72 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



two hundred and fifty years, resulting in the death 

 of old traditions and the birth of mediaeval poetry 

 in their place. In 1420 Iceland passed through what 

 is known as the Dark Age. She became isolated 

 from Norway and the continents, and only English 

 trade was carried on. The third period commenced 

 with the Reformation. Another subsequent Dan- 

 ish monopoly began in 1530, and after the Renais- 

 sance the country experienced a frightful series of 

 disasters, which lasted from 1640 to 1783. 



First came the attacks of pirates from the south, 

 though what loot they expected to get in those 

 northern barrens nobody seems to know. In suc- 

 cession several vessels came all the way from Al- 

 geria to kill, to ravage, and to burn, and committed 

 wholesale destruction along the southern coasts and 

 on the Westmann Islands. This scourge was im- 

 mediately followed by the introduction of smallpox, 

 then raging in the Courts of Europe (1707), and one- 

 third of the total population died in consequence. 

 After this, in 1759, came a great famine, in which no 

 less than 10,000 people died of starvation, and, to 

 make matters worse, a plague appeared amongst 

 the sheep in 1762. The Great Eruption of the 

 whole of the volcanoes took place in 1783, and 

 destroyed a considerable portion of the country, 

 and the land only seems to have taken a turn for 

 the better when travellers made the island better 

 known in 1800. 



Since the beginning of the last century Iceland 

 may be said to have entered on its fourth phase — 

 a period of increasing prosperity. Many Icelandic 

 scholars have travelled abroad, and the wealth 

 and general condition of the people has materially 



