VII.] ALMANNA GJA. 63 



gentleman, — with whom were the gods angry when these 

 rocks were melted ? " — pointing to the devastated plain 

 around him. Taking advantage of so good a hit, the 

 Treasury "whips" immediately called for a division; and 

 the Christian religion was adopted by a large majority. 



The first Christian missionaries who came to Iceland seem 

 to have had a rather peculiar manner of enforcing the truths 

 of the Gospel. Their leader was a person of the name of 

 Thangbrand. Like the Protestant clergymen Queen Eliza- 

 beth despatched to convert Ireland, he was bundled over to 

 Iceland principally because he w r as too disreputable to be 

 allowed to live in Norway. The old Chronicler gives a very 

 quaint description of him. " Thangbrand," he says, " was 

 a passionate, ungovernable person, and a great man-slayer; 

 but a good scholar, and clever. Thorvald, and Veterlid the 

 Scald, composed a lampoon against him; but he killed them 

 both outright. Thangbrand was two years in Iceland, and 

 was the death of three men before he left it." 



From the Althing we strolled over to the Almanna Gja, 

 visiting the Pool of Execution on our way. As I have already 

 mentioned, a river from the plateau above leaps over the 

 precipice into the bottom of the Gja, and flows for a certain 

 distance between its walls. At the foot of the fall the waters 

 linger for a moment in a dark, deep, brimming pool, hemmed 

 in by a circle of ruined rocks ; to this pool, in ancient times, 

 all women convicted of capital crimes were immediately 

 taken, and drowned. Witchcraft seems to have been the 

 principal weakness of ladies in those days, throughout the 

 Scandinavian countries. For a long period no disgrace was 

 attached to its profession. Odin himself, we are expressly 

 told, was a great adept, and always found himself very much 

 exhausted at the end of his performance ; which leads me to 

 think that perhaps he dabbled in electro-biology. At last 

 the advent of Christianity threw discredit on the practice ; 

 severe punishments were denounced against all who indulged 

 in it ; and, in the end, its mysteries became the monopoly of 

 the Laplanders. 



