562 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 137. 



cap. ii. p. 221. et seq.; also the Life of St. Patrick 

 by Harris in Lis edition of Ware's Bishops of 

 Ireland; and Dr. Lanigan's Ecclesiastical History 

 of Ireland. 



Ledwich was entirely unacquainted with the 

 sources of Irish history, and is no authority. T. 



Trin. Coll. Dublin. 



NASHE S " TERRORS OF THE NIGHT. 



(Vol. v., p. 467.) 



Mk. Eastwood's quotation from Nash e's Terrors 

 of the Night regarding the use of ale for the 

 sacrament in Iceland, may have some light thrown 

 upon it by the following passages from the Ice- 

 landic sages and the learned editors of the Historic 

 Memorials of Greenland. We doubt if Nashe was 

 correct in saying that ale was granted for that 

 purpose by the Pope in preference to wine, on 

 account of the "incessant frosts there;" for, in 

 truth, the Icelanders of the present day, as well 

 as in former times, have no difficulty in protecting 

 liquids much more congealable, such as milk, 

 from the winter's frost. The abundance of warm 

 springs, and the volcanic fires throughout the 

 island, render the temperature of the inhabited 

 districts of Iceland much warmer in winter than 

 would be supposed from its high northern lati- 

 tude. The word "red emayle" no doubt means 

 " red enamel," an apt simile enough, and well 

 understood in the writer's days. We do not find 

 any mention of "ale" (" ol") being ever used in 

 Iceland for the celebration of the eucharist ; but a 

 wine seems to have been prepared from the Crow- 

 berry {Empetrum nigrum), as is shown by the 

 following extract from Bishop Paul's Saga, a 

 nearly cotemporary history; for the Saga in 

 question is believed to have been written by 

 Bishop Magnus Gissurson (1215 — 1237), who 

 succeeded Bishop Paul in the see of Skalholt : — 



" In Bishop Paul's days came Bishop John from 

 Greenland to Iceland, and remained during the winter 

 in the eastern fiords ; but afterwards he journeyed late 

 in Lent (langafusfu, long fast time) to Skafholt to 

 meet Bishop Paul, and he came there on Maunday 

 Thursday (Skirdegi-Skjartorsdag), and these two 

 bishops consecrated a large store of Chrism, and had 

 besides many confidential and learned conversations. 

 Bishop John taught the people to prepare wine from 

 the crowberry (kraekiberium), as he himself had been 

 instructed by King Sverrer. But it so happened 

 that the next summer few berries grew in Iceland ; 

 but a man called Erick, who lived on a farm called 

 Snorrastade, near Skalholt, prepared a small quantity 

 of the wine from these berries, which succeeded well 

 that summer." — Pp. 186, 187. 



We confess that we are much inclined to agree 

 with the learned Eggert Olafsen's doubts as to 

 the practicability of manufacturing a wine, to suit 



at least our palates, from the acrid fruit of the 

 Empetrum nigrum. It is said that Boerhaave 

 gives a receipt for this purpose, and we have 

 accordingly found it in his forty-second Process of 

 the Elementa Chemiee, but this relates to tlie ge- 

 neral mode of producing wine from fruits; and 

 Olafsen (p. 172. vol. i.) tried' it in vain with the 

 crowberry when in Iceland in 1753. Still a species 

 of subacid drink, such as still prepared from this 

 fruit by the Icelanders, may have been dignified 

 in olden timeswith the name of wine; but Olafsen 

 was certainly in error when he stated that Bishop 

 Paul brought over to Iceland, according to tra- 

 dition, a native of the Canary Isles, to teach the 

 art. The Canary Isles were not then (a.d. 1203) 

 known to Europe. 



About the year 1186 King Sverrer forbade the 

 importation of wine into Bergen by the German 

 traders, on account of the scenes of drunkenness 

 and riot that ensued therefrom ; and he is said to 

 have turned his attention to the preparing of a 

 home-made wine from the crowberry, as a sub- 

 stitute tor the foreign liquors he had forbidden. 

 The learned editors of the Historic Memorials of 

 Greenland^ in a note on the passage above quoted 

 in Bishop Paul's Saga, remark, that this was 

 probably the kind of wine which is traditionally 

 said to have been used for the sacrament in Ice- 

 land, when the true juice of the grape could not 

 be obtained. Iluidtfeldt, in his Chronicle, posi- 

 tively states that the Northmen in 1250 and 1290 

 sought and obtained permission from the Pope to 

 use mead, "nijod" (mulsum), and other similar 

 liquors, in the celebration of the sacrament, in 

 consequence of the great scarcity of wine in those 

 countries. The editors further state that "within 

 our own times, during the disastrous war with 

 England, it was proposed to employ wine made 

 from bilberries for the same purpose in Iceland." 



The Synod of Roeskilde, according to Pontop- 

 pidan. Annul. Eccles. Dan. ii. 329. and iii. 538., 

 forbids the use of any liquor but pure wine in 

 the sacrament in the following words : — 



" Pastores sunt admoniti ad communionem uti, non 

 musto aut aliis liquoribus illicitis, sed puro vino, juxta 

 institutionem." 



Lastly, in Rymer's Fcexlera, vol. x. p. 762., 

 there is a petition from the Bishop of Skalholt 

 to the English government in 1440, stating the 

 depressed state of the commerce of Iceland at 

 that period, and that no wine, beer, or indeed any 

 liquor except milk and water, was to be found in 

 the country. Such was its wretched condition, 

 that he expresses his fear, unless supplies Avere 

 received from England, divine service, the cele- 

 bration of the communion, and of baptism, would 

 soon cease. 



From this last document it M'ould seem that 

 wine was no longer made in Iceland from the 

 crowberry, and that the fermented juice of the 



