THE TRUE STATE OF ICELAND a.d. 



1592. 

 mountaines, all which the Cosmographer (who hath so 

 extolled and admired these three) should not easily finde 

 out, and reckon up in a whole yere. And that also 

 is not to be omitted, that mount Hecla standeth not 

 towards the West, as Munster and Ziegler have noted, 

 but betweene the South and the East : neither is it an 

 headland, but rather a mid-land hill. 



Continueth alwayes burning &c. whosoever they be 

 that have ascribed unto Hecla perpetuall belching out 

 of flames, they are farre besides the marke : insomuch 

 that as often as it hath bene enflamed, our countreymen 

 have recorded it in their yerely Chronicles for a rare The chronicles 

 accident: namely in the yeeres of Christ 1104, 1157, ^f^^^^^^- 

 1222, 1300, 1341, 1362, and 1389 : For from that 

 yeere we never heard of the burning of this mountaine 

 untill the yeere 1558, which was the last breaking foorth 

 of fire in that mountaine. In the meane time I say not 

 that is impossible, but that the bottome of the hill may 

 inwardly breed and nourish flames, which at certaine 

 seasons (as hath bene heretofore observed) have burst 

 out, and perhaps may do the like hereafter. 



The seventh section. [I. 558.] 



The flame of mount Hecla will not burne towe (which Frisius. 

 is most apt for the wieke of a candle) neither is it ^'^^^«^^^'«^- 

 quenched with water : and by the same force that 

 bullets are discharged out of warlike engines with 

 us, from thence are great stones cast foorth into the 

 aire, by reason of the mixture of colde, and fire, 

 and brimstone. This place is thought of some to be 

 the prison of uncleane soules. Item : Zieglerus. 

 This place is the prison of uncleane soules. 



Will not burne towe. Where these writers should 

 finde such matters, it is not easie to conjecture. 

 For our people are altogether ignorant of them, neither 

 had they ever bene heard of heere among us, if they 

 had not brought them to light. For there is no man 



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