Formerly it was the practice to hold fairs or markets at the chief comptoirs upon the coast;[254] these “Markaðr” lasted for a week or ten days in early July, a period known as Höndlunartið (Dan. Handelstid). The peasants came, often after a week or more of riding, with their goods carried in crates and panniers by pack-horses; pitched their tents, and began the year’s business, which was enlivened by not a little gross debauchery. The canniest of their canny calling, each party sent forward some noted “knowing hand” to find out which merchant gave the largest price, and all went to him en masse. Consequently the traders were obliged to defend themselves by a counter-union, all conforming to a certain tariff; and now, if one store pay a skilling less than any comptoir within reach, the purchaser will claim to be refunded.

The fair system is becoming obsolete; many merchants have opened new trading stations, and even the most secluded bays are visited by market-ships. These “Spekulants,” however, are not allowed to visit the out-havens where there is no comptoir—another scrap of protection to the storekeeper which calls for abolition. They are limited, reasonably enough, to four or five weeks of yearly trade at each place, but they may divide the time at several bays. Moreover, they must sell and buy only from the ships, and they cannot set up shops on shore.

Regular postal communication is perhaps the first want of the island; there is hardly any for the three and a half months between November 29 and February 15. A steamer would take very few passengers at such seasons, but a stout and ably handled schooner-rigged craft of 120 tons (minimum), with a crew of seven men, should find no difficulty in carrying the mails. Yet the history of such attempts is not encouraging. The first postal packet, the “Sölöwen,” went down, “man and mouse,” off Snæfellsnes, a dead horse cast ashore giving notice of the calamity: about the same time another ship was lost with all on board. The first steamer was the “old Arcturus,” Clyde-built, 280 tons register, and eighty horse-power; the captain (Andresen) and crew were Danes, and the engineers were Scotch. Messrs Henderson of Glasgow, who hazarded the speculation, obtained from Denmark a subvention of $6000 per annum for six years, besides an advance of $30,000 purchase money, at 4 per cent. interest for outlay. This “cockle-shell” made four, then six, annual voyages, the first in March, the last in October; and she touched at Grangemouth when outward and homeward bound. Her charges were cheap—£2, 2s. for eight days, board, wine, and whiskey included. She is now, they say, trading for the United Steam Company between Copenhagen and the Baltic.

But private companies, though receiving a grant of $15,000 per annum, did not thrive. The “Arcturus” was succeeded by the Danish “Póst-skip” “Diana,” which was put upon the line in 1870. She is a converted man-of-war, formerly stationed at the island, with flush decks for guns. A “slow coach” and a fast roller, she formerly made five trips a year, now increased to seven; and the Appendix (No. I.) will give all necessary information about her movements. She offers the advantage of touching at the Færoes, and at Berufjörð, but it has been proposed to give up the latter station. On the other hand, she is exceedingly inexact, often lagging behind her time at Granton, and other places. During the season she is painfully crowded; “a state-room may be had against payment for all the berths therein;” but unless the kind and hospitable Mr Berry,[255] Consul-General for Denmark at Leith, or the civil Vice-Consul, Hr Jacobsen, telegraph to Copenhagen, none will be vacant. The food is greasy, and soaked in fat. As long as Captain Haalme and Lieutenant Loitved commanded the “Diana,” there was little official interference with passengers. Afterwards she fell into the hands of a martinet, and matters changed for the worse. She seems cheap, but she is really dear, as these figures show:

She does not pay, and no wonder, when the Reykjavik traders sail their own ships. But these gentry have also determined so to monopolise the traffic, that often the smallest parcel, even of medium size, is refused, under the pretext of there being no room. In fact, they have made the “Diana” peculiarly unpopular. “It is difficult,” says a friend, “to find any reason for such conduct, but that the Copenhagen merchants who furnish the stores of Reykjavik with their poisonous liquors, which they pass off for genuine, take every means to prevent anything like competition.”

In 1872, when the author visited Iceland, the export of ponies, sheep, and meat cattle had caused a rapid development of communication. Already the “Yarrow” of Granton had been run for three years by her owner Mr Slimon, who had bought and floated her after she had been wrecked off Burntisland. She at first refused, but afterwards consented, to carry mails. With as many as 450 head of horses on board, and towing a sloop with fifty more, she was terribly down in the stern; and a pooping sea would have been no joke for her solitary passenger. The “Jón Sigurðsson” was also sent in May by her owners, a private Norwegian company, and she was followed by the “Queen.” Concerning these two, ample details will be found in the Journal.

§ 4. The Store.

The present is an age of “manufactures and diffused wealth,” which calls for as many observations on trade and business as the traveller can make. Before visiting the stores, however, a few words must be bestowed upon an interesting detail.

Foreigners are apt to complain that Icelanders are uncommonly “sharp practitioners;” sleuth-hounds after money, and bull-dogs in holding it, like Yorkshiremen. It has become the fashion to say that the islanders are kind and hospitable at first, but succeed in jewing the stranger at last; and, like most of such generalisations, it contains a partial truth. Upon this subject an Englishman who knows the island well, wrote, “So far as my experience goes, I have never met with an Icelander who was a rascal; there are, however, men in Iceland, and especially at Reykjavik, who are pretty specimens of that form of animal life.... I have heard some travellers regard it as a swindle that horses are dear when wanted to purchase, and cheap when sold; but they forget that in early summer there is plenty of work for beasts, and the demand raises their price by the natural law. At the approach of winter there is no work for them and scanty food, consequently the value falls.”

The traveller, as a rule, will meet but little imposition, except in two notorious cases, alluded to in many a page. One is the rapacious Rev. Mr Bech, now Prófastur (archdeacon) of Thingvellir, who charged Prince Napoleon 220 francs for camping ground, and who is said to have demanded $47 from Lord Dufferin. The other is Pétur Jónsson, the farmer at Mý-vatn, who has fleeced generations of tourists; he was made by nature to keep an inn at Palermo, or lodgings at Dover. Against these and a few other instances, may be set off many a small farmer who will declare that he has been paid too much; and often the boatman seems surprised at being paid at all. The people appear eminently honest in the country parts. About the capital this can hardly be expected: a revolver and a silver snuff-box if dropped will not be recovered.

In business the foreigner will fall into the hands of the Danish storekeepers, who certainly have more than a “theoretical knowledge of the value of money;” and he will be fortunate if he escape unscathed. One of these gentry, attempting to extort 500 francs from the Capitaine Le Timbre for throwing a seine, without taking a fish, into an unpreserved part of his river, failed, as he deserved. The bad example has to a certain extent infected the Iceland trader. Messrs Henderson & Anderson were ruined by their agent. An English storekeeper came out in 1872, with the object of recovering certain debts from the present owner of the “Glasgow House.” He had spent some years on the island, he knew Danish well, and he was accustomed to treat with the people; yet he wholly failed, and the worst part of his failure was, that no Procurator (lawyer) would undertake the foreigner’s case against a brother islander.[256] But if these two were disappointed, Messrs Ritchie and Messrs Hogarth have been successful. And many of our countrymen who land in Iceland for trade should certainly not throw stones at the islanders. One of these clerks, a decidedly “sharp” young man, not to use the comparative form of the adjective, attempted to make himself richer and the author poorer by £25, on the pretext that he had bought ponies, for which the hirer should be responsible.

The storekeepers at Reykjavik are called merchants (kaupmaðr = chapman), and their establishments, which lack signs and names, are the conspicuous buildings fronting the sea. Mostly, they are paid employés of Copenhagen firms, who receive fixed salaries. The following is a list, beginning from the west:

1. Hr Egill Egilsson (Icelander), of the Glasgow House, and agent of the “Jón Sigurðsson” steamer.

2. Hr Fischer, a Dane, married to an Icelandic wife, settled at Copenhagen, and occasionally visiting the island. He occupies the corner tenement to the right of the Bridge House; and he has large stores fronting his shop.

3. Hr Havstein (Dane), who has not long been established; his private dwelling is attached to his store at the west end of Harbour Street, but he usually lives at Copenhagen. This house charters two or three ships a year to carry its goods.

4. Hr Hannes Jónsson, an Icelander, son of the former Bishop Steingrimur Jónsson. His stock is furnished by Hr Jonsen of Copenhagen, who has also establishments at Hafnafjörð, Papós, and Seyðisfjörð.

5. Hr Robb, the son of an English merchant, who settled at and was naturalised in Iceland.[1] He speaks German, but not a word of English. It is the smallest of all the establishments, and seems to do business only in lollipops.

6. Hr P. C. Knutzen, a Dane, whose agent is Hr Sivertsen. He trades on his own account, without a company; and, being young and wealthy, he prefers Copenhagen to Reykjavik. At Hafnafjörð he has another establishment, and an agent (Hr Zimsen).

7. Hr Möller. The Club is held at his house.

8. Hr Schmidt (Danish), who hires a house at Reykjavik, and passes the winter at Copenhagen. He is Consul for Holland.

9. Hr Th. A. Thomsen, a Dane of Flensburg, born in Iceland. He passes the winter at Copenhagen; and, besides being one of the principal traders, he is well-known for his civility and kindness to strangers.

10. Hr Edward Siemsen, at the east end of the town. He is agent for his brother and their nephew, and he also acts Consul for Denmark.

Including M. Randrŭp, Consul de France, the Consular Corps, none of them belonging to la carrière, consists of three, England, of course, being unrepresented, though she does the largest business in coal and salt. Thus the tricolor is the only foreign flag seen in the island, the other two staves bear Danish colours. As has been shown, most of the traders pass only the summer in [257] Iceland, and they solace themselves with frequent rides and picnics at the Laxá River.

Kerguelen has left us an excellent description of the Iceland trade in A.D. 1767. It was managed by a Danish company (No. 2, before alluded to), which had bought an exclusive privilege from the king, and which kept factors and warehouses at the several stations. The only money was fish and butter,[258] whilst one ell of pig-tail (tobacco) = one fish. The fisheries were very extensive, and would require four frigates thoroughly to protect them. Exports were included under salt meat, beef, and mutton; tallow; butter, close packed; wool in the grease; skins of sheep, foxes, and seals; feathers, especially eider down; oil of whales, sharks, and seals; fine and coarse jackets of Wadmal, woollen stockings, and mitts; stock-fish and sulphur. The imports were fishing-tackle, horse-shoes, carpenters’ woods, coffee and sugar, tobacco and snuff, beer, brandy, and wine, dry goods (calicoes, etc.), flour (wheat and rye), bread and biscuit.

The imports of the present day, to mention only those of chief importance, are timber, salt, coals, grain, coffee, spices, tobacco, and liquor. The timber consists of pine and fir, mostly the latter; the forms are beams for roofing and framing, twenty-two to twenty-four feet long, one-inch boards for side-lining of houses, three-inch planks, and finer woods for the joiner. Salt comes chiefly from Liverpool, which is ousting the Spanish trade, and the average price may be $2 per barrel = 176 pots = 44 gallons. The people declare that they cannot afford the expense of salt-pans, and that the sun is hardly hot enough for evaporation: this was not the case a few years ago, but Iceland, like Africa, finds it cheaper to import the condiment. English coals are carried in British bottoms, either direct or viâ Copenhagen; from the latter only small quantities come; birch wood, sawn and split for fuel, is introduced for private use, not for the general market; and there is no charcoal at Reykjavik, although birch “braise” is found inland. The cereals, whose consumption ranges from twenty-four to thirty bushels a head, are wheat and rye, in grain, flour, and biscuit; baking-ovens are found only at the capital. The rice is more often cheap “Rangoon,” than fine “Carolina;” the people, who are fond of rice-milk, do not appear to know the difference, and the import quintupled between 1864-70. The spices are chiefly cinnamon, generally mixed with black pepper; pepper,[259] cloves, and nutmegs. Coffee,[260] whose consumption is 6·7 pounds per head, is chiefly the Brazilian growth; tea is very rare, and a little chocolate is brought from Copenhagen. In hard times, for instance after 1855, the consumption of these luxuries notably falls off. The tobaccos are usually the common Danish article; foreign growths are represented by twist, for chewing as well as smoking; by shag, bird’s-eye, and some specimens of the thousand mixtures which have become so popular of late. As may be expected, the cigars are dear and bad; the best, or at least the most expensive, are the Hamburg “Havannahs,” which are pretentiously wrapped up in a plaintain-leaf, veritable “cabbage.” Perhaps the favourite form is snuff (= about $3 per pound), which is loved by males of all classes and ages. There are few men who “take nothing between their fingers;” the consumption of this Tupi article is about two pounds per head of males.[261]

The list of wet goods in a general store is extensive, including port and sherry, claret and champagne, rum and cognac, with liqueurs like cherry-brandy. These are mostly dear and bad; the beer imported for tavern use, and the Brennivín, Kornschnapps, or rye-spirits, are too cheap to be adulterated, except for the peasantry. Not a few country merchants can sell per annum of this liquor twenty barrels, each containing thirty gallons. The Althing imposed an import tax, to come into force on July 1, 1872, of $0, 0m. 8sk. (about 2½d.) per pot or quart, upon every bottle of wine and spirits, beer only being excepted.[262] But the law unhappily said “drinkable spirits,” and the merchants were able to exempt pure and methylated alcohols from the impost. Consequently “brandies” were made at Reykjavik and at other trading stations, greatly to the detriment of public health as well as of morality, and despite the exertions of sensible men like Dr Hjaltalín, the “Land-physicus.” The duty upon twenty barrels would be $200; it is paid into the Treasury under the charge of the Landfógeti, superintended by the Stiftamtmaðr. The sooner an “Adulterations Act” is passed the better, but in Iceland as elsewhere magna est pecunia et prevalebit. The island is not cursed with a Manchester school and its moral mildew, but commercial interests are amply sufficient for more than self-protection.

It may be useful to compare the prices in 1810 by Stephensen (History of Iceland), with those of 1872, on the western and eastern coasts:

Details of imports for 1865, occupying nearly a page and a half, will be found in the Consular Report of that year; the total importations represented £21,468. The kind, weight, and value of the primary items are thus tabled in 1870-71: the account applies to the whole island, but only the principal articles are mentioned:

The peculiarity of this table is that while the consumption of colonial goods remains at the usual average, and while rice has nearly quintupled, there has been a decrease in the import of rye, barley, pease, and wheaten bread, a circumstance not easy to account for, with a growing population in an island which produces no cereals.

The collective value of these imports is somewhat over $1,100,000 = £122,222, which is but $100,000 less than the total value of the exports of 1869 ($1,200,000 = £133,333); and, as only the most important items have been mentioned,[268] we may conclude that the two totals almost balance each other. The consumption of brandy, coffee, sugar, and tobacco is alone equal to about $418,000, or one-third of the whole value of the exports.

In 1869, the number of foreign vessels that visited the trading stations was

Of the 149 direct foreign arrivals

We will now enter the establishment, and see the stock-in-trade of a general “merchant.” The usual dwarf entrance-hall, after the outer door is passed, opens upon two rooms to the right and left: one is the public shop, filled at the “fair season” with jostling boors and drunken loafers; the other is the private store, mostly provided with railed pen for the benefit of the clerk and account-keeper. Besides the mainstays of commerce before mentioned, the rooms will contain the following articles: Dry goods, broad cloths and long cloths, woollen comforters, threads, and a few silks and satins. Hardwares of every description; iron for the blacksmith’s use; hoop-iron and bar-iron (no pig), the metal being preferably Swedish, for the best of reasons; a little steel and brass wire, but neither copper nor zinc; farriers’ and carpenters’ tools; cooking utensils; spades and scythes; sewing machines; and fish-hooks, the smaller sort for long lines, the cod-hooks large and of tinned iron. The arms and ammunition, especially old military muskets and muzzle-loaders, are fit only for the Gold Coast: Copenhagen weapons are cheap and good, £2, 5s. being the average price of a breech-loading single-barrelled rifle. Pistols are not seen, and there is a tradition of the barrels being cut for alpenstock rings. Besides cereals, the stores supply sugars, brown, candy, and white, refined at Copenhagen; hams (rare, and no potted meats, so much wanted by travellers); sausages and sardines; butter (foreign sometimes); figs, raisins, prunes, and olive oil. The Quincaillerie consists of pots and pans, boxes, funnels, kettles and watering-pots, lamps and lanterns. The walls are hung with leather for saddles, thongs, straps, and raw hides for shoes. There is an abundance of cheap crockery and glass ware. Paraffin and petroleum have lately come into general fashion; stearine candles are kept mostly for private use, and the peasants make their own farthing dips.

A narrow back passage, often connecting the public and the private shop, will have a ladder leading to the usual cock-loft, scattered with boxes and bales. Here a few skins and birds stuffed for sale, some of them sadly damaged by rats, hang from the beams; and the following are the chief items:

The falcon[269] (F. islandicus, Icel. Fálki, a foreign word, or Veiðifálki); a good white, stuffed specimen costs $10. This bird, so much valued during the Middle Ages, and considered the elder brother of the gerfalcon (F. gyrfalco) or peregrine, was protected by kings and bishops, who claimed the right of exporting it. A royal mews was established at Reykjavik. In 1770, the falconers paid $7 for the grey bird, $10 for the dark-grey, and $15 for the white, which was considered the most beautiful and docile. Many were sent to England as late as the seventeenth century: in 1871, a few birds were bought for the Hindostan market. This falcon is very destructive to ducks, and ranges far, making upwards of 1300 miles per diem.

Whoopers, hoopers, or wild swans (Cycnus ferus, Icel. Álpt or Svanr in poetry, the Fær. Svener), are now, from the rarity of the skins, sold at fancy prices.

The Iceland golden-eye (Clangula islandica, Icel. Húsönd) fetches, according to quality, $0, 5m. to $1, 2m.

The gulls (L. glaucus, Icel. Hvít-máfur or Hvít-fugl) and the great black-backed L. marinus (Svartbakur) are cheap, and good specimens may be bought for $0, 2m.

The great northern diver (Colymbus arcticus seu glacialis, Icel. Himbrimi or Brúsi), if good, costs $1, 4m.; usually it is sold when the coat is changing from winter to summer wear, and is not worth buying.

The red-throated diver (Colymbus ruficollinus seu septentrionalis, Icel. Lómr or Therrikráka) is worth $1, 2m. when in good condition, with red around the throat and about the breast.

The other skins are the whimbrel or curlew-knot (Numenius phaeopus, Fær. Spogvi, Icel. Nefvoginn-Spói); the pretty red-headed pochard (Fuligula ferina), extending from the Himalayas to North America, from Italy to Greenland; the beautifully painted harlequin, or stone duck (Histrionicus torquatus seu Anas histrionica, Icel. Straum-önd or stream-duck); the white-breasted and crooked-bill’d goosander (Mergus castor, Icel. Stóratoppönd or Gulönd), so different of robe in male and female; the red-breasted mergander (Mergus serrator, Icel. Lilla Toppönd), whose brick-hued bill, ending in a white horny nail, has various serrations, according to sex; the shag, scarf, or cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo, Carbo cormoranus or Pelicanus carbo, Icel. Skarfur, Toppskarfur, and Dílaskarfur), never taught in Europe to fish; the gannet (Sula bassana or Pelicanus bassanus, Icel. Súla or Hafsúla); the various skuas or Arctic gulls (Stercorarius Icel. Kjói); the Iceland gull (L. leucopterus, Icel. Hvít-máfur), white, with ash-blue back; the guillemot (Uria troile, Icel. Svartlag, Langnefia, or Langvia), whose flesh is eaten, and whose feathers sell for twenty-eight skillings per lb.; the black guillemot (Uria grylle, Icel. Tejsti); the grey-lag goose (Anser ferus); the scaup-duck (Fuligula marila); the black scoter (Oedemia nigra); the long-tail duck (Harelda glacialis); the pin-tail duck (A. acuta); the red-necked phalarope (Icel. Óðin’s-hani, Phalaropus hyperboreus seu tringa borea); the gadwall (A. strepera); the wigeon (A. Penelope); the mallard (A. boschas); the teal (A. crecca).

SECTION IX.

CATALOGUE-RAISONNÉ OF MODERN TRAVELS IN ICELAND—PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVEL.

Iceland has been loudly proclaimed to be the “home of the Eddas,”[270] which is emphatically not the case. The Elder or poetical Edda is distinctly Continental; it abounds in uninsular ideas and similes: the sun-stag, the high-antler’d deer, the wolf,[271] the strong-venom’d snake, the mew-field’s bison or path of ship over the sea, the lily and the pine forest, are poetical imagery, wholly unfamiliar to the untravelled Icelander.

The authentic historical literature of Scandinavia opens about the middle of the ninth century; that of Iceland with its Norwegian discovery, when the copiously and irregularly inflected tongue, the “delight of philologists and the traveller’s despair,” was apparently in its highest form. The learned Bishop of Skálholt (Hist. Eccl. Isl.) assigns four distinct ages to the classical productions of his native island:

I. Infancy: from the first colonisation (A.D. 874), when every man appears to have been a Skáld[272] or bard, ending with the introduction of Christianity in A.D. 1000. The Sturlunga (i. 107) asserts that all the Sagas of that date were committed to writing before the death of Bishop Brandr (A.D. 1201).

II. Youth: when colleges and schools were introduced, ending with A.D. 1110.

III. Manhood and zenith of splendour: from that time till A.D. 1350.

IV. Decline and fall between the mid-fourteenth century and the Reformation.

Thus the Augustan age endured for the unusually long period of some two and a half centuries.

The island, though scantily peopled, enjoyed immense advantages for study. It had taken the first great step in civilisation, SLAVERY, and while carl and thrall tilled the field, Jarl, clerk, and franklin found ample leisure for literature. The long rigorous winters, when neither farming, fishing, fighting, nor seafaring was possible, proved highly favourable for reading, writing, and reciting; and hence the phenomenon that the history of mediæval Iceland is more complete than that of any European country. The extensive piratical wanderings of the race gave, moreover, a cosmopolitan complexion to its compositions. Some modern writers wonder to see such display of literary activity, especially during the last fifty or sixty years of the Commonwealth, when society was convulsed by sanguinary feuds, and when every man slept weaponed. As we often find in history, it was this very turbulence which gave the spur; after the union with Norway, the island became peaceful, and her poets and historians found their occupation going or gone. The noble Icelandic prose, which in terse, picturesque, and crystal-clear expression, vied with Latin, and which equalled Greek in distinctness and combination of words, was no longer written; and between the fifteenth and the mid-sixteenth centuries men of letters contented themselves with transcribing and annotating their classics.

The poetry of the Augustan age was, at first, simple and sufficient as the prose—it reminds us of Firdausi’s Shah-nameh. But presently, as is ever the case with a decaying literature, came the Skáld, whose highest merit was that of calling nothing by the right name, of saying common things in an uncommon or rather in an unintelligible way. Space forbids even an outline of his system, the vast variety of quaint conceits, the abuse of metaphor, of “Kenningar” (circumlocution), of simile, and of allegory, and the prodigious complication of metres, which formed his stock-in-trade; suffice it to say that he used 150 synonyms for an island, fifty for a wave,[273] and a greater number for gold. Thus Rask remarks that with a half-a-hundred terms for a ship there is no word for “benevolence.” The Skáld’s vocabulary added to the copiousness of Arabic, the polysynthesis of Sanskrit; his inversions and transpositions of speech are so complicated, that modern commentators after quoting the lines, mostly number the words or subjoin the construction.

It is interesting to observe the family likeness between the two distant cousins, Persian and Icelandic. Hafiz, for instance, from Alif to Ya, is one long example of Skáldic poetry; he sings the praises of wine when he means, or is understood to mean, heavenly love, and his verse, like that of Ultima Thule, requires for every line a dictionary—not of words, but of the double entendres which lurk under words. Grimm, when pronouncing Icelandic to be the “true source of all the Teutonic languages,” cannot but remark its Oriental turn. It is in fact after the Slav, the purest type of the Indo-European, which has been so modestly called the “Indo-Germanic” family.

The Reformation stirred up the popular mind, and the result, as usual, was a revival of literary energy. But the produce—theology with poetry religious and ethical; history, or rather continuations of the old annals; criticism, exegesis, and grammatical studies—showed decline in matter as well as in manner. The originality, the strong individuality of the old pagan, was succeeded by the mechanical industry of the copier, who had other models to work from. This modern period still continues. The love of letters, inspired by soil and climate, even now characterises the Icelander despite his poverty and isolation. During the last century abundant good work has been done in editing and publishing the classical literature, and some excursions have been made into the regions of science, mechanics, and political economy.

The list given by Uno Von Troil contains the names of 120 works; and the Reports of the Icelandic Literary Society between 1852 and 1871 show, besides its yearly transactions (Skírnir), the titles of fifty-one publications, some old but mostly modern. Bishop Pètursson (Hist. Eccl. 330) gives a list of six folio pages, containing the titles of Libri Biblici, Catechetici, de Evangeliis, Precum, Conciones, et alii piis usibus Libri. It is interesting, again, to compare this hyperborean literature with that of the little Istrian peninsula. The latter, despite such drawbacks as poverty and political excitement, and the torments of plagues, droughts, famines, invasions, and intestine strife, can point to a roll numbering about 3000 names:[274] England herself is hardly richer in local literature.

Amongst the subjects which Icelandic has treated, we may number proverbs, the “marrow of the language.” The first collection (Orðskviðasafn) was made by Guðmundur Jónsson, and printed in octavo by the Literary Society (Report of 1872). The Cleasby-Vigfusson Dictionary also contains a considerable number which deserve separate publication, for the benefit of those who appreciate this highly ethnological form of literature. Even the Færoe Islands possess their répertoire (Description, etc., by the Rev. J. Lundt: London, Longmans, 1810), and some of them are naïve in the extreme. For instance, “Calumny never dies,” and “Seldom are pigeons hatched from a raven’s egg.” Some five years ago Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín translated into English a collection of Icelandic proverbs, adding to it those of the late Dr Scheving. His plan was: (1.) to give the text; (2.) a literal translation; and (3.) a common translation, e.g.:

Thus the Advocates’ Library has the largest and the most complete collection of Icelandic proverbs ever made, whilst, mirabile dictu, it is in MS., being unable to find a publisher.

Finally, the days are past since Sir Joseph Banks could collect the three hundred rare and valuable MSS. which were deposited in the British Museum. At present not a single article of literary worth is to be bought on the island.[275]

We will now proceed to Icelandic travellers, and more especially to the English travellers of the present century.[276]

1. Mr (afterwards Sir) William Jackson Hooker, F.R.S., L.S., and F. Wern. Soc. Edin., produced his “Journal of a Tour in Iceland in the Summer of 1809,” 2 vols. 8vo, London, Longmans and Murray, 1811. 2d edition, 1813. The author had lost his notes with the ship which carried him, and wrote much from memory, hence the extreme cacography of the Icelandic words. Henderson (ii. 136, note) finds the work “intolerably free-thinking”—times have changed. The botanical notes are valuable, and the volumes will, despite all their disadvantages, take rank as “classics.”

2. Sir George Steuart Mackenzie, Bart., President of the Physical Class of the Royal Society, etc., published his “Travels in the Island of Iceland during the Summer of the year 1810,” Constable, Edinburgh, 4to; and the book reached a second edition in 1812. He took charge of the geological and mineralogical departments, whilst Dr (the late Sir Henry) Holland and Dr Bright (of Bright’s disease) studied the history and literature, the zoology and botany. The illustrations and statistical tables are highly valuable; and although the Geysir theory is now utterly obsolete, literary Icelanders still consider the volume an authority upon scientific matters.

3. “Iceland, or the Journal of a Residence in that Island during the years 1814 and 1815.” By Ebenezer Henderson, Ph.D., M.R.S. Gottenburgh, Hon. M. Lit. Soc. of Fuhnen, and Corr. M. Scan. Lit. Soc. of Copenhagen. 1st edition, 2 vols. 8vo, Oliphant, Edinburgh, 1818. 2d edition, 1819. A notice of his book will conclude this Section.

4. “Statistisk Udsigt over den danske Stat i Begyndelsen af Aaret, 1825, af Frederik Thaarup, Etatsraad,” 8vo, Kjöbenhavn, 1825, with Atlas. Valuable for tables of figures.

5. F. Paully. “Topographie von Dänmark einschliesslich Islands,” etc., Altona, 1828.

6. Björnus Gunnlaugi, filius. “De Mensurâ et Delineatione Islandiæ interioris,” etc. In Monasterio Videyensi, 1834.

7. John Barrow, jun. “A Visit to Iceland” (in 1834), published in 1835: the volumes are highly useful, as affording an excellent comparison of the past with the present.

8. The Hon. Arthur Dillon published “A Winter (1834) in Iceland and Lapland.” 2 vols. Colburn, London, 1840. The season happened to be especially rigorous, of course preventing long travels into the interior: the studies of agriculture and fisheries have especial interest. Mr Dillon has visited Iceland more than once.

9. “Lettres sur l’Islande,” par N. Marmier, 8vo, Paris, 1837.[277]

10. “Voyage en Islande et au Groenlande, exécuté pendant les années 1855 et 1856 sur la Corvette ‘La Recherche,’ commandée par M. Tréhouart, Lieutenant de Vaisseau dans le but de découvrir les traces de la Lilloise. Publié par ordre du Roi, sous la direction de M. Paul Gaimard, Président de la Commission Scientifique d’Islande et de Groënland.” 8 vols. 8vo.

This expedition was determined upon in the year 1835, and was followed by another in 1836. The government of Louis Philippe, claiming to be in the van of civilisation, resolved to give the voyage a scientific aspect, and to publish it regardless of expense—the cost is about £21. It is admirably got up, with every luxe of printing; there is Gallic discipline in the strict editorial control; and each contributor is allowed full advantage of space and illustrations—what a contrast to the shabby article which ultra-economical England would have produced! But, though semi-official, it is an immense mass of undigested information, greatly varying in value; and the President, who had accompanied Captain Freycinet in the circumnavigating frigate “Uranie,” is not generally over-appreciated in Iceland. His illustrations are so exaggerated as to be simply ridiculous, and unfortunately they have been transferred to the pages of succeeding authors. Thus Dufferin borrows the two Needles off Snæfell and the Icelandic girl, and Paijkull takes Hekla, whilst the cave of Surtshellir and the domestic interior are reproduced by Forbes, who gives additional horrors to the Bruará.

11. “Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ ab anno 1740 ad annum 1840,” auctore P. Pètursson. Havniæ: Bianco Luno, 1841. A continuation of the learned Hannes Finsson’s well-known book, written in Danish and Latin by the present Bishop of Iceland.

12. Lieutenant-Colonel North Ludlow Beamish, “Discovery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere” (1841).

13. Vol. 28 of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library. Edinburgh, 1840. A compilation.

14. “Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island mit besondere Rücksicht auf Vulcanische Erscheinungen.” Von W. Sartorius von Waltershausen. Göttingen Studien, 1847. Erste Abtheilung Seiten 321-460, Göttingen, 1847. The author visited the island in 1846; his scientific reputation attracts readers, but he writes with a prodigious exaggeration on general subjects, and especially on scenery.

Amongst books of Icelandic travel, again, we cannot include the “Letters of Columbus,” edited by Mr R. H. Major, Hakluyt Society, 1847, and recording the remarkable visit of the explorer in A.D. 1477 to the country which in mediæval times discovered the New World. The fact had already been established by Finn Magnússon in his “Nordisk Tidsskrift for Old-Kyndighed.” This was followed by the even more interesting “Voyages of the Venetian brothers Nicolò and Antonio Zeno to the Northern Seas in the Fourteenth Century” (written out by Antonio Zeno, and first edited in 1558 by their descendant Nicolò Zeno, junior. Mr Major has identified “Frislanda” with Færöisland of the Danes; “Estlanda” on the map, and “Estlanda,” “Eslanda,” and “Islande” in the text, with the Shetlands; “Porlanda” with the Orkneys; “Engronelanda” with Greenland; “Estotilanda” and “Drogeo” with parts of North America; and the mysterious “Zichmni” with Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and Caithness. He has also “rehabilitated” Ivar Bardsen and the lost Gunnbjarnarsker, the Skerries of Gunnbjörn, son of Ulf Kraka, who reached them in A.D. 877.

15. Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen of Heidelberg (nat. 1811) visited Iceland with M. Descloiseaux in 1846, spent eleven days at the Geysir, and published two papers: (1.) Memoir on the intimate connection existing between the pseudo-volcanic phenomena of Iceland (works of the Cavendish Society, “Chemical Reports and Memoirs, edited by Thomas Graham, V.P.R.S., London, Harrison, 1848); and (2.) On the processes which have taken place during the formation of the volcanic rocks of Iceland (from Poggendorff’s “Annalen,” part i., Nov. 1851, “Scientific Memoirs, selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science, and from Foreign Journals,” London, Taylor & Francis). The great chemist’s article on Palagonite in the “Annalen der Chimie und Pharmacie” (vol. lxi.) won for him the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London; and his studies on Iceland are the basis of modern scientific knowledge. It is to be regretted that his two admirable papers are buried in bad translation amongst the voluminous transactions of obscure societies, and their reproduction in a popular form would be a boon to travellers not only in the island, but also throughout the volcanic world. Mr B. Quaritch kindly allowed the author to make manuscript copies of these two articles: they have afforded material to the able lecture “On some of the Eruptive Phenomena of Iceland,” by Dr John Tyndall, F.R.S. (Royal Institution of Great Britain, June 3, 1853).

16. P. A. Schleisner. “Island undersögt fra et lægevidenskabeligt Synspunkt,” Copenhagen, 1849. The author, an employé of the Danish Government, resided some time on the island, and made useful physiological observations—one of them has before been alluded to.

17. Madame Ida Pfeiffer (“Reise nach dem skand Norden,” 1845), after travelling in Syria and “the East,” visited Iceland in 1844, hoping “there to find Nature in a garb such as she wears nowhere else.” She laughs at the “dreadful dizzy abysses;” but the “dignified coldness” of the popular manners and the selfishness, only too apparent to an undistinguished foreigner, made her write what Mr Pliny Miles ungallantly calls a snarling, ill-tempered journal. The American traveller, also, is too severe when he says, “Where she does not knowingly tell direct falsehoods, the guesses she makes about those regions that she does not visit—while stating that she does[279]—show her to be bad at guess-work.” Her translated volume, “A Visit to Iceland,” etc. (London, Ingram, 1854) has been analysed in the “Cyclopædia of Modern Travel” (Bayard Taylor, 1856).

18. “Bidrag til Islands geognostiske Fremstilling efter Optegnelser fra Sommeren, 1850´´ (Contribution to the Geognosy of Iceland, from Observations made in the Summer of 1850), by Theodor Kjerulf. Published in the “Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne,” vol. vii., part 1, Christiania, 1853 (New Magazine of the Natural Sciences, which records the transactions of the Physiographical Society of Christiania), an excellent equivalent of our “Annals of Natural History.” The author differs from Von Waltershausen and Bunsen upon the genesis of Iceland (Dr W. Lauder Lindsay).

19. “Norðurfari, or Rambles in Iceland,” by Pliny Miles, 12mo, New York, 1854. The author was the first American tourist who visited the island (1852), and he attempts little more than an entertaining narrative of his adventures. There is a fair amount of “spread eagle,” and the tone is “England for ever, and America one day longer.” An officer nearly cuts a shark in two with a sword. The whales can be heard from one to two miles off, and spout every one or five minutes, throwing up water from thirty to fifty feet—they must blow like himself!

20. “Tracings of Iceland and the Färoe Islands,” by Robert Chambers, London, 1856. The author visited the island in 1855, voyaging on board the Danish cruiser “Thór,” the first steamer—before his time the dangers of the northern seas were faced by sailing craft. The little book was translated into Danish, but the islanders affect to despise it.

21. “Voyage dans les Mers du Nord à bord de la corvette ‘La Reine Hortense,’” par M. Charles Edmund. Paris: Levy, 1857. The author describes Prince Napoleon’s tour in a volume which has all the characteristic merits and faults of the average French traveller. In the following pages it will be called the “Napoleon book.”

22. Messrs Wolley and Newton confined themselves, with an especial object in view, to one particular parish in the southwestern corner of Iceland. An “Abstract of (the late) Mr J. Wolley’s Researches in Iceland, 1847, 1851, and 1852, respecting the Gare Fowl, or Great Auk;” by Alfred Newton, M.A., F.L.S., appeared in the “Ibis” of October 1861. The author’s name is sufficient warrant for the value of this excellent paper. In Baring-Gould (Appendix, p. 400), Mr Newton quotes numerous works upon the avi-fauna of Iceland.

23. “Letters from High Latitudes,” by Lord Dufferin, London, 1858. The amiable author visited the island at the same time as Prince Napoleon, and proposed to cross the unknown tract between Hekla and the north-eastern coast; unfortunately the yacht “Foam” was carried away by the attractions of Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen. The adoption of a quasi-dramatic form has caused the book to be pronounced “most entertaining and perhaps a little extravagant;” it is written in the best of humours and in the most genial style, but it has failed to please the islanders who do not understand plaisanterie.

24. J. Dayman. “Deep Sea Soundings between Iceland and Newfoundland,” etc. (1858).

25. “A Hand-book for Travellers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland,” with maps and plans. London: John Murray, 1858, and republished in 1871. The island is dismissed in barely three pages, which contain a vast variety of errors; for instance, the population is preserved at 60,000; we are taught to write “Almannia Gja;” and we are told that Henderson wrote before 1825—connu! The recondite blunders may almost compare with the four pages on Istria in the “Handbook for South Germany.” Happily for the traveller, Baedecker’s excellent series is speedily consigning the cumbrous and tedious “Murrays” to well-merited oblivion.

26. J. Hogg. “On the History of Iceland” (1859).

27. D. Streye. “Beskrivelse over den ø Islandia,” etc. Kjöbenhavn, 1859.

28. G. Thomsen. “The Northmen in Iceland,” etc. (1859).

29. “Iceland: its Volcanoes, Geysers, and Glaciers.” By Charles S. Forbes, Commander Royal Navy (Murray, London, 1860). The volume was kindly lent to the author by Captain Bedford Pim, M.P.; and its merit has been acknowledged by the general regret that there is not “more of it.”

30. C. Irminger. “Strömninger og Isdrift ved Island.” Kjöbenhavn, 1861.

31. “Reise nach Island im Sommer 1860.” Mit wissenschaftlichen. Abhängen von William Preyer und Dr Ferdinand Zirkel. 8vo, Leipzig, 1862. The statistical part is exceedingly valuable. The work also contains the most complete notice of the birds that has been published after the “Prodromus der isländischen Ornithologie,” by Friedrich Faber, better known as “Fugl Faber;” but it is judged that “the writer has not shown sufficient discrimination in its compilation.”

32. “A Tour in Iceland in the Summer of 1861.” By Edward Thurstan Holland, A.M. Chap. i., vol. i., 2d series: “Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers; being Excursions by Members of the Alpine Club.” Edited by Edward Shirley Kennedy, M.A., F.R.G.S. London, 1862. The author attempted in 1861 to ascend the southern side of the Öræfa Jökull, but the mists prevented his enjoying the good fortune of Swend Paulsson and of Henderson.

33. “The Oxonian in Iceland; or Notes of Travel in that Island in the Summer of 1860.” By Rev. Frederick Metcalfe, A.M. 12mo, Hotten, London, 1861. This traveller crossed a bit of new country north-east of the Sprengisandur, and thus deviated from the common line. He has preserved the traditional exaggeration which characterises Icelandic travellers, and the dangers which he faces on Mount Hekla must have been simply a dream. His map, purporting to be reduced from Olsen’s, is peculiarly bad.

34. W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S. “On the Flora of Iceland,” New Philosophical Journal; and “On the Eruption, in May 1860, of the Kötlu-gjá Volcano, Iceland.” Neill & Co., Edinburgh, 1861—valuable papers which should accompany the traveller. They were kindly lent to the author by Mr William Longman.

35. G. G. Winkler. “Island seine Bewohner,” etc. Bravansch, 1861.

36. M. Barbatier de Mas. “Instructions nautiques sur les Côtes d’Islande.” Paris, 1862.

37. A. J. Symington. “Pen and Pencil Sketches of Färoe and Iceland.” Longmans, London, 1862. Unpretending.

38. “Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas,” by Sabine Baring-Gould, M.A. London: Smith & Elder, 1863. This handsome volume of 447 pages is written with an object, to illustrate the Sagas and to represent their Mise en Scène. The author sees the Icelander as he is; the topography is that of a geographical traveller; and the book contains an immense amount of useful information. Taking the realistic view, this excellent work is not a favourite in Iceland; my only complaint is that it lacks an index.

39. C. Irminger. “Notice sur les Pêches, etc., de l’Islande.” Paris, 1863.

40. Carl Vogt. “Nordenfahrt von Dr Berna” (1863).

41. “Notes on a Trip to Iceland in 1862.” By Alexander Bryson. Edinburgh: Grant, 1864. The object of the livret (56 pages) was to gauge and to determine the heat of the Geysir tube, by means of deversing thermometers; and the author has sensibly questioned the “central-heat” theory.

42. M. Thoyon. “Renseignements sur quelques Mouillages sur la Côte d’Islande.” Paris, 1865.

43. “Travels by ‘Umbra’” (Clifford). Edmonstone & Douglas, Edinburgh, 1865. The author, by ascending the Jökull of Eyrikr, that northern Cacus, reached eternal winter’s drear domain. He justly derides the horrors and terrors of Búlandshöfði.

44. “The North-Western Peninsula of Iceland,” by C. W. Shepheard. London: Longmans, 1867. This was the author’s second excursion, and he ascended the Dránga Jökull in the north, where the mountains are lower and accessible.[280]

45. W. C. Paijkull. “Bidrag till Kännedomen om Islands Bergsbyggnad.” Stockholm, 1867. Translated by the Rev. M. R. Barnard, M.A. London: Chapman & Hall, 1868. The author, now dead, was a Swede, and professed geology at the University of Upsala; he travelled in 1865, and unfortunately neglected to supply his volume with an index and a decent map. Its merits are much debated, and, as a rule, its tone is greatly disliked by the islanders. An excellent authority, Dr Hjaltalín of Reykjavik, who has published several important studies of his native land,[281] considers it of scant value; on the other hand, Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín recommends it for its moderation to English travellers.

46. H. Mohn of the Institut Météorologique de Norvège. “Temperature de la Mer entre l’Islande et l’Ecosse.” Christiania, 1870.

47. “A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland.” Compiled by Benjamin Mills Peirce, U.S. State Department, Washington Government Printing Office. The author was charged by Mr Secretary Seward to inspect the sulphur mines, 1868. He personally visited the island and produced a useful paper, collating the accounts and the figures published by his predecessors; but, like such compilations generally, it abounds in errors, and it makes scanty attempt to discriminate the various value of the information which it gleans.

48. “Six Weeks in the Saddle: a Painter’s Journal in Iceland.” By S. G. Waller. London: Macmillan, 1874. An unpretending volume which has held its ground at Mudie’s, and which carefully avoids disputed points and exaggerated statements. The illustrations are very poor compared with the charming studies of scenery and animals made by the author, and it wants index and map, without which the home-reader will hardly follow the line over the now rarely visited southern shore.

49. The Alpine Journal, No. 45 (Longmans, London, 1874), contains “Interesting Notes on Mountain Climbing in Iceland,” by Dr James Bryce, who also during the same year published his “Impressions of Iceland” in the Cornhill Magazine. He justly remarks that the difficulty is not so much to climb the peaks as to traverse the inhospitable desert separating them from the inhabited parts.

Mr S. Baring-Gould (Intr., pp. xxxiv., xxxv.) gives a catalogue of the fifteen books and manuscripts usually found amongst the priests and farmers; and in Appendix D. a list of Icelandic published Sagas (thirty-five), local histories (sixty-six), annals of bishops (twelve), annals of Norway, etc. (sixty-nine), and romances translated into Icelandic (nineteen), a total of 201; besides law-books, Bible stories, and tracts on poetry, geography, astronomy, etc. The various editions of the Bible and of the Testament, as well as the newspaper press, will be noticed in future pages.

Miscellaneous general information concerning Iceland is found in the following works: The Foreign Quarterly Review (vol. ix., Jan.-May 1832) contains an excellent paper on the “Literature and Literary Societies of Iceland.” The “Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord” are a mine of information to the student. Mrs Somerville’s “Physical Geography.” The “Progress of the Nation,” by G. R. Porter, Esq., F.R.S. (“Institute of Natural Science,” Paris correspondence. London, 1851). “Meddelelser fra det statistiske Bureau,” vols. i.-vi. Kjöbenhavn, 1852-1861. In the fourth volume of the “Description of the Coast of Iceland” (“Fierde Hefte af Beskrivelsen over den islandske Kyst”) by P. de Löwenörn, is a paper which was strongly recommended for translation to the author of these pages by Captain Tvede of Djúpivogr. The various numbers of the “Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes,” etc. Herschel’s “Physical Geography,” 2d edition, Edinburgh, 1862. Lippencott’s “Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary of the World,” 8vo, Philadelphia, 1866. Chambers’ and other Cyclopædias. Bayard Taylor’s “Cyclopædia of Modern Travel,” New York, 1856. “Cyclopædia Britannica,” vol. xii., 1856. Knight’s “English Encyclopædia” (pp. 1333-1345) of 1873, has printed an admirably condensed paper on Icelandic language and literature, by Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín.[282]

As the “marking book” of the last century was M. Mallet’s “Antiquities,” so there are three which distinguish the present age. The late Mr Benjamin Thorpe’s “Edda of Sæmund the Learned”[283] (London: Trübner, 1866) is a text-book of Scandinavian mythology delighting Icelanders by the literal rendering of their classical poem; it must be familiar to the student before he can attack the difficulties of Skjáldic song. The second is the “Story of Burnt Njal,” etc., by George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. (2 vols., Edmonstone & Douglas, Edinburgh, 1861). The introduction is the work of a scholar; the translation rivals Lane’s “Arabian Nights,” in fidelity, picturesqueness, and, withal, sound old English style, and the maps and plans well illustrate the topography. It has sent one, it will send many an English tourist to gaze upon the Lithe-end; and it will serve as an example how such books should be treated. But the magnum opus of the day, the greatest boon to students yet known, is the “Icelandic-English Dictionary” (3 vols. fol., Macmillan & Co., 1869, 1870, and 1874).[284] Based upon the MS. notes of the late Richard Cleasby, under whose name, as is his due, it is referred to in these pages, the work was enlarged and completed by the first of Icelandic philologers, Mr Guðbrand Vigfússon, M.A., formerly one of the stipendiaries of the Arna-Magnæan Library at Copenhagen. The herculean task has been completed after the patient toil of nine years (1864-1873), and all credit is due to the delegates of the Clarendon Press, who “generously fostered this Icelandic Dictionary and made it a child of their famous university.” The introduction, by Mr Dasent, awards high praise to the work, but nothing that he can say is too high.

Iceland is not in want of maps; almost every traveller has contributed his own, and hence the atlases have borrowed a variety of blunders. The most interesting of the older sort are those of Hendries (Jodocuf, A.D. 1563-1611), which shows a curious acquaintance with certain fodinæ sulphureæ; and of Pontanus (A.D. 1631) Auctore Giorgio Carolo Flandre. The latter displays Hekla, the towering cone of our childish fancies, vomiting a huge bouquet of smoke, while it ignores all other volcanoes. The islands are especially incorrect: the “Westmanna seu Pistilia (for Papyli?) Eijar,” fronted on the main by “Corvi Albi,”[285] are out of form and measure; the archipelago called I. Gouberman (Gunnbjörn Skerries?) off the north-western coast, does not exist; and Grimsey has dimensions which are strange to it. As in all of them; the north is placed too high; the Arctic circle traverses nearly the centre of the island, the furthest septentrional point being N. lat. 68° 15´. The eastern shore is also laid down too far west (E. long. Ferro, 10°): hence, as Barrow shows, Arrowsmith’s map of 1808 was sixty-seven miles wrong in the longitude. Henderson supplies Krísuvík with a non-existing inlet upon which foreigners have counted for embarking their sulphur, and reduces the vast Mýrdals Jökull to the Kötlu-gjá fissure.