ICELAND: ITS HISTORY AND INHABITANTS. 287 



Dicuil thinks this island is Pytheas's Thiile, and this seems to have 

 been the name given to the island when it was discovered by the Celts, 

 We may. then, take it for certain that Iceland was called Thule by its 

 earliest inhabitants. 



The Norwegian heathen settlers who followed in the latter half 

 of the ninth century found books, bells, and croziers left behind by 

 the monks who fled from the island at the approach of the vikings; 

 but these and a few place names, such as Papey, Papyli, Papos, are 

 the only traces left of these early settlers. They were called " Papar " 

 by the vikings. 



It is doubtful whether Naddo6 or Gardar was the first Scandi- 

 navian discoverer of Iceland, about A. D. 860. Raven-Floki, who 

 let loose three ravens in mid-ocean and sailed in the direction in 

 which they flew, was the next to go there, and called it Iceland, 

 because from a mountain top in nortliAvest Iceland he saAV a fiord 

 full of drift ice. The first Norwegian settler in Iceland was Ingolf 

 Arnarson, a chieftain, in A. D. 87-t. "When in sight of land he threw 

 the pillars of his own high seat overboard and settled where they 

 came ashore, on the advice of his gods, as he believed. When, after 

 the battle of Hafursfiord, 872, Harold Fairhair became undisputed 

 King of all Norway and subjected the free chieftains and noblemen of 

 the country to taxation, they preferred to emigrate. For sixty years 

 the men of the best blood in NorAvay flocked to Iceland. Each chief- 

 tain took with him earth from below his temple altar in the mother- 

 land, built a new temple in the new country, and took possession of 

 land by going round it Avith a burning brand in his hand. He depos- 

 ited on the altar the holy gold ring which he Avas to Avear at all cere- 

 monies. Until a Parliament for Iceland Avas established in !>?>0 these 

 chieftains Avere the rulers of the island, each in his district or land- 

 take (land-nam), as it Avas called. 



PERIODS or ICELANDIC HISTORY. 



I. The Commonwealth, A. D. 8T0-12fU. The Eddas. The 



Sagas. 

 II. The NorAvegian time, A. D. 1264-1400. Copyists and 

 annalists. 

 III. The English period, English influence being paramount, 



A. D. 1413-1520. 

 IV. The Reformation, the sixteenth century. 



V. The Renaissance, the scA^enteenth century. 

 YI. The Stagnation, the eighteenth century. 

 VII. The Independence Movement and its victory, 1830-1905. 



Few Englishmen are aware that there is a British colony in the 

 Atlantic Avhich has never oAved allegiance to the British Empire, 



