ICELAND. 



643 



,- .,- :. 

 i: Ml .-.""" 



any contention, to which may be referred the arrange- 

 ments in the government of almost every modern state 

 in F.urope. The Hreppstiores have the same jurisdiction 

 with our justices of the peace, and the prelects of our 

 sheriff's. The provincial assemblies resemble our quarter 

 MMMKIS, and the supreme assembly our parliament. For 

 a minute account of the Icelandic commonwealth, the 

 reader may consult the Crymogaa of Arngrim Jonas. 



The code of laws adopted with this new form of go- 

 vemment, andwhich were progressively amended by the 

 Mtembly, is a remarkable example of the genius of the 

 peoplf of this age. To enter into a minute examina- 

 tion of it would far exceed the limits prescribed to this 

 article, and we must refer to the works enumerated at 

 the end. With respect to the criminal laws, corporal 

 punishment was rarely inflicted ; the atonement for al- 

 rno*t every offence being a fine, extended according to 

 circumstances, even to the confiscation of the whole 

 property of the criminal. The trial by jury, though 

 not enacted, was sometimes resorted to in particular 

 case.*. 



" The constitution thus adopted by the Icelanders, 

 (says Dr Holland, in his Introduction to Sir George 

 Mackenzie's Travel* i* Ictland,) was preserved with 

 little change for more than three centuries ; during 

 which period the records exist of thirty-eight laugmen, 

 who in succession sustained the executive power. Were 

 it allowed to apply the term to a desolate island on the 

 confine* of the Arctic circle, this might be called the 

 Golden Age of Iceland. Secured by physical circum- 

 tances from the ambition of more powerful state*, an 

 eCeient government and well directed laws provided for 

 the people all the advantages of justice and social order. 

 Education, literature, and even the refinements of poe- 

 tical fancy, flourished among them : like the aurora bo- 

 realis of their native sky, the poets and historians of Icc- 

 Und not only illumined their own country, but Hashed 

 the light! or their geniu* through the night which then 

 hung over the rest of Europe. Commerce was pursued 

 - inhabitants with ardour and success ; and they 

 partook in the maritime adventures of discovery and 



celebrity to 

 their ch'irf* 

 other countries, 



formed connection* with the most eminent personage* 

 of the time, and, surveying the habits, institutions, and 

 arts of different communities, returned home fraught 

 with the treasure* of collected knowledge. Nor was 

 than among the Icelander* of this period an extinction 

 uf the elevated spirit, common to their forefathers and 

 to the age. The Sagas, or tales of the country, afford 

 many striking pictures of that high feeling of honour, 

 and of those deeds of personal prowess, which were 

 cherished by the disposition of the northern nations, 

 and which refused not to exist even in this remote and 



amusement of the people, during the darkness of win- 

 ter, to recite the legends of former times. Xor was the "l""^"" 

 fame of the Icelandic Skalds * confined to their own HuWr >' < 

 country. Foreign potentates cherished them in their 

 courts, and munificently rewarded them for singing 

 their praises. 



The character of the Scandinavian poetry of this age 

 was stamped by metaphorical obscurity. Resemblance 

 could not be too distant, nor too fanciful, for a northern 

 poet ; and the habitual use of metaphor occasioned the 

 adoption of phrases as familiar, which, to those unac- 

 customed to the style, appear extravagant and unnatu- 

 ral. This obscurity does not however extend through 

 the whole of Icelandic composition, which, particularly 

 in the relation of common events, is often exceedingly 

 simple. Rhyme was rarely employed ; and the har- 

 mony of the versification seems to have depended on 

 alliteration, and the arrangement of particular sounds 

 adapted to the nature of the language. Thus there 

 was opened a broad field for the exercise of skill, as 

 well as imagination ; and the frequent contests in ver- 

 sification brought the Scandinavian poetry to be an art 

 of the most refined nature. Having more leisure, the 

 Icelandic poets excelled ; and, from catalogues still pro 

 served, we find, that of the Skalds who flourished in 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the majority of tin.- 

 whole number were Icelanders. 



The most celebrated and valuable remnant of north- 

 ern poetry is the Edda, a work designed as a common 

 means of education in the favourite pursuit of this ex- 

 traordinary people. The Edda appears to have been 

 composed at different times, and by different writers, 

 about whom there has been much controversy. There 

 are two different works which bear this title, the Edda 

 of ScLtnund, and that which bears the namo of Snorro 

 Sturlesen, to whom it is ascribed. The first or ancient 

 Edda consists of a number of odes, of which the Vo- 

 luspa, or prophetess of V'ola, and the Hdvamal, are the 

 most important. The former is a short and obscure 

 digest of the Scandinavian mythology ; and the Litter 

 consists of moral precepts, supposed to have been deli- 

 vered by the god Odin. They are attributed to See- 

 muud Sigfuson, an Icelander, who was born in the year 

 1056 ; and so eminent, as to have acquired the deno- 

 mination Frodc, or learned. The other Edda is more 

 perfect, and better adapted to the object of instruction 

 in the art of poetry. The first part contains a view of 

 mythology in the form of a dialogue, in which the at- 

 tributes and actions of the deities, and other events, 

 are explained. The second part is a collection of sy- 

 nonymes, epithets, and prosodaical rules, in which the 

 errors of style, and the varieties of metre, are carefully 

 pointed out. 



The historical writings of this age do more honour, Sagas. 

 perhaps, to Iceland, than the cultivation of poetry. Of 

 these, the Sagas, which are of a mixed character, blend- 

 ing, to a certain extent, fiction with authentic narrative, 

 are exceedingly valuable. They possess great variety, 

 some detailing particular events relating to politics or 

 religion, some the history of a particular family, and 

 others the biography of eminent individuals. As might 

 be expected, many of these narratives are tedious ; but 

 in many are to be found examples of simplicity, which 

 carry the reader back to the times in which the actors 

 lived, and insensibly lead him to consider himself not 

 an indifferent spectator. 



The Sagas have elucidated the history and antiqui- 

 ties of the north in an eminent degree ; but the regu- 



The wotd alMUr, ec skatdt, sonifying Urdi, W probably derived from Matl, wisdom ; whence the EngUib word skill. 



paroo n e marme avenures o 

 colonisation which gave so much merited 

 the Norwegian* of this period. Many of 

 and learned men visited the courts of othe 



The ooeonitttion of Iceland having been undertaken 

 br men of rank and education, literature was carefully 

 cherished among them ; and their language, the Go- 

 thic, was preserved in it* utmost purity. The ancient 

 mythology of Scandinavia afforded ample *co|> 

 poetic fiction and ornament ; and the desolate region uf 

 Iceland, the gloominess of which was only interrupted 

 by natural phenomena the most awful and tremendous, 

 gave a range to the favourite* of the muse, which ima- 

 gination could scarcely exceed. The taste for poetry 

 thus imbibed by the first inhabitants, descended to their 

 posterity ; and to this day it is no small part of the 



