and escape from the rain
which had fallen with scarce any intermission
the whole day.
On alighting, we were conducted by Sire
Benedict into his house. After having sat down
a few minutes and drank the usual cup of coffee,
the clergyman accompanied us to his church

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 193
which is contiguous to the parsonage. It had
been lately rebuilt under his superintendence,
and he seemed rather vain of the edifice, and
perhaps with some reason, as it was far better
than the generality of places of worship in his
country ; and yet it might easily have been mis
taken for a small barn. The walls are of alternate
layers of peat and stone, and Sire Benedict, after
making exertions to get his parishioners to sub
scribe for a roof of boards, was driven to the
necessity of contenting himself with covering the
rafters with grass turf, as is usual for their
houses. The gables are built of timber, tarred
on the outside, but not ornamented with a tower,
the solitary bell which summons the congre
gation being hung inside the church, close to the
door. The distribution of the interior is like
that of the church at Reikiavik, but on a much
smaller scale, as the length of the whole is less
than twenty feet. The position of the pulpit in the
screen which divides the chancel from the rest
of the church, gives an opportunity to the pastor
VOL. I. K

194 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
of addressing both the men and women, who
are separated ; the absence also of a loft is a
great improvement, as besides being a receptacle
for chests and rustic instruments, it generally
makes the ceiling so low, as to prevent the cler
gyman from standing upright in the pulpit,
even when it is raised but two feet from the
floor. The altar is a mere wooden cupboard, sur
rounded by a slight rail of the same material,
with a small window on each side. When of
ficiating, the priest wears over his cloth gown a
white surplice with a crimson stole, down the
back of which a cross of gold lace is sewn,
similar to that used by the Roman Catholic
clergy. At other times the priesthood are not
distinguished from the laity by their dress, ex
cept perhaps by being more shabby in their
appearance. The guest-room into which we were shown
was a low wainscoted apartment, unpainted,
with two diminutive windows ; but the depth of

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 195
the wall prevented them giving much light, and
the absence of any sort of fireplace, at which
to take off the chill of our drenched clothes,
rendered the place by no means comfortable.
On one side, an opening in the wainscot showed
a recess entirely occupied by a bed, the whole
furniture of which consisted of a couple of
brown blankets that might have been taken for
dirty horse-rugs. We crept with some difficulty
into this crib, and, bidding stern defiance to its nu
merous tenants, spent three or four hours in try
ing to get asleep, a matter of no small difficulty,
which we at last' succeeded in, notwithstanding
the continual noise overhead, and the rank
odours that pervaded the house.
Next morning, having got over all the diffi
culties of starting incidental to Icelandic tra
velling, by nine o'clock, we proceeded to the
nearest farm, where we fed our horses, for Sire
Benedict's stock of hay was So reduced by the
hardness of the winter, that our beasts had
been obliged to begin the march on empty
k 2

196

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

stomachs. We also loaded the spare horse with
a truss of hay, and crept along sometimes in
swamps, at others in the beds of rivers. The
snow was deep, and thawing rapidly, so that we
were soon obliged to abandon our horses, and
drive them before us in the rain which fell in
torrents. As there was no track, we found the
greatest difficulty in keeping them together,
and drag them out of holes into which they
were every instant floundering up to their necks.
We proceeded in this way for six hours before
we caught a glimpse of the Lake of Thingvalle
after which we had the consolatfon to know that
the worst part of our day's journey was over.
A rapid descent down an almost perpendicular
hill, brought us close to the water's edge, along
which we were enabled to gallop a few miles
on good ground towards the Stupendous ravine
called Almannagiaa.
The whole plain of Thingvalle appears to
have been subjected to volcanic eruptions of
even more than usual violence. Surrounded by

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 197
lofty mountains on every side but that which is
washed by the lake, and rent in every direction
with fissures of immense depth, it gives the
mind, more than any other spot in Iceland, a
conception of the extent of subterraneous fire,
ready, at any moment, to convert the island
into a chaos. It presents a scene that would
require the pencil of Martin to do justice to it,
and would furnish an idea for the picture of
those dreary and awful regions into which the
rebellious angels were hurled after their defeat.
Besides numerous inferior rents, the plain is
effectually separated from the surrounding
country on the east and west by two parallel
chasms that run through its whole length. The
western, and most considerable, is called Al-
mannagiaa, a name given to it, according to the
clergyman of Thingvalle, in the earlier periods
of the Icelandic republic, from its being an ob
ject of universal attraction to those that came
to the Althing. For more than three miles the
ground has either sunk or been torn asunder, so

198 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
as to leave a chasm a hundred and five feet
wide, which runs in a straight line the whole
way. The effect is much increased by the whole
being disclosed at once to the sight of the tra
veller, as, on making a sharp turn among some
rocks, he beholds a green way enclosed between
two natural walls more than a hundred feet be
low him.
The descent at first appears impossible, for,
though the rocks at the extremity of the fissure
at which the spectator stands, have formed a
kind of staircase, it approaches so nearly to the
perpendicular, that a stranger would deny the
possibility of a man ascending or descending,
much more that of a loaded horse ; yet, on dis
mounting, he will see these animals walk down
without the least encouragement. I have heard
of persons descending on horseback, but the
danger of the beast missing his footing, unless
left to his own guidance, is so great, that I
should much doubt any one in his senses at
tempting any thing of the kind.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 199
Upon reaching the bottom we found ourselves
on a flat green surface with a perpendicular wall
one hundred and eight feet high on our left
hand, and on our right one about forty, leaning
considerably outwards. Many large fragments
of stone which had fallen from the higher side,
were lying scattered in the bottom, and several
more of grotesque shapes, standing loose in
the hollows of the rock, seemed ready to follow
them with the least gust of wind.
After riding about a furlong in the ravine, we
turned out of it by an opening in its right side,
and entered the plain of Thingvalle. In a few
minutes we stood on the banks of the Oxeraa,
which after falling in a beautiful cascade from
the higher side of Almannagiaa, and continuing
its course along it for a short distance, escapes
by another opening. The river then separating
into two channels, forms the small island on
which criminals were formerly executed, and
finally loses itself in the lake.
The Oxeraa, though fordable in summer, was

200 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
now so swollen, that it was considered advisable
to transport our baggage and saddles in a boat.
The clergyman of the place rowed to us in
a little skiff and ferried us over. This he ma
naged to do by letting the boat drop down the
stream obliquely, while our guide swam the
horses across a wider part where the current was
somewhat less strong.
We examined several caves in the neighbour
hood, and found that almost all the fissures ran
in the same direction as at Almannagiaa. Most
of the narrow clefts are filled with beautifully
clear water which reaches wjthin six or seven
feet of the surface, and have an underground
communication with the lake. A large sort of
trout, called Foreller, which abounds in the lat
ter, is caught in great numbers in the holes.
In the morning, while the horses were being
saddled, we had a look into the church. In
style, it resembles that at Mosfield, but is the
most diminutive place of worship I ever recol
lect being in, and was, moreover, crowded with

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 201
chests and piles of stockfish belonging to the
priest; a custom, as I remarked elsewhere very
common among the Icelanders, who consider it
no desecration to put a church to such a use,
and make no objection to strangers taking up
their lodging in it when they cannot offer them a
place in their houses. The one at Thingvalle is
not only remarkable for being one of the smallest
in the country, but also for a tree which has
taken root inside it, and, after passing through
the wall, rises to the height of about fifteen feet,
and entirely overshadows the entrance. It is
the tallest tree that we saw in Iceland, and was
pointed out to me as a curiosity. I have been
told, however, that at Eyefiord in Nordland, a
dozen are to be found that have arrived at the
stupendous height of twenty feet.
One of our horses having lost a shoe, the
clergyman replaced it with one which he had
made the day before. At first, a priest doing
such a piece of work appears strange to our
notions of clerical dignity ; but we must bear in
k 3

202 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
mind that in all domestic matters the Icelandic
priesthood are on a par with the peasantry.
On my former trip to the Geysers, I had found
the priest busily employed with his son in the
smithy teaching him how to make horse-shoe
nails ; and I suppose it was finding some other
member of the same profession employed in like
manner that made a traveller assert, that the
clergy in Iceland are not only all farriers, but
also the best in the land. I cannot deny that
the personal appearance of Sire Biorn, of Thing
valle, might have led a stranger to take him for
a journeyman blacksmith, and one too who was
not paid the highest wages. His long black
hair and beard of a fortnight's growth were by
no means set off by an antique bluejacket and
trousers ; yet, upon further acquaintance, it
was easy to perceive by his conversation that
he was a man of education and considerable
learning. A second ravine, called " Hrapnagiaa," or the
Chasm of Ravens, which, though not so formi-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 203
dable in appearance, is perhaps more difficult
of passage than Almannagiaa, forms the other
key to Thingvalle Sveit, as it is called. As
we ascended, after leaving it, into the passes
between the mountains, we had a beautiful view
of the lake with its lofty islands of Sandey and
Nesey, with the waterfall of the Oxeraa in the
distance. The weather had become more
favourable, and, as we jogged along, our way
was enlivened by numberless ducks that sought
the lake, and occasionally by the flutter of
ptarmigans, that were so tame as scarce to
move out of our track.
Before beginning our descent into the plain
of Laugar Valle, we stopped a few minutes at a
curious volcanic crater called Tin Tron, which
presents the perfect form of a chimney-top,
about fifteen feet aboveground. The orifice is
much reddened by the effect of fire; and though
not more than sufficient to admit a man, it
gradually widens into a large cavern. Upon

204

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

reaching this spot, Mount Hekla bursts at
once into sight. Though the most famed, it is
one of the least of the "Jokuls" or mountains of
Iceland ; of those whose heights are ascertained,
Sncefield Jokul and Eyefiall both dispute the
palm, and it is probable that many in the interior
surpass both these mountains by some hundred
of feet. The summit of Hekla is reckoned to
be four thousand three hundred feet above the
level of the sea, while that of Sncefield Jokul
is upwards of four thousand five hundred.
Though the eruptions of Hekla have been the
most frequent (it having had ten since the colo
nization of the island), other volcanoes have
caused far greater devastation. In the last
great eruption of 1783, Hekla took no part;
the mountains in the neighbourhood of Skaptaa
were then the principal Jokuls in action.
Though the recorded eruptions are numerous,
it is probable that by far the most terrible con
vulsions of nature, and those that have most

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 205
tended to change the face of the country,
had taken place before it was known to the
Norwegians. Laugar Valle presents a more tame appear
ance than the plain we left behind us ; but it is
far more valuable, as the pasturage is good and
the Lichen Icelandicus abounds in most parts of
it. On our right we had another sheet of water
called Apu Vatn, along the shore of which
were visible long columns of smoke arising
from boiling fountains. In the afternoon we
entered Efstadal, and concluded our third day's
journey within a few miles of the Geysers. We
stopped for the night at the Hreppstiore's house,
which were our best quarters since we left
Reikiavik. His wife, Helga, with whom I was
already acquainted, brought us some boiled
mutton, and made us as comfortable as was in her
power. The feast that she set before us was the
more welcome as we feared that our provisions
might run short, if too much broken in upon
before our arrival at our destination, and we

206 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
well knew that it might be next to impossible
to procure a further stock. We had the ad
ditional comfort of finding ourselves in a clean
house ; and, after spending the remainder of the
day in climbing the mountains, at the foot of
which the farm lay, of retiring to rest in a
decent room.
Our horses had not fared better than our
selves, and they now began to show that the
work was too hard for them, after being starved
the whole winter. We had already left one at
Laugar Valle, and another was so knocked up
on arriving at Efstadal that we determined on
leaving him there till our return, and hiring
another to take us to the Geysers. The road im
proved as we advanced, and gave us an oppor
tunity of cantering over the dry plains between
Efstadal and the river Bruaraa. We had here
to cross a waterfall of very peculiar form. The
cascade is broken in the middle by a cleft in
the rock about fifteen feet wide, by which the
greatest body of water is directed towards the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 207
centre, as in the case of the horseshoe fall at
Niagara. Over this opening there formerly ex
isted a natural bridge, whence the river got its
name ; a lady who lived at Skalholt, however,
disliking the facility it gave to travellers of
coming to that place, was selfish enough to
cause the arch to be broken down, little fore
seeing that she would be drowned at a later
period in crossing this very spot. For many
years after, every one was obliged to cross half
a mile below the fall in boats, till a wooden
frame was placed across this kind of sluice.
On coming to the bank at the edge of the fall,
we forced our horses through the river to the
platform, and then into the stream again till we
reached the opposite side. The greatest care
must be taken as the depth varies from two to
four and five feet, and the rapidity of the current
is apt to frighten young horses, who will often
stop at the most critical part and refuse to cross
the frame. This hesitation on the part of the

208 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
horse is sure to put his rider's life in great
jeopardy, and, should the animal be restive,
nothing will save his being taken off his legs*
and swept down a fall of fifty feet.
About two miles lower down is a ferry, at a
place called Spoastader, where all travellers
cross, on their way from the west to Skalholt.
This spot was, in the fifteenth century, the
scene of an outrage, not unlike those of Lynch
law, in practice in these days in some parts of
America ; and as it exhibits a contrast to the
usual veneration for the clergy in those times, I
will here insert the account of it given by a
descendant of the principal actor in it.
John Gerrichson, who is stated by some to
have been by birth a Dane, was Provost of
Westeras, in Sweden; and, in 1409, was made
Archbishop of Upsala, by Eric, of Pomerania,
king of the three Northern kingdoms of Sweden,
Norway, and Denmark. The appointment pro
duced great discontent, particularly as the new
prelate, before long, was guilty of various of-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 209
fences. Among other charges of a disgraceful
nature, one of peculation to the amount of
20,000 ducats was brought against him, and so
bad was his general conduct that he was de
posed, and even the Pope consented to his
removal from his see. After his degradation,
he retired io Denmark. At a later period, the
Swedes gave his appointment to the see of
Upsala, as a reason for their revolting against
Eric. Unable to advance his favourite at home,
the king made him afterwards Bishop of Skal
holt, in Iceland. He accordingly sailed thither
in 1421 from England, where he had collected
thirty men, principally Irishmen, who were to
act as his body-guard. Under the protection
of these bravoes, he travelled about his bishopric,
plundering and committing various acts of vio
lence. Emboldened by his success, he sent
men to seize two rich landowners, Teit Gun-
logson, of Bjarnanes in Osterland, and Thor-
ward Lbftson, of Modrevalle in Nordland, and
to bring them to Skalholt. They were there

210 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
put in irons, confined in a dark dungeon, and
forced to do the work of the meanest slaves.
During the autumn, however, Thorward con
trived, through some unknown means, to effect
his escape. The next year at Easter, during
the festivities, the jailers shared so largely in
the general drunkenness, as to forget or lose
their keys. A servant-girl found them and
brought them to the remaining prisoner, who
thus escaped and returned home. For this ser
vice Teit rewarded his deliverer with a good
farm, and helped her to make an advantageous
marriage. Both the peasants being now at liberty, en
tered into a correspondence, the object of which
was to obtain revenge, not only for the harsh
treatment which both had suffered, but also to
chastise the bishop for a still greater indignity
inflicted on Thorward's wife. The following
circumstances also urged them on in their
project. A short time before these occurrences, one

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 211
Magnus, connected with the bishop's body
guard and supposed to be his son, made love to
Margrete, a young and handsome lady, the
daughter of Vigfus Holm, a noble Norwegian,
at that time Lehnshovding of Iceland, but met
with a decided repulse. The villain revenged
himself by attacking Kirkebol, a farm in Gul-
bringe Syssel, where Margrete resided with her
brother Ivar Holm. The latter was slain and
the house set on fire. The damsel, however,
escaped from the burning pile through an oven
in the bath-room. Under cover of the smoke and
the darkness of the night, she quitted the farm
unperceived, threw herself on an almost un
broken colt, and thus gave her pursuers the
slip. Having reached Oedfiord in Nordland, she
made a solemn vow to marry the man who
should avenge her brother's death and the vio
lence offered to herself. The murderer and in
cendiary, Magnus, fled the country immediately
after perpetrating this act. Thorward, however,
determined to visit his crime on the heads of his

212 a Winter in Iceland.
accomplices, and thus at the same time to do
himself justice, and gain the reward offered by
M argrete. In furtherance of their plan, Thorward and
Teit agreed to meet at Skalholt, at the feast of
St. Thorlak, which occurs on the 20th of July,
as they considered it certain that the bishop
would be at home at that time, for it was usual
for him to officiate himself in the cathedral on
this holiday, which was kept solemn through
out the island ; nor were they disappointed in
their expectations. When the time came, they
each brought with them a large troop of power
ful and well-armed men. The bishop was
standing at the high altar, with the chalice
and holy wafer in his hands, surrounded by
priests in full pontificals, when notice was
given him of his enemies being in the neigh
bourhood. He instantly felt that his end was
not far off, and that there was little hope of mercy
from those whom he had so cruelly ill-treated ;
he, however, attempted to defend himself by

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 213
having the doors of the church closed. So
slight an obstacle did not long retard the
conspirators ; attacking the doors with great
violence, they soon made them give way. Fifty
of the most daring, led on by Arne Magnusson,
a peasant from Nordland, rushed into the church
in complete armour; they flew on the bishop,
and dragged him from the altar, notwithstand
ing the endeavours of the priests, who clung
to him and tried to hold him back. In the
middle of the cathedral the holy wafer fell
from his hand, and the parish priest, throwing
himself on the ground, took it up in his mouth.
When arrived at the church-tower, the bishop
and his persecutors stopped a while, and he
asked for some drink ; one of his attendants
was despatched to procure him what he asked
for, and returned with a silver cup filled with
old mead, which Gerrichson drained to the
bottom. This done, they removed him, while
he implored them to save his life ; a request

214 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
they had little intention of complying with.
His episcopal habit was brought to him, and
his guards and servants sought every where,
as well in the church as the houses in Skalholt.
The treatment these men received took away all
hopes from the bishop, for they were cut down
and shot in various ways.
Gerrichson himself was reserved for a different
fate ; carried to the ferry of the Bruaraa, he
was put into a sack with a heavy stone fastened
to it, thrown into the river, and in a few minutes
drowned. The conspirators then quietly returned
each to his own home, and, strange to tell, not
one of them was subjected to any legal prose
cution, nor did any person attempt to punish
the murder of the bishop and his many attend
ants, or the foul desecration of the church and
feast. At that period anarchy prevailed in
Denmark, as well as in Iceland ; indeed, the
whole of the three northern kingdoms were
nearly in the same lawless state. Eric of Po-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 215
merania's wars with his vassals and subjects,
left him no time to attend to the more insigni
ficant broils of the Icelanders, and his former
favourite was left unavenged — a fate not alto
gether undeserved. His misdeeds in Iceland,
and the infamy of his character before he came
there, might in those days, perhaps, have pal
liated the crime of his murderers, and many, no
doubt, considered "his taking off" a benefit
conferred on the country ; the common people,
however, believed that those who assisted at
this tragedy were all visited with various judg
ments by Heaven. The catholics abroad even
attempted to raise him to the rank of a saint or
a martyr. He was buried in the middle of the
church, in the spot where the host fell from his
hands ; and the bodies of the Irishmen whom
he had brought over were deposited in the neigh
bourhood of Skalholt, in a place called to this
day, from that circumstance, " Iragerde."
Shortly after his return home, Thorward Loft-

216 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
son claimed the hand of Margrete, who kept
her promise and married him. They both lived
in undisturbed peace and happiness, and became
the ancestors of a numerous and yet unextin
guished progeny,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 217

CHAPTER XII.

The Great Geyser— The Strokr.
The Geysers are situated in the valley of
Haukadal, on a table land slightly elevated, and
chiefly formed of loose stones and incrustations,
thinly covered with mould. The spot in which
the springs are clustered together is, though in
the middle of a swamp, remarkably dry, and
only partially covered with grass. If all the
pools and jets be reckoned, I doubt whether
they would fall short of one hundred and fifty ;
VOL. I. L

218 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and when we consider that they are all con
tained within the space of about twenty acres
of ground, it is difficult to come to any other
conclusion than that the whole place is a crust,
covering a boiler with numberless safety-valves ;
and the communication between the springs, is
rendered more probable, by an increased agi
tation frequently affecting the whole number
simultaneously. The first object that presents itself is a shal
low stream, fed by the overflowing of a pool
of unfathomable depth, which has the power of
incrusting whatever is left in its current. Even
its bed has undergone this process, and might
be mistaken for white cement, as well as various
woollen stockings and mittens that have been
left there purposely. Passing by this stream
and the New Geyser, we pitched our tent be
tween the latter and the Great Geyser. This
new domicile was inconveniently small, being
but four feet high, and supported on three
staves, little longer than ordinary walking-sticks.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 219
When our saddles and great-coats had been
deposited inside, there was just sufficient room
for three of us to sit in it with our feet outside.
Yet I doubt whether a larger tent would have
served us better ; for though so low, we had the
greatest difficulty in preventing its being every
minute blown over, by heaping stones on the
pegs that had no firm hold in the ground.
The principal fountain, the Great Geyser, is
at the extremity of the eminence, and is a little
more elevated than the rest of the ground. On
every side but that near to the New Geyser, the
descent is precipitous, and from the loose in
crustations that cover it, perfectly inaccessible.
The basin resembles a shallow bowl, gradually
deepening to the orifice of the pipe in the
centre, where it reaches the depth of three feet.
Its form would be circular but for an indentation
in its circumference, which reduces its prevail
ing diameter of fifty-six feet to forty-six at this
part. The pipe, as low as the eye can discern,
is perfectly round, and about twelve feet across.
l 2

220 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
I have been told, that its depth has been ascer
tained to be more than sixty feet, a measure
ment that must have been attended with much
difficulty, and a little uncertainty, from the dis
turbance of the boiling water.
When we arrived, the basin was full of
water, with a little running down the side by
which we approached it. Two hours after, we
felt a slight shaking of the ground, and on
rushing out of the tent, we saw the water of the
Great Geyser, elevated about forty feet. When
it had continued about five minutes in a state
of eruption, the water sank into the pipe and
left the basin bare. Two or three minutes suf
ficed to dry it perfectly, and we were able to
walk into it, with no other inconvenience than
the heat of the bottom, which penetrated very
sensibly through the soles of our shoes. The
north wind, however, which was blowing with
great violence, rapidly lowered the temperature
of the stone, and the surface assumed a light
gray colour. In the middle it is comparatively

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 221
smooth, and but slightly granulated, like frost
work; but on the outside and edge protube
rances abound, which have much the character
of heads of cauliflower. On the removal of
any of these excrescences by a slight blow of
the hammer, the spot from which they have
been detached presents a surface analogous to,
but somewhat rougher than, that of the interior
of the baein.
The water gradually rose in the pipe after
the explosion, and at the end of four hours was
so high as to run over. A slight bubbling was
perceptible in the middle, where the heat was
greatest, and a thick smoke, accompanied by a
sulphureous smell, shrouded the whole pool,
which, but for its beautiful transparency, might
have reminded one of the Stygian lake. Va
rious indications were given by it of a second
eruption, by the water occasionally being
disturbed, and alternately rising and fall
ing; yet, with the exception of one jet, from

222 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
four to five feet high, this Geyser remained quiet
during the night.
The year before, I had witnessed a far more
beautiful eruption of the great Geyser. It was
of more than ten minutes' duration, and pre
sented a column, or rather pyramid of, at least,
ninety feet in height. The day happened to be
calm, and consequently the jet was not broken
into parts. After raging with incredible fury, it at
once burst, and leaving the basin empty, de
luged the outside with hot water, which run
ning down in numberless rills joined again in a
stream, winding round the foot of the Geyser.
It is by the water thus detained in the hollows
that the cauliflower-like incrustations are formed
and gradually build up the rim of the basin.
The apparent altitude of a mass of water fluc
tuating every second is, of course, very decep
tive ; but, on the whole, judging of the height
of the pyramid by the proportion that it bore to
its base, I should say that it fell little short of

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 223
ninety feet. The immense masses of vapour
which accompany the boiling water prevent the
possibility of following the jets with the eye
through their whole length ; but this circum
stance rather increases than otherwise the beauty
and grandeur of the phenomenon, which sur
passes the power of representation with the
pencil. It has been remarked that persons are often
disappointed at the first sight of another wonder
of nature — the Falls of Niagara. The mind re
quires some time to appreciate the immensity of
the cataract presented to the eyes, and till it has
arrived at that point, it is little more affected by
this than any other great mass of descending
water. But the first glance at the Geyser is all-
absorbing and holds the spectator as it were.
under the influence of a spell, only broken by
the final bursting of the giant column. Ano
ther feature which, I think, makes it superior to
Niagara, is that of its being unique, and offer
ing a spectacle for which the eyes have not been

224 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
prepared by any inferior phenomenon of the
same kind. I had seen waterfalls of surpassing
beauty in different parts of Europe, and on be
holding the Horseshoe was drawn insensibly
into comparisons between it and other falls in
respect to the relative height, beauty of sur
rounding scenery, and many other points. The
consideration of all these, takes away from the
intensity of the admiration of the principle ob
ject; but as the nearest approach to the erup
tion of the Geyser, that I had ever seen, was
the bursting of a fire-plug in the streets of
London ; and as even the best representations
of it in painting had given me but a faint image
of its living activity, the unexpected tremourthat
pervaded the site of the springs, followed by
the rush of water that dashed into the air with
the velocity of lightning, left me no power to do
more than gaze with rivetted eyes on this stu
pendous display of nature.
The mount that forms the substructure of the
basin is covered with innumerable small aper-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 225
tures, some of which throw out steam, and
others tiny jets, six inches high, at intervals of
two or three minutes. Many of these cavities are
filled with boiling clay, of a vermilion colour,
while in others mud, of various shades of blue
and red, is boiling with the greatest vehemence.
In most places, it is sufficient to thrust in a stick
to form a new spring. Of petrifactions the
grass is the most beautiful, taking its tints from
the colour of the water it lies in. A delicate
pink and bright red are the prevailing hues,
and in patches where pure water only passes
over them, the herbs are still alive, though their
stalks are perfectly incrusted.
The day was now far advanced, and the wea
ther had grown so severe as to force us to keep
inside the tent. We therefore agreed to watch
in turns, and to make the rounds of the two
great springs every half-hour. About nine
o'clock in the evening, as we were drinking
a cup of coffee, made with Geyser water, which
we found perfectly tasteless, a young man made
l3

226 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
his appearance among the springs. He had
been shooting in the neighbourhood, and sold
us a brace of wild ducks he had fallen in with.
In answer to our inquiries about the New
Geyser, he told us it had not thrown up water
more than twice during the winter, and that its
motion was very uncertain. He added, that we
might have a chance of forcing it to display its
power by choking it with earth. We imme
diately sprung up and collected sufficient grass
turf and peat to fill a large waggon. This we
brought close to the edge of the orifice — for
this Geyser is merely a round hole, without
basin, about ten feet in diameter, with water
boiling at a depth of fifteen feet.
The mass of earth being heaped on the wea
ther side of the fountain, we all three, on a
given signal, tumbled the whole of it into the
pipe. For a second or two the boiling ceased,
the water then suddenly rose to the top, and,
darting into the air, formed a column about
one hundred and twenty feet high. The turf

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 227
we had cast in, was hurled out, and lifted even
higher than the water. There was, however,
much more steam than water, and the violence
of the eruption far exceeded that of the greater
spring. I have often since been reminded of it
by seeing the steam let out of a high-pressure
engine. The column was also much less in
diameter than in the case of the Great Geyser,
and differed but little in circumference in dif
ferent parts. For five-and-thirty minutes it
continued in one uninterrupted jet, tossing up
large stones, which, as we threw them at the
column, were caught up and projected as out of
a cannon. The side opposed to the wind kept
perpendicular, totally unaffected by the blast ;
but to leeward the ground was drenched with the
condensed steam for a couple of hundred yards,
and strewed with the fibres of turf which had
been divested of earth during their continuance in
the pipe. Gradually the column, which at first
was as black as ink, became paler, and, during
the latter half of the eruption, was as white as

228 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
that of the Great Geyser. Though after
thirty-five minutes' duration, the continued
stream failed ; yet occasional jets, some of
which exceeded the former in height, were
thrown up for a quarter of an hour after. As
its last efforts died away we attempted a re
newal of the phenomenon, by repeating the
experiment, but could elicit no more than an
increased roaring from the exhausted volcano.
This spring is, in general, more admired by
the Icelanders than the Great Geyser. Its
superior height, and the greater violence which
it exhibits, and chiefly the longer duration of
its explosions, certainly justify their choice ; in
which, however, I believe, few travellers agree
with them. Both have their peculiar beauties :
the one pleases by its slender proportions, and
the other astonishes by its colossal bulk ; and
they equally serve to show how insignificant
the proudest works of art are when compared
with those of nature. Had Louis XIV. seen
the wonders of the vale of Haukadal, he could

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 229
never again have looked with satisfaction on
Les Grandes Eaux de Versailles,
The height of these two fountains have been
estimated variously by travellers, who have dif
fered in the calculation from three hundred and
forty to seventy feet. Sir John Stanley mea
sured them with a sextant, and ascertained the
Great to be ninety-six, and the New one hun
dred and thirty feet high when he saw them.
Of course the eruptions vary a little every day,
yet from all accounts that I have had from the
natives, it appears that neither have lost much
or gained for many years.
The New Geyser is called, in Icelandic,
" Strokr," which signifies the piston of a churn,
or an agitator, and the word Geyser is restricted
by them to the greater fountain. It is derived
from the verb geisa, the meaning of which cor
responds more with the French word jaillir
than any term in our own language.
The cavity that feeds the petrifying rill is one
of peculiar beauty : it is filled to the brim with

230 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the clearest water imaginable, of a temperature
bordering on boiling, and of unfathomable depth.
We could see that its sides expanded as it deep
ened, and that the spot we stood upon was no
more than a fantastic crust, not a foot thick,
extending over this vast caldron, whose limits
we could only guess at. Across it a natural
arch, about three inches wide, connects the two
sides, probably left when the openings, which
discover the cavity and reveal its beauties, were
formed by the falling in of the ground. Over
this bridge of Alsirat the young sportsman
stepped, repeatedly, backwards and forwards,
probably with no great danger to himself, but
certainly with no pleasant sensations to the
nerves of the spectators, who expected to see
him plunged in the boiling gulf below, from
which no human power could have withdrawn
him alive.
During the night we watched anxiously for
a renewal of the spectacle of the day, which
had scarce closed on us by half-past eleven ;

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 231
and, nothing more appearing, we struck our
tent, and began our retreat. We were hard
pressed for time, or would have willingly re
mained another day on the spot, and taken
advantage of the fine weather that was begin
ning to show itself. We soon got to Elfstadal,
and finding the Hreppstiore and his family were
at church, we merely left the horse we had
borrowed, and hurried on to Middal. On ap
proaching this place we found the plain filled
with horses. The young people of the parish
were being confirmed, and an unusually large
attendance at church was the consequence.
On a dry spot about a hundred men and
women's saddles had been piled in heaps, to
give the horses the liberty of grazing. The
little church resounded with psalms, and when
the service was concluded, the clergyman came
out, and received the individual thanks of each
parishioner for his sermon.
We that night staid at Lauger Valle, and
were hospitably entertained by the farmer with

232 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
whom I had left my horse. We fared sump
tuously on fresh lamb and swan's eggs, and, in
addition to this substantial dinner, had " skior,"
a kind of curds turned acid, which, at this time
of the year, was a delicacy that could not be
offered but by the more wealthy farmers. A
wedding was shortly to take place, and a degree
of merriment seemed to reign in the house
which is seldom met with among the Icelanders,
who are serious to a fault.
At the bottom of the " toon " which bordered
the lake, called Apu Vatn, a hot spring rose
in the lake, and warmed the water round it for
about fifty yards. The water is not thrown up
at any time to a greater height than four feet,
and in wet weather it scarcely rises above the
level of the lake. Unlike the Geysers, it is
in continual action. The land at the edge
of the water is slightly tinged with yellow,
and a faint smell of brimstone (though none
can be detected by the taste) issues from the
Hverr, as this kind of spring is called in Ice-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 233
landic. A much larger one was visible at some
miles distance on the other side of the lake, that
gave, by its smoke, the appearance of anima
tion to the scene, which was otherwise a vast
desert. The next morning we continued our journey
back to Thingvalle, cheered by the singing of
our boy Biorn Thorlakson, who made the passes
re-echo with his modulations. His songs, how
ever, were not of the same nature as those with
which the Spanish muleteer beguiles the way.
Biorn confined himself to hymns, and chanted
the Icelandic mass with no little self-compla
cency, as he was intended for the church, and
was already prepared to proceed with his studies
at Bessestad.
In the afternoon we reached the Oxeraa, and
not wishing to be delayed by stopping with the
priest of Thingvalle, we plunged into the
stream. We got over safely ourselves ; but the
horse that was loaded with our clothes and the
remainder of our provisions, approached too

234 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
near the opening of the Almannagiaa, and was
borne away by the current. Before he could
recover, he was turned over by the stream, and
thoroughly immersed. After some delay, he
reached the shore, and with him the unfortunate
saddle-bags filled with water. We made a
hasty retreat into Almannagiaa, and commenced
an inquiry into the amount of damage. The
greater part of the eatables were rendered unfit
for use, and the clothes were not only drenched,
but dyed with coffee and other adjacent articles.
Our most annoying loss was the destruction of
many of the petrifactions, particularly the bril
liant clays. They had all returned to their
original liquid state, and imparted their hues to
the linen next them.. Luckily, the most pre
cious had been laid up in small valises attached
to our saddles, and had escaped the general
calamity ; while a small cask of Geyser water
was the only thing on the sumpter-horse that
remained uninjured. After restoring some order
to our baggage, we ascended the ravine out of

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 235
Almannagiaa, and stopped for the night some
miles further, at a place called Heide Bai.
The cottage here was so small and wretched,
that we preferred borrowing a tent to passing
the night where the fish was kept, which was
the only apartment untenanted. There was
some trouble in selecting a spot on the toon free
from snow. This difficulty we overcame, but
not so easily another more serious one, the get
ting some supper. The people of the house
could offer us nothing but "afbrost"(the milk of
a cow that has newly calved, boiled down to a
consistency), and this said afbrost, ne se laissait
pas manger, for it resembled Indian rubber. A
bottle of brandy and some cigars still remained,
and on these we feasted, for want of better
fare, and then retired to lie on the saddles in
the tent.
Biorn, like other Icelanders, was no smoker,
though he was devoted to the weed under ano
ther form ; he therefore sought for consolation
in a pinch of snuff. This is the luxury the most

236 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
valued by his countrymen after brandy ; I might
almost put it on a par with that drink to which
many are but too strongly attached ; and very
few, after they come to man's estate, are unpro
vided with a " boik," or snuffbox, in the form
of a powder-horn. Ivory, or the tooth of a wal
rus, mounted in silver, are the favourite mate
rials for it, and from the small end a plug is
drawn, which is attached to the box by a silver
chain. Through this aperture a teaspoonful
of coarse snuff, which might be mistaken, both
by its grain and smell, for tan, is shaken on the
back of the hand, from whence it is eagerly
sniffed up, and the dose repeated every five
minutes. I leave the reader to judge how this
habit, religiously persevered in, together with a
beard of a fortnight's growth, must improve the
appearance. During the night it froze hard, and when we
rose at four, the cold was bitter ; the keen
air gave us an appetite which it was out of
our power to satisfy, so we at once began our

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 237
march. Our horses had fared no better than
ourselves, and, having been locked up in stables
without roofs, were nearly frozen. Walking
was preferable, under these circumstances, to
riding; and when we. reached Mosfell, the horse
that had been the most distressed on the way
to the Geysers, was so completely knocked up,
that we were obliged to leave him behind. We
soon got in sight of the sea, and, by four o'clock
in the afternoon, were again in Reikiavik, and
not before our time, as my brother had to go on
board that evening, and, before ten o'clock, was
on his way to Liverpool.

238 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER XIII.

Esiuberg — Skalholt — Eruption of Skapta Yokul, 1783.
The earliest Christian church in Iceland was
erected, long before the general introduction of
that religion, at Esiuberg, near the heathen
temple of Kialarness. It is clear that from the
first settlement of the island, many of the co
lonists disapproved of the barbarities committed
in the pagan temples, and looked with horror
on human sacrifices. One young man, named
Biorn, carried his hatred to them so far as to set

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 239
the temple of Kialarness on fire, and destroyed
with it the idols, that formed the principal orna
ment of the place.
One Orlyger Rapson, at the particularinjunc-
tion of a holy man, named Patrick,who converted
him, and provided him with the requisite timber,
built a little church at Esiuberg, and dedicated
it to St. Columba. After his death, his de
scendants continued in the same faith, though
unbaptized, and appeared to have belonged to
- the sect of the Cuddees, of whom Patrick, in
all probability, was one.
Till long after this event Skalholt was of such
little consequence as to be passed over without
notice in the Landnamma-bok, which gives a
very minute account of the first settlers, and of
the places they selected for their habitations.
The first man who built a house there was
Gissur Teitsson, a man of consideration, and
the most zealous advocate for the introduction
of the Christian religion. This man, in the
eleventh century, took up his residence at Skal-

240 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
holt, and with a view of fitting his son, Islief>
for a priest, sent him to study at Herfuda, now
Hervorden, in Westphalia.
In the year 1055 Islief was elected first
bishop by the Icelanders, and after living on his
father's estate, left it to his son and successor,
Gissur, who gave his land and other property
towards the erection of a bishopric. This Gissur
also induced the Icelanders, in 1096, to agree
to pay tithes, one quarter of which were to belong
to the bishop. Gradually the see became en
riched by various donations, chiefly of landed
property. The original cathedral, which was
only thirty ells in length, was pulled down, and
one of larger proportions, and more costly in its
decorations, was substituted by Bishop Klceng,
about a hundred years after Islief's election.
The church appears by this time to have acquired
considerable revenues, for at the consecration of
this second edifice, the prelate not only presented
to it vessels of gold and jewels, but entertained
eight hundred and forty guests, and on their

A WINTER IN ICELAND. • 241
aking leave, conferred rich gifts on those of
rank. The Icelandic clergy having thought proper
to add the name of Thorlak Thorhalleson to the
list of Saints, a handsome chapel was built for
the reception of his shrine, which is said to have
been richly ornamented with jewels. The riches,
however, which had accumulated from the offer
ings of the devotees, were gradually wasted or
carried out of the country by the many foreigners
who became bishops of Skalholt during the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.
Plagues, famines, and other misfortunes, to
which the country has been peculiarly subject,
combined to reduce the revenue of the See; yet
Ogmund Paulson, the last Catholic who held it,
was in possession of much larger property than
is found at this time in the hands of one indi
vidual. In the enumeration of his various riches,
besides numerous farms and four hundred and
eighty horses, there is such a long account of
the cloth in his house, as to make it resemble
VOL. I. M

242 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the catalogue of a wholesale linen and woollen
draper's sale.
A difference of opinion between him and Jon
Arceson, Bishop of Holum, caused so much
hatred between the two, that each prelate ex
communicated the other, and prepared for a
civil war. Ogmund and Jon met at the Al
thing, near the Oxeraa, the former accompa
nied by fifteen hundred and sixty horsemen,
and the latter by one thousand and eighty.
After much mediation by the chief men of the
land, the bishops came to an agreement to settle
their dispute by single combat between two
champions chosen by each party. This mode of
decision had been declared illegal as far back as
A.D. 1011, in consequence of a fatal duel be
tween two illustrious Scalds, named Gunlog and
Rafn. The combat, nevertheless, took place on
the first of July, on an island in the river Oxe
raa, but no life was lost, and Jon's champion,
a Norlander, being declared conquered, a final
reconciliation took place.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 243
The next day, the church of Skalholt was
burnt by lightning, and all the ornaments and
riches it contained were destroyed. Ogmund
immediately set about repairing the loss, and in
ten years' time had built another cathedral.
This bishop becoming blind, while on a journey,
chose for his successor Gissur Einarson, who
introduced the Lutheran religion into Iceland ;
having already been converted in secret before
his nomination. The same consequences fol
lowed the Reformation here, as in England. In
1539, one Dederik von Minden, a Hamburgher,
was sent over as commissioner to sequestrate
the property of the religious houses.
Having taken possession of Vidoe, near
Reikiavik, one of the best monasteries, he pro
ceeded to Osterland, to follow up his operations
in that quarter. While passing through Skal
holt, he had some quarrel with Ogmund, and
made use of harsh and insolent language.
While drinking with his followers, he was
surprised by Jon Refr (fox), and a band
m 2

244 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
of armed men, and after a desperate resist
ance, killed, with seven of his suite. Ogmund
was naturally suspected of being the instigator
of this massacre, particularly as his people had
already, while he was priest of Breide Bol-
stadir, in 1510, fallen upon a Danish magistrate,
while travelling, and killed two, and wounded
more of his followers. The next year, however,
he solemnly denied any participation in the act
at the Althing, and then left the episcopal resi
dence, but continued to oppose the Reformation
with all his power.
King Christian III., to hasten its progress, sent
over two men ofwar, under the command of Chris
topher Hvitfeldt, governor of Trondhj em, who had
already succeeded in overthrowing popery in Nor
way. When this nobleman had found that no op
position was made to him on the southern coast
of Iceland, he sent fourteen armed horsemen to
Arnces Syssel, when they seized the Bishop
now eighty years of age, and carried him off
from Hjalle, his sister Asdise's farm. In the
hopes of being set at liberty, the old man gave

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 245
Hvitfeldt large sums of money and promised to
give up some of his landed property : but, not
withstanding this and his sister's entreaties, he
was carried to Denmark, and died the year after
in Soroe monastery, where he was confined
by the king's order.
After some years spent in disputes of the
same kind, in which the bishops of the two pro
vinces appeared frequently in arms, and be
sieged each other, the contest ended in the
death of Jon Arosson, who was beheaded, with
his two sons, on a rock on the northern side of
the farm-house at Skalholt.
In 1551 the Reformation was finally esta
blished, and with part of the funds of the See, a
Latin school was established at Skalholt, where
it continued till 1785, when the great eruption
of Skapta-fell's Jokul, together with the hard
winters and earthquakes, did so much damage to
the property of the church, that provisions could
no longer be procured for the school ; and the
bishopric's lands, consisting of three hundred
farms, were sold by auction, and the proceeds

246 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
placed in the king's chest, from which the salary
of the bishop and expenses of the college were
to be -paid. Finnur Jonson, the Icelandic his
torian, at that time bishop, bought the house,
and the cathedral dwindled into a chapel, an
nexed to the parish of Torvostad. His son,
Hans Finson, last bishop of Skalholt, died here in
1796, and the decayed remains of the old build
ings, that had been, in great measure, overthrown
in the earthquakes of 1784, were finally removed.
Skalholt is, therefore, now nothing more than
a common peasant's farm-house, and has re
turned to exactly the same state it was in eight
hundred years ago.
The event that caused this change, was one
of the severest calamities that Iceland has suf
fered, subject as it has frequently been to con
vulsions of nature. No volcanic eruption, since
its colonization, has been so extensive or attended
with such disastrous effects. Of the thirty-
eight years, immediately following 1316, no less
than six are noted in the year books as memo
rable for earthquakes, tempests, and volcanic

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 247
eruptions, which destroyed the cattle, overthrew
the farm-houses, and rendered land, hitherto
useful, unavailable for pasture. Yet these com
bined were scarcely equal to the last great erup
tion, that occurred in 1783, and of which a
minute report, with all its consequences, has
been drawn up by Magnus Stephenson, by
order of Christian VII.
Though the whole land suffered, the part of
it the most immediately affected, was the Syssel
of Skapta-fell, in the south-east. No portion of
the island is more covered with Jokuls than
Osterland, and so inaccessible are they that
many are unknown to this day. Between them
and the sea, the vallies, before this date, were
productive enough ; and in Catholic times two
monasteries had existed, not far from the coast
called Kirbubai and Thukebai, whose lands
now belong to the king. The part nearest to
the Jokuls, was called Sida, and some lofty
plains, where the people of the district had a

248 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
common right of pasture for their cattle, went
under the name of Sidamanna Afrettur.
Among the rivers that water this quarter, the
largest is the Skapta, which takes its name
from the mountain, and rises about seven Ice
landic (thirty English) miles north of Sida.
It may be as well to notice here, that the
natives divide their rivers into two classes, from
the difference of their waters: those that de
scend immediately from the Jokuls, and those
whose sources are in the lesser mountains, whose
tops are below the line of perpetual congelation.
The water of the latter is of the usual colour,
whereas that of the former bears the closest
resemblance to milk, which is produced by the
mixture of comminuted chalk. The rapidity of
these rivers is such that they are not able to
deposit any great portion of this colouring mat
ter in their course. Several of the larger torrents
have been called " Hvita" (white river) by the
early settlers, and still retain the name. In

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 249
Egyl's Saga, Skallgrim and his companions
are reported to have been struck with amazement
at the sight of this water ; Olafson, however,
remarks, that Sondmor, in Norway, the birth
place of Skallgrim, presented, in his day, the
same phenomenon.
The spring of 1783 had been remarkably
mild ; clear still weather, with frequent sun
shine, and a prevalence of southerly winds, had
advanced the vegetation so much, that plants
had made an unusual progress by the month of
May — in short, every thing promised a favoura
ble summer and a good harvest ; but all these
prospects disappeared with the month.
Already a blueish mist in the sky had drawn
the attention of the more observant. Many
were speculating on the cause of this pheno
menon, when the first of June was ushered in
with an earthquake over Skapta-fells Syssel,
that was repeated daily the whole week. On
the eighth, a dark bank appeared in the air,
m 3

250 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
moving over Sida, from the north ; it was soon
followed by a shower of ashes, that covered the
ground to the thickness of an inch. Noises
also were heard issuing from the mountains, like
waterfalls and the boiling of vast cauldrons.
For two days the bank remained stationary ; on
the third it rose higher in the air, and discovered
columns of fire issuing out of the Jokuls, ac
companied by frequent shocks of the earth.
The Skapta had been very full the whole of the
spring ; on the ninth and tenth it was unusually
so. On the eleventh it was suddenly dried up,
and its bed filled with a torrent of boiling
lava, that overflowed the banks, and bore de
struction along with it. The farms that it passed
were overwhelmed, and rendered for ever inca
pable of cultivation. In this way it continued
till the eighteenth, fresh streams rolling over the
old, melting it in its passage, and forming one
solid mass. A thick steam marked its course
towards Kirkubai,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 25l
On level ground the stream of lava was from
twenty to thirty feet high. To escape its fury the
peasants fled with their cattle to the Afrettur ;
but safety was not to be found even here. The
sheep, which had always been observed in Ice
land to turn to the wind, were now unable to
face its sulphureous steam, and many rushed
madly into the liquid lava and were de
stroyed. Before this time the inhabitants of Skapta-
fells Syssel had been accustomed to use a sort
of wild oats found in the plains, of which tolera
ble bread was made. Three roots also were
plentiful in the Afrettur ; hvannarot (root
of the Angelica arch-angelica), halltar6t (root
of the Cucubalus acaulis), and gelldingardt
(root of Statice armeria). These were of great
service to them in hard years, when they formed
a palateable meal with butter. Fialla gross
(Lichen Islandicus) also was a favourite dish ;
but all these were destroyed by the eruption,

252 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
which thus forced them to depend still more on
foreign produce.
Thirty-three farms were damaged or de
stroyed. Where the lava did not flow, the grass
was poisoned by the black matter that fell on
it ; even the rain was impregnated with brim
stone and ashes.
The other phenomena that accompanied this
convulsion of nature were equally terrible.
Snow fell on the eleventh and twenty-first of
June ; and hail of the size of sparrows' eggs.
For a long time the sun was obscured, and only
occasionally appeared like a ball of fire. The
land was not visible to mariners before they
were close to the coast; in the mountains it
was impossible to see a mile off. In this state
of darkness the whole land remained till the
month of September, when a strong north wind
gradually cleared the atmosphere.
The winter that followed was not calculated
to repair the damages of so disastrous a summer.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 253
The severity of the cold was excessive : often
twenty degrees (Reaumur) ; at Skalholt it was
on one occasion, twenty-one. Without pro
vender for their cattle, with their houses de
stroyed, this addition to their misfortunes well-
nigh overwhelmed them. But they were re
served for still greater ills. The grass that grew
on the ashes produced a complaint among the
cattle, that carried of in sixteen out of the nine
teen Syssels, 19,488 horses, 6800 horned
cattle, and 129,947 sheep; leaving them 1908
of the first, 3064 of the second, and 14,400 of
the last. Already in many places they had
been obliged to kill during the winter of 1783 a
third, and in some places, half of their herds
and flocks ; and even then the sheep produced
only from one to four pounds of tallow each.
Vegetation, in some farms near Langances, was
entirely stopped ; provender not even for a
single cow could be produced.
The lakes turned blue, and sometimes yellow ;

254 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and their sides were strewed with fish, killed by
the ashes and brimstone that had fallen into
them. The swans, also, that come yearly, were
driven away or killed by the smoke ; and the
few eggs found in the hills were uneatable. The
plague now transferred itself from the cattle to
the inhabitants ; a cramp, accompanied by swell
ings of the throat and limbs, and other more
deadly symptoms, seized on those who lived in
the neighbourhood of the eruption, and raged
during the winter and spring that succeeded it.
Many died of hunger and want of assistance in
their illness: in the farm of Nupstad all the
inhabitants died, and their corpses were found by
chance by some travellers who passed that way.
It has been calculated that the loss of life,
consequent on the eruption and the plague and
famine that followed, amounted to above 9000,
and by the destruction of their farms and
cattle many of the survivors were reduced to
utter destitution, and wandered about, beg-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 255
ging help from the people on the coast.
The latter did what little they could to better
their condition, but they were themselves poor,
and a plan was formed for colonizing the heaths
of Jutland with these unhappy peasantry.
The idea was afterwards abandoned, and by a
succession of good seasons, the population of
the island has increased to beyond what it
was at the beginning of the 18th century.

256 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER XIV.

Vidoe — The eider-ducks — The Icelandic printing-
press — Icelandic poetry — A magazine — The Runic
characters — Codex Argenteus.
During our absence in the interior, the
French corvette had left Reikiavik, and sailed
to Dyre Fiord, in Westerland. The priest, Jon
Sivertson, from whom the captain expected to
derive some intelligence concerning the Lilloise,
was unable to throw any more light on the sub
ject, and after the inquiries had been repeated,
to no purpose, along the north-west coast of the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 257
island, the Recherche directed her course to
wards Old Greenland. Before they had pro
ceeded far they were checked by the ice, which
presented an insurmountable bar to any commu
nication with the land. They were not even
able to penetrate far enough to see the coast ;
the weather continued as unfavourable as pos
sible to the expedition, and at the end of August
they returned to Reikiavik, with the object of
the mission no further advanced than when they
left it.
The coldness of the season had delayed the
arrival of the eider-ducks beyond the usual
time for their breeding. About the beginning
of June a few made their appearance, and
within a fortnight afterwards the bay of Rei
kiavik swarmed with them, whenever the wea
ther was calm. The principal spots in Faxe-
fiord, on which they breed, are Vidoe and En-
goe, two pleasant islands in sight of Reikiavik,
a third, and smaller one, called Ephersoe, would
also be tenanted by these birds, were it not, at

258 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
low water, accessible to foxes and dogs by a
reef, which is dry at spring-tides, and forms the
principle protection of the harbour.
Vidoe is interesting as being the place from
which all the literature of the country is disse
minated, for it contains the only printing-press
now existing in Iceland. The art was first
introduced, at the time of the Reformation, by
Jon Arceson, bishop of Holum, one of its most
strenuous opposers, who hoped, by the aid of
typography, to check the change of opinion
which was gaining ground. He accordingly
brought over a Swede, who superintended the
establishment of a press in Nordland, which
helped to overthrow its founder and the supre
macy of his religion in that quarter, for among
the first books that were issued from it was an
Icelandic version of the Bible, by Gulbrandr
Thorlakson, in use to this day. It must have
been sufficient for the literary wants of the
country, for, till the middle of the last century,
no attempt at a rival establishment was made ;

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 259
and when at length a second press was set up,
in Hrappsey, an island in Breidefiord, a very
inconsiderable number of books appeared from
it, and a society, called " Islanska Bokmenta
Felags,"or thelcelandic Book Society, purchased
both, and united them at Leira, in Borgafiord .
Subsequently, Magnus Stephenson, the prin
cipal promoter of the society, on his removal to
Vidoe, transferred the press to the latter place,
where it now remains, rented from the Bok
menta Felags by his son.
As, besides seeing the eider-ducks, the
Frenchmen had a wish to purchase some books
printed in the country, we made a party to visit
the proprietor of the island. The road to the
spot where the crossing is the shortest is very
rough, and we willingly availed ourselves of the
offer of a boat belonging to one of the ships in
the harbour. We landed at some steep stone
steps, which were separated from the house by
a lawn, planted with about fifty trees. Though
very young, they are already more than twelve

260 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
feet high, and will, probably, thrive better than
most others, being protected from the wind by
the house at the back and a hill on each side.
The house is about the size of the governor's,
and is flanked on one side by a small chapel.
Its dilapidated state, however, and the half-
rotten window-frames, in which broken panes of
glass have been replaced by wooden panels,
present a marked difference between the two ;
and the appearance of the exterior is not further
improved by a wooden porch intended to screen
the entrance from the wind, which, I suspect,
requires some more substantial bulwark than
the rickety kind of sentry-box that is opposed
to its violence. The principal apartment is both
large and lofty, and, when we entered it, was
filled with tables loaded with books in sheets.
The uniformity of the whitewashed walls was
broken by different patches of damp, as well as
by a few prints of the Danish royal familyj and
some likenesses of such of the Stephenson
family as had been in Copenhagen.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 261
Among them I remarked the portrait of
Magnus Stephenson, the father of the present
proprietor of Vidoe, who, during this century
and the end of the la6t, made a considerable
figure in his country. His father was Stif-
tamtmand, and he himself filled the post of
Justitiarius, of which one of his brothers was
secretary, another being Amtmand of Wester
land. The glory of the Stephensons, however,
has not been able to reach the third generation,
and several of the grandsons of the governor
have fallen back into the class of boors.
Magnus himself, without doubt, was a very
superior man, and exerted himself in every way
that he thought would be conducive to the good
of his country. Not satisfied with -putting
within the reach of his fellow-citizens foreign
works of merit and utility, and also adding con
siderable original matter to the stock of Ice
landic literature, he laboured incessantly to
ameliorate their physical condition by the intro
duction of superior breeds of cattle, and im-

262 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
provements in their limited husbandry. It is
at no time easy to overthrow customs sanctioned
by length of time, and it is, therefore, not as
tonishing that the Icelanders, who are most
particularly prejudiced in favour of the habits of
their forefathers, neglected to second with zeal
the exertions of this well-wisher of his country.
The whole of the hill to the west of the house
was strewn with nests of ducks. So much do
these interesting birds feel their security in
Vidoe, that five of them had chosen as their
location, the ground under a narrow bench that
runs along the windows of the house : and so
perfectly fearless were they, that, without mov
ing away, they would peck at the hand that
disturbed them. The rising ground is particu
larly favourable for the birds to build on, being
covered with hollows and inequalities, that
serve to protect them from the weather, and only
require the addition of down to convert them
into nests. The drakes are easily known by
their white and black plumage ; but the dark

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 263
hue of the females makes it difficult to dis
tinguish them from the holes in which they sit.
Owing to their lying close, I have frequently
trodden on them, without their warning me of
their presence till the mischief was done. The
drakes, though by no means wild, will not allow
themselves to be handled so freely as the ducks,
and mostly keep together on the top of the hill.
As soon as a nest is completed, it is usual to
remove the greater part of the down, while
the bird is away feeding ; and this operation is
repeated a second, and occasionally a third,
time. On her return, the bird makes up the
deficiency thus created, by stripping her own
breast; and, when her stock is exhausted,she calls
on her mate to add his portion, which will bear
no comparison with the sacrifice she has made.
The same sort of spoliation is practised with
regard to the eggs, care being taken that three
or four are left ; for should the bird on her return
find the nest empty, she will desert it, and not
breed again the same season. About six, con-

264 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
siderably larger than those of tame ducks, and
of a light green colour, are found in each nest.
Their flavour is very inferior to that of hens' eggs,
but they are not so strong as to prevent their
being made into omelettes.
The average quantity of down obtained from
three nests is half a pound, so mixed with grass
and foreign matter, that forty pounds in that
state are reduced to fifteen, after it has been
thoroughly cleaned. Vidoe and Engoe together
produce, I believe, about three hundred pounds
weight yearly, which would, if the above calcu
lation is correct, make the number of ducks that
come to these two places fall not far short of
ten thousand every year. The number, how
ever, that breed in Faxefiord is small, compared
to those that bend their course to Breidefiord.
The innumerable little islands that fill that bay
afford ample shelter and security to eider-ducks,
who seem to avoid nothing so much as any
place accessible to foxes. These cunning ani
mals are particularly fond of their eggs ; but,

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 265
though we will give them all credit for inge
nuity in getting at them, we can hardly be ex
pected to put much faith in the story told about
them by the Danish travellers Olavson and
Paulson. When, say they, the Icelandic foxes
have detected any crows' eggs in an inaccessible
place, they take one another's tails in their
mouths, and form a string of sufficient length
to reach the nest, and let one end of it over the
rock. They have, however, forgotten to tell us
how the eggs are passed up by these craftiest of
Reynards. The separation of the down from the grosser
feathers and straws, occupies the women dur
ing winter. It is then thoroughly divested of
particles too minute for the hand to remove, by
being heated in pans and winnowed like wheat.
Should it become matted and dead, it is again
subjected to a brisk heat, which restores its
original elasticity and increases its bulk. As in
the case of ostriches, the down taken after
death, is inferior to that which the living duck
VOL. I. N

266 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
tears from its breast, which prevents their de
struction through wantonness. They are be
sides protected by the law, which punishes the
shooting of them by a pecuniary penalty, and
the forfeiture of the weapon used. Nor are
guns allowed to be fired in the neighbourhood
during their sojourn; and even the corvette that
brought the prince, abstained in the spring from
saluting him.
The chapel was, when we saw it, used as a
carpenter's workshop, and numerous lines were
also stretched across the upper part of it, hung
with sheets fresh from the press. It is superior
to the common country churches, and is kept in
good repair. Behind it is a small family bury-
ing-ground, in which I observed the first grave
stones I had seen in the country.
A mere earthen hut contains the two printing-
presses, which are of a very ordinary descrip
tion, and were at this time unused, for want of
a supply of paper. A monthly magazine of the
size of the Mirror was started, under the super-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 267
intendence of the Stift Profastur, but its pub
lication was several times suspended, on account
of this deficiency of materials. Its contents
embrace a few of the principal events in the
rest of Europe, and the remainder is filled up
with topics of interest in the island. The name
of Sunnar Postinn, or Southern Post, was given
to it in imitation of another periodical of the
same nature, which the late Magnus Stephenson
conducted for several years, under the title of
" Klaustri Postin," or the Post of the Cloister,
because published at Vidoe, which was formerly
a monastery. It has been remarked, that there must be
much leisure in any country, before there can be
much literature, and that where a few good
books have been handed down to us, a great
many bad ones must have been written. Upon
this principle, it is difficult to conceive how a
country like Iceland could have found time for
literature. It would be supposed, that all its
genius would have been expended in supplying
n2

268 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
the common wants of life ; but upon this frozen
soil poets sang, and historians recorded for
future ages. Manuscripts are in such plenty, that
Sir Joseph Banks, on his return, presented the
British Museum with more than three hundred,
and a vast number have been published at
Copenhagen, by the Society of Antiquities of
the North. Many of the latter are valuable, as
giving a minute account of the manners of the
people, and promoting civilization, by making
the powers of the mind an object of veneration
to. men, whose situation might incline them to
respect those only of the body.
But though the prose works of the Icelanders
are voluminous, it is to the poetry of their Scalds
that this country is chiefly indebted. The cha
racter of their poems is adapted to the gloomy
climate in which they lived, and when mytho
logical, they are extremely obscure, on account
of the metaphors in which they abound. When
they descend to the deeds of simple mortals,
and become more intelligible, the cleaving of

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 269
skulls and bucklers, and the feeding the " yellow-
footed bird" with the carcasses of their enemies,
are the subjects upon which their bards love to
expatiate ; and the joys of drinking ale in Vall-
halla, in the company of Odin and his heroes,
call forth their highest praises.
Occasionally they indulge in softer strains,
and the love of some hero for a gold-ringed
maid is the theme of their song ; but, even while
handling this subject, the poet cannot divest his
verse of ferocity, and the acquisition of the lady
involves the destruction of her family. Nor is
she herself always safe. Skirner, when sent
by his master Niordur to woo for him,* Girda,
finding the offer of eleven apples and a gold
ring endowed with magic powers unavailing,
threatens to slay both her and her father, and
at last gains his suit by producing a wand which
enables him to consign her to endless misery, if
she rejects his solicitations.
* "Journey of Skirner." Edda3.

270 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
The love of poetry has not been extinguished
by the numerous calamities that have over
whelmed the Icelanders at different times for
the last eight centuries, and at this moment
many men might be found who would not dis
grace the ancient Scalds. Some in later years
have, besides writing original poems, under
taken the translation of works in other lan
guages. The principal book at present in the
course of publication at Vidoe, is a prose trans
lation of Homer's Odyssey, by Sveinbiorn
Egylson, one of the Professors of Bessestad ;
and I have been told by persons fully compe
tent to judge of its merits, that the part already
completed is very well done. But among trans
lations, the metrical version of Milton's Para
dise Lost, by Jon Thorlakson, is allowed to be
pre-eminent. This man was a priest in Oster
land ; and when I have said that he was looked
upon as a poor priest by his countrymen, some
idea of his penury may be formed. His bene
fice did not bring him in more than forty shil-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 271
lings a year, and I am afraid he did not derive
much from other sources. In the midst of this
distress, however, he not only wrote several
original pieces, but studied the English lan
guage, to qualify himself for the task he had
undertaken. Besides the Paradise Lost, he
translated Pope's Essay on Man, and his poverty
and genius having been made known to a so
ciety in London, 20/. were subscribed and sent
to him. But the help came too late, and before
the sum had arrived, which might have procured
him some comforts in his old age, the poet had
sunk into the grave.
The metre adopted by Jon Thorlakson in his
translation, is the old verse used in the Edda of
Scemundr, the peculiarity of which consists in
the rhyme being at the beginning of the line,
and its depending on the repetition of a particu
lar letter in each couplet. This mode of having
a prevailing sound, as well as the general
structure of the verse, is better explained by
an extract from the Foeringa Saga, or tale of the

272 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
Feroe isles, which, though not strictly regular in
all its parts, will give some notion of the Ice
landic metre. It is the Creed of Thrandr, a
Feroese, newly converted to Christianity, who,
in answer to the inquiries of a woman into his
belief, repeats the following words :
Gangat ek einn ut
Fjorir mer fyglia
Fimm Guds einglar
Ber ek been fyrer mer
Been fyrer Kristi
Syng ek salma sjo
Sjal Gud hluta min.
[" I go not out alone, four follow me, five angels of
God ; I offer a prayer for myself, a prayer for Christ ; I
sing seven psalms, God preserve my soul !"]
The above lines will show that there exists a
ffifling similitude between the English and Ice
landic languages. The latter was in general
use in Scandinavia before the tenth century, and
was introduced into Iceland by the first settlers.
Gradually the ancient language divided itself
into several dialects. On the continent it under-

A WINTER IN ICELAND, 273
went great changes, and was the root of the
modern Swedish and Danish; the former still
retains considerable likeness to the modern Ice
landic. In the Feroe Isles, the old Gothic took
another form, and laid the foundation of a dis
tinct language, spoken in that place to this day.
In Iceland alone it has been retained pure, and,
with the exception of a trifling departure from
its ancient forms, it has remained essentially the
same tongue, mainly owing to the little com
munication that the natives have with strangers.
Their old Sagas supply them amply with amuse
ment and instruction, and serve to keep alive
the language which was spoken by Ingolf. Not
that in modern times the isle has been deficient
in authors, though, from the political state of
the country, they have been obliged to forego
the two principal departments in which their
ancestors excelled, namely, history and war-
songs. There is a peculiarity in the Icelandic tongue,
which it has in common with ours. It is the
n 3

274

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

retention of the sound " th," sounded, perhaps,
sharper than in English. They have still kept
the old form of the aspirated r, which is written
the same as in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet.
Before the introduction of Christianity the Runic
characters were in use instead of the Gothic.
There has been much dispute about the meaning
and derivation of the word Runic, which appears
to signify simply letters.
At present, both in writing and printing, the
Gothic character is made use of in general, few
books in the Icelandic appearing in the Latin
style, except the splendid Magnaean edition of
the Sagas, published at Copenhagen.
In the library of Upsala there is a manuscript,
which may be looked upon as one of the great
est curiosities in that university. It is known
by the name of " Codex Argenteus," which it
derives from the silver letters in which the body
of it is written. The initials of chapters, and
some few passages, are distinguished from the
rest by being in gold. It contains the four

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 275
Gospels in the Moeso-Gothic language, and is
supposed to be a copy of the translation made'
by Ulphilas, the Apostle of the Goths, in the
fourth century. By some it has been doubted
whether it can lay claim to so great antiquity,
but none have attributed it to a later date than
the middle of the sixth century.
The history of so venerable a volume, which
contains the only remaining specimen of the
root of the modern northern languages, must be
interesting. It is strange that it should have
remained unnoticed for near twelve hundred
years; such, however, was the case. It was
first discovered in a Benedictine convent in
Westphalia, about 1597, and was removed to
Prague, where it remained till the stemming of
of the town by the Swedes in 1648. By the
fortune of war, it fell into the hands of Count
Koningsmark, who presented it to the Queen
of Sweden, as a tribute to her learning. Chris
tina, about the same time, invited Isaac Vossius,
of Leyde, to her court, and purchased from him

276 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
his father's library. She also gave him a hand
some appointment, and employed him to collect
books and manuscripts for her throughout Eu
rope. The place of librarian of Upsala becom
ing vacant, it was conferred on him, but, at the
abdication of the queen, he left the north and
returned to Holland.
It was at this time that the charge of plunder
ing Christina's library was brought against him.
Whether, according to his own account, he made
a selection for himself with the queen's leave,
or, as was generally supposed, he carried them
off surreptiously, is not clear; but it is certain
that many valuable books disappeared with him,
and among others the "Codex Argenteus."
Fortunately it was returned by Count Magnus
Gabriel de la Gardie, a Swedish nobleman, who
purchased the manuscript from the executors of
Vossius for two hundred and fifty pounds sterl
ing, and presented it to the university of Upsala.
The volume is a quarto, with violet coloured
leaves, in fair preservation. The beginning of

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 287
St. Matthew, and St. John, and some other
parts are lost. The characters are a mixture of
Greek, Roman, and Runic, and the whole is
written in capitals. As it is the oldest form of
Gothic known, and the Icelandic the oldest
form in use, the two following copies of the
Lord's prayer, the first from the Codex, and the
second from a modern Icelandic Bible, will show
the connexion between the two.
"Atta unsar thu in Himinam ; weihnai namo
thein ; quimai thindinassns theins ; wairthai
vilja theins sue in Himina, jah ana airthai ; hlaif
unsarna thana sinteinan gif uns himnidaga; jah
aflet uns thatei skulans sigaima sua sue jah
weis afletam thaim skulam unsaraim ; jah ne
briggais uns in fraistubnjai, ak lausei uns af
thamma unbillim ; unte theina is thindangardi,
jah mahts, jah walthus in Aiwins. Amen."
" Fader vor, thu sem ert a, Himnum, helgest
thitt nafn ; tilkome thitt rike ; verde thinn vile svo
a jbrdu sem a himne; gef thu oss i dag vort
daglegt braud. Og firergef oss vorar skulder,

278 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
svo sem ver fyrergifum vorum skulldunautum og
innleid oss eigi i freistne, helldur frelsa thu oss
fra illu; thuiad thitt er riked og mattur og dyrd
om allder allda. Amen."

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 279

CHAPTER XV.

Kieblivik— Poverty of the clergy— Education at Besse
stad — Provision for Icelandic students at Copenhagen
— Trade with Iceland — Mortality of infants in West-
man Isles.
A visit that I made to Kieblivik, shortly
before leaving Iceland, gave me an opportunity of
traversing the whole length of the lava, that covers
the south-western extremity of the island, called
Gulbringe Syssell. The Hraun that surrounds
Havnifiord, though it had at first sight appeared
most terrific, had gradually lost its horrors, yet

280 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
these were not sufficient to prepare me
for the state of the country beyond that place.
With the exception of one spot on the road, we
met with no sign whatever of vegetation ; and I
do not recollect ever having seen so intricate
and baffling a pathway as that formed between
the clumps of blistered lava. On the left hand,
the sulphur mountains of Krusivik bounded the
sight ; while on the right, Sncefell Jokul reared
its white top at the distance of forty-eight miles.
Kieblivik offers nothing more than an open
roadstead to shipping, and that so exposed, that
while vessels are discharging or taking in car
goes, the work is continued without intermission
both night and day. The sole inducement to
make this a trading place was the goodness of
the fishery, and the bartering of cod for neces
saries by the people who come down for the
season. As the fishing was over, the place was almost
deserted; the permanent population consisting
of the factors of the principal merchants, their

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 281
families, and a few dependents. The ground at
the back of the village is covered with stones, and
in its natural state unfit to produce even a weed.
Two of the merchants, however, have been at
the trouble of making about twenty acres into
meadow land by transporting on the backs of
horses, the soil required, which had to be col
lected for some miles round the neighbourhood.
The expense, it may be supposed, was not
trifling, and I fear far surpassed the advantage
as yet derived. The fact is, that if cost were
disregarded, the vegetable products of Iceland
might be considerably increased, but as the
object is not merely to produce, but to produce
with economy, till its nature undergoes some
great revolution, the efforts of its inhabitants
will avail but little in improving its surface.
Among other persons at Kieblivik, I met the
newly-appointed Pastor of Grundevik. This
young man had lately returned from the univer
sity of Copenhagen, where he had distinguished
himself by his talents, and acquired a reputation

282 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
for great abilities. It will hardly be cre
dited that his industry for many years, and his
perseverance through difficulties, was rewarded
by a benefice worth fifty shillings per annum,
at its highest valuation. Nor was he the most
unfortunate of his class, for many have not even
the choice of such a preferment as Grundevik
for a dozen years after they have qualified them
selves for the church, which they cannot enter
before they are appointed to some parish.
In consequence of this delay, many students
who have concluded their studies at Bessestad,
are obliged to seek lay employment till they
are appointed to benefices. Being in the pre
dicament of the unjust steward, they prefer
entering into the service of the traders to re
turning to field labour, and many engage them
selves for clerks during the busy part of sum
mer, when an extra number of hands is re
quired; a few obtain permanent situations as
factors. It may be easily imagined, that a
counter-jumper is not the best person to select

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 283
for a clergyman, and of this many are sensible,
but the wants of most, who cannot remain at
home, force them to this mode of earning a live
lihood. The lot of those whose better circumstances
at home enable them to finish their education
in Denmark is not much easier. The allowance
derived from their parents is rarely sufficient to
support them in Copenhagen without some
addition from other sources. A part of the
university, called Regencen, is reserved for the
Icelandic students, a limited number of whom
are allowed a room between two, and a weekly
allowance of a silver rixdollar and some firing.
Here the poor youths continue to labour with
unwearied perseverance ; and when, after a pe
riod protracted by a portion of their time being
given up to the instruction of others, they leave
the university, their names are seldom omitted
in the list of classical honours.
On my return from Kieblivik, I found that
the"Handelstid," or trading time, was approach-

284 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
ing at Reikiavik, and that the bustle consequent
on it was changing the face of the town. Pea
sants, leading twenty, and sometimes thirty,
horses in a string, were every five minutes
making their appearance, with their last year's
produce of wool, tallow, and fish. On arriving
at an open space in the middle of the town,
called Ostervall, they pitch their tents, unload
their horses, and remove them to plains outside.
Their progress to the coast is orderly and well
regulated ; but their return, particularly the
first day's journey, is not always conducted
with the same steadiness, owing partly to the
corn brandy that they bring back with them.
Their disputes are rarely followed by any serious
consequences, wrestling being the mode adopted
for settling their differences. The variety also
of bulky articles which they have to transport
home gives them much trouble. Planks, in
particular, with their ends trailing on the
ground, are a source of continual annoyance,
frightening the horses, who are unused to the

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 285
noise, and in their struggles upset those fas
tened to them, staving the casks against the
rocks on the side of the path, and strewing
their load about the plain. At night they
are hobbled and left to shift for themselves,
there being no danger of their straying far
away. From the middle of the seventeenth century
to 1776, the Icelandic trade was monopolized by
a company of Hamburg merchants settled at
Bergen. At the end of that time the King of
Norway determined to carry it on himself, and
established factories in each port. The specula
tion, however, turned out to be more profitable
tothe agents than to the principal, who, after
suffering an annual loss of twelve thousand
pounds, retired at the end of ten years, and
opened the trade to all his subjects. Any com
merce with foreigners was strictly interdicted,
and no ships, except Norwegians with timber,
are to this day allowed to enter any Icelandic
port, and even Norwegian vessels are obliged to

286 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
have a special permission from Copenhagen.
During the war the government found it diffi
cult to enforce these regulations, and divers
British subjects carried on a trade with the
country, at first by force, and afterwards by an
agreement wrung from the governor. The
peace put an end to this open commerce, but it
has been found impossible to check as general a
contraband trade carried on by the natives with
the crews of French and Dutch fishing- vessels.
There are one-and-twenty ports, besides one in
the Westman isles, most of which have only one
or two merchants in them.
Reikiavik had, while I was there, sixteen or
seventeen permanent establishments in it, and
was besides yearly visited by about five and
twenty galliots and sloops, which sailed from
port to port, and were not allowed, by the con
ditions imposed on the trade by Christian VII.,
to remain more than a month at a time in the
same harbour. The ports are principally on the
western coast, those on the northern being

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 287
particularly dangerous in summer on account of
the drift-ice from Greenland. On the southern,
which is but little peopled, there is but one soli
tary port, Oreback, which is so difficult of
approach, that ships are delayed weeks together
at its entrance.
The principal exports are wool, tallow, and
stockfish, the latter from the south and west,
and the former, as well as a large quantity of
knit goods, from Nordland. These, with blue
and white fox-skins, swansdown, feathers, and
lichen Islandicus, form nearly the whole of their
products. In return, they take rye, tobacco, and corn
brandy, a few manufactured goods, such as
cloth, hardware, and a trifling quantity of linen.
The little flour that comes to the island stops at
the ports, but coffee and sugar are scarcely
looked upon as luxuries, and are articles of uni
versal consumption. A small quantity of coal
for the smithies, and several cargoes of salt for
the fisheries, are annually sent for to Liverpool,

288 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
and, with these few helps from abroad, they
manage to subsist, every article almost that they
possess being of home manufacture.
The circulating medium is entirely of silver,
and though the legal currency is properly the
same as that of Denmark, another, which gives
an increased value of fifty per cent, to the coins,
has been adopted of late years between indi
viduals. No bank-notes are in circulation, nor
are gold and copper ever met with. The coins in
use are the specie dollar, which is worth fouf
shillings and sixpence, and smaller pieces, which
represent its parts, from J to i, besides
several of antique date, that bear no relation
to it.
By the end of August, the produce of the
year had been collected, and the shipping pre
pared to leave the island for Europe. The ma
jority were bound for Copenhagen and the small
Danish islands, and the remainder were to sail
direct with stockfish to Spain. The war in the
latter country had rendered the markets uncer-

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 289
tain in the northern provinces, and I doubt whe
ther more than one vessel went that year into
Bilboa. The French savans had made large
collections of minerals and animals in Wester
land, and besides divers casks filled with pre
parations, took with them some live specimens of
horses, eagles, hawks, and foxes. The car
nivorous part of the collection was easily pro
vided for by slaughtering some of their horses,
but considerable difficulty had to be overcome
in procuring forage for ' two live horses, as the
grass was not yet made into hay, and the little
that was cut lay rotting in the rain.
The zoology of Iceland presents nothing
marked either in the number or appearance of
its quadrupeds. The domestic part is confined to
the horse, cow, sheep, dog, and cat. The goat
is occasionally met with in Nordland, and the
pig, though individuals have been once or twice
imported, is too expensive to rear in a country,
where neither grain nor vegetables are easily
raised. vol. i. o

290 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
The hardihood and sagacity of the horses
cannot be too much admired. The first quality
will scarcely be denied them by any one who
has seen them lie out the whole winter, with no
other shelter than that of their coats, which are
longer than bears', and obliged to sustain life
by picking up sea-weed on the shore. When
hard pressed by hunger, many will devour fish,
and thrive on it. In travelling over the plains
that abound in quagmires, too much reliance
cannot be placed in the sagacity of these beasts
whose instinct will carry them safe through the
greatest difficulties. On coming to a doubtful
place, both their scent and feeling will be put
in requisition ; and, should they refuse to ad
vance, not even the severest application of the
whip will suffice to urge them on. On one or
two occasions I have seen an obstinate rider
overcome the reluctance of his horse to proceed,
and an immersion up to the neck in mud was
the invariable consequence.
The cows are rarely to be found with horns ;

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 291
but nature has been more bountiful to the sheep
in this respect, and wethers with four, and
sometimes six, of these appendages, are not un
common. Their wool is coarse, and approach
ing to the nature of hair; and it is the
custom of the shepherds to tear it off the ani
mals, instead of shearing them. The only rea
son assigned for this practice is the severity of
the climate, which would not admit of the
sheep being at once stripped entirely of their
winter clothing.
Shakspeare has marked the distinguishing
feature of the " prick-eared cur of Iceland,"
which, in other respects, resembles the dog used
for draught by the Esquimaux. He is perhaps
smaller, and is put to no use but that of keeping
'the sheep, and driving cattle off the toon or
meadow. If the number of their domestic animals is
limited, that of the wild ones is still more so.
Reindeer and foxes may be said to include the
whole denomination ; for though a few white
bears are found every winter in Nordland, they

292

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

are visiters and not natives, coming on the ice
from Greenland, and happy to find their way
back to it, if they are fortunate enough to escape
the bullets with which the peasants are sure to
welcome their landing. The foxes are blue and
white ; the former variety being in reality of a
very deep iron-gray colour.
The Frenchmen are fortunate enough to pro
cure a specimen of the hawks of this country,
which were so famous when falconry was in
vogue. Of the two varieties of gray and white
the latter was the most valued for its beauty
and docility ; and so much prized were they in
Europe, that till late years, the King of Den
mark kept a mews in Reikiavik, for the recep
tion of these birds, which were yearly sent for,
when their education was completed, in a ship
expressly fitted up for their conveyance. The
house appropriated to them still exists on the
beach ; but it has degenerated into a common
store. Two things must be noticed, in reference

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 293
to the animal part of the creation of this
country. The first is, that in common with
Ireland, it has the privilege of being free from
toads, serpents, and all venomous creatures,
which would argue that St. Patrick at some
time paid it a visit. The other is, the strange
effect produced by the natives living, in some
districts, on sea-fowl. In the Westman Isles,
the use of them is universal, not only as food
but fuel. After being plucked, they are dried
and heaped up in stacks, and serve for firing
during winter. The effluvia arising from them
while burning, is of course pestilential ; but
it is of no consideration with the Icelanders.
This, however, is nothing to the consequence
attributed to the eating them ; every child born
there is attacked, soon after its birth, by a
disease that ends in lock-jaw, and never allows
it to survive the seventh day. One only child,
that has been kept in the Westman Isles, has
escaped, but as it was of Danish parents, whose
diet differs from that of the natives, this exception
does not of course, affect the universal rule.
o 2

294 A WINTER IN ICELAND.

CHAPTER XVI.

Population — National character — Weddings — Funerals —
Departure from Iceland — Eld Eyar — Feroe Isles.
The Icelanders are not generally considered
very long lived ; the hardships that the majority
undergo in the sea fishery, must naturally wear
out their frames, and many suffer at an early
age from rheumatism. In 1801 the population
amounted to 47,209, of whom 25,700 were
females. Of this number forty-one were above
ninety years of age. At present the island con
tains about 53,000 souls. I have heard he
natives say that there exists a prophecy to the
effect that the population will never reach

A WINTER IS ICELAND. 295
60,000; it has, however, been stated, that in
the old times, before the plague called Suartr
Daudi visited them, it amounted to a hundred
thousand. The disposition of the Icelanders is serious,
and by many has been considered even morose.
Travellers who have made it their business to
inquire more particularly into their religious
feelings, have reported very favourably of them
in that respect, and even the casual observer
must be struck with the great attention they pay
to devotional exercises.
Except in the trading places and fishing sta
tions on the coast, where they have often much
idle time on their hands from the badness of
the weather preventing them from putting to
sea, in a moral point of view their character is
generally unexceptionable. The cases of dis
honesty which came to my knowledge were
neither many nor very serious. Sometimes
a keg of tallow is found to contain a stone
which will add a pound or two to its weight,

296 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
but this species of fraud is not of frequent oc
currence. As for crimes of deeper dye, such as
robbery accompanied with violence, or mur
der, they are very rare ; and in this respect the
modern Icelanders are widely different from
their ancestors, who, it has been shown in the
foregoing pages, were turbulent and blood
thirsty as late as the sixteenth century.
Four years previous to my visiting the coun
try, a peasant in Nordland was murdered by a
man and woman, who afterwards set fire to his
house with a view of concealing their crime. I
did not hear the exact inducement that prompted
this act, but there must have been some^fte-
nuating circumstances attending it, as all the
sympathy was in favour of the murderers, and
the victim was spoken of with hatred. The
case was clearly brought home to them, yet the
transmission of the evidence from Nordland to
Reikiavik, and thence to Denmark, occupied so
much time, that two years and a half had
elapsed before the warrant of the king arrived

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 297
for their decapitation. Even then it was ex
pected that their execution would be delayed,
as neither executioner nor proper instrument of
death was to be found in the island, and it would
be necessary to remove them to Norway. When
the time came, this additional . delay was ren
dered unnecessary, by the offer of the brother
of the murdered man to take on him the office
of headsman. However strange it may appear, the
proposal was accepted, though savouring strongly
of revenge, and the execution took place.
Suicides, and all who have forfeited their
lives to the law are excluded from consecrated
ground. Their bodies are merely covered with
a heap of stones in the form of a barrow ; some
such have been pointed out to me, nor is there
any probability of their disappearing with time,
as it is customary for every one who passes by
to add a stone to the heap.
The Icelandic weddings and funerals remain
to be noticed, though they are marked by little
to distinguish them from the same ceremonies

298

A WINTER IN ICELAND.

in other Protestant countries. When a mar
riage is to take place, the party proceeds to
church in regular order, the bridegroom leading
the men, and the bride following them, accom
panied by the women. When arrived at the
place of worship, the male part of the friends
take their seats, with the bridegroom, on the
left, and the female, with the bride, remain on
the right side of the church. After a hymn has
been sung, they are each presented to the priest
by a sponsor. The usual questions are asked,
and, after an address and a few more psalms,
the new-married people are dismissed, and walk
home side by side, the rest of the party fol-
owing in the same order as before the ceremony.
The feasting is kept up for two or three days,
and attended with much conviviality. An old
custom still remains in force, by . which the
bridemaids refuse the- husband access to his
wife's room till he promises to give her a present
on the following morning. The settlement of
this agreement often takes up several hours,

A WINTER IN ICELAND, 299
during which the women are inexorable and
keep the man out.
The funerals are conducted with much solem
nity, and little of that carousing that is met with
on the same occasions in other northern coun
tries. A funeral oration is read over the body,
by the priest, who calls the attention of those
present to the most remarkable traits in the life
of the deceased, and concludes his address with
a suitable exhortation. These orations are not
omitted even at the funerals of infants, and the
ingenuity of the clergyman must often be se
verely taxed to find any thing worthy of notice
even in those who have died at a mature age.
The procession then follows the corpse to the
churchyard, and, after it has been lowered into
the grave, the priest throws in a spadeful of
earth. While the penitential psalms are being
sung the rest of the company follow his example;
one or two jumping into the grave, and stamping
down the earth. As soon as it is filled the cere
mony is concluded, and each man returns home.

300 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
The time having now arrived for my depar
ture I engaged a passage in a small cutter of
eighty tons burden, bound for Altona, and
took leave of my friends at Reikiavik. My
stay had lasted rather more than a twelvemonth,
and though I had often met with annoyances, of
many and various kinds, I had repeated oppor
tunities of marking the estimable qualities of
the Icelanders' character — calm, orderly, and
persevering. I had found them a people capa
ble of great labour of mind and body, and
though not abounding in men of genius
producing zealous and indefatigable scho
lars, they present an example of how inde
pendent the human intellect is of climate.
In Italy we find nature luxuriant and beautiful,
and man only dwindling into insignificance :
in Iceland we find him rising superior to the
difficulties that surround him, and achieving a
complete victory over the circumstances in which
he is placed.
On the third of September we set sail ; the

A WINTER IN ICELAND 301
weather was dark and threatening, yet till we
cleared the land it continued tolerably moderate.
Soon after we had passed the Eld Eyar, or Fire
Islands, off Cape Rakianess, the lateness of the
season became apparent, and we met with one
continued succession of gales.
These islands are merely barren rocks,
generally covered with seafowl, that have
been thrown up by submarine volcanoes,
About a month before the great eruption
took place in Skapta Felds Syssel, a vol
cano burst forth at sea, seventy miles in a
south-western direction from Reykianess, and
threw up such a quantity of pumice-stone as
to impede the navigation. On further examina
tion, a new island was discovered to have risen
out of the ocean, consisting of lofty cliffs, within
which a fire raged with great violence, and
hurled out pumice-stones. It was called Nyoe,
or New Island, and taken possession of in the
name of the King of Denmark ; but before it
had been in existence quite a year, it disap-
VOL. I. P

302 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
peared, and the only trace of this ephemeral land
is a sunken rock to the west of the Eld Eyar.
Mount Hekla is generally the last spot seen
on bearing away to the south, and about a
week after losing sight of it we approached the
Feroe Isles, between which and the Orkneys we
beat about for a fortnight, baffled by easterly
gales, that prevented our entering the North Sea.
It is generally believed that the Norwegians,
who first established themselves in these islands,
gave them the name of Faroe,* from the
number of sheep they found in them. The term
Feroe is also perhaps derived fromJ?er, feathers,
an article which in consequence of the number
of seafowl caught there is very abundant. The
isles are in number twenty-two, seventeen of
which are inhabited ; they occupy from north
to south sixty-seven miles, and extend in
breadth forty-five. They are about three hun
dred and eighty miles distant fiom Norway,
and two hundred from Shetland.
* Description of the Feroe Isles. By G. Landt.

A WINTER IN ICELAND. 303
They consist of a group of steep hills, rising
from the sea, chiefly of a conical form, and
close to each other ; some proceed with an even
declivity to the shore, but the greater part have
two or three, or more sloping terraces, formed
by projecting rocks, and covered with a thin
stratum of earth, which produces grass. Close
to the sea, however, the land in general con
sists of perpendicular rocks, from two to three
hundred fathoms in height. The loftiest moun
tain is two thousand two hundred and forty feet
high, and from its summit, which is a plain of
six hundred feet by two hundred, the whole of
the Feroe Isles can be seen in clear weather.
The inhabitants are more superstitious than
the Icelanders, whom they resemble in their
manners, coming from the same stock ; but as
they have no intercourse, many of their customs
as well as their languages only show a common
origin. The population amounts to about 5000,
which gives ten persons to the square mile.
From the badness of weather, and perhaps of
the article itself, our bread had become so

304 A WINTER IN ICELAND.
mouldy as to be unfit to eat, and we put into
Christianstad in Norway, for a fresh supply.
After a delay of two days, we set sail again ;
and on the morning of the fortieth day were
moored in the Elbe, off Altona.
After the stillness of Iceland, the stir of
Hamburg could not but be doubly felt by me.
It seemed a new world ; every thing was full of
life and animation ; but when I compared the
poor and simple people whom I had left with
those among whom I found myself, though I
doubted whether the Icelandic adage, " Islander
hinn besta lapa sem salen skinnar uppa," —
(Iceland is the best land the sun shines upon,)
— would find any advocate out of it, I came to
the conclusion that, as far as real happiness is
concerned, " An equal portion's dealt to all mankind."
END OP VOL. I.

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