THE TRUE STATE OF ICELAND 



A.D. 



1593- 



A BRIEFE COMMENTARIE 



of Island : wherin the errors of such as have 



written concerning this Island, are detected, 



and the slanders, and reproches of cer- 



taine strangers, which they have used 



over-boldly against the people of 



Island are confuted. 



By Arngrimus Jonas, of Island. 



To the most mighty Prince and Lord, Lord Christian 

 the 4. of Denmarke, Norway, and of the Vandals 

 and Gothes, King elect : of Sleswic, Holste, Stormar, 

 and Dithmarse Duke : Earle of Oldenburg, and Del- 

 menhorst : His most gratious Lord. 



Hat heroical attempt of Anchurus, sonne 

 of King Midas (most gratious prince) 

 and that pietie towards his countrey in 

 maner peerelesse, deserveth highly to be 

 renowmed in histories : in that freely and 

 couragiously he offered his owne person, 

 for the stopping up of an huge gulfe of 

 earth, about Celcena, a towne in Phrigia, which dayly 

 swallowed multitudes of men, and whatsoever else came 

 neere unto it. For when his father Midas was adver- 

 tised by the Oracle, that the said gulfe should not be 

 shut up, before things most precious were cast into it : 

 Anchurus deeming nothing to be more invaluable then 

 life, plunged himselfe alive downe headlong into that 

 bottomeles hole ; and that with so great vehemencie of 

 mind, that neither by his fathers request nor by the 

 allurements and teares of his most amiable wife, he 

 suffered himselfe to be drawne backe from this his 

 enterprise. 



Sperthius also and Bulis, two Lacedemonians, were 

 not much inferiour to the former, who to turne away 

 the revenge of Xerxes that most puissant King of the 



