Annexation of Iceland 291 



meinbur, Siiorri Sturluson, is the historian of Norway, 

 and one of the greatest literary men that Scandinavian 

 countries have produced. We have already said how 

 lie was murdered at the instigation of Hakon, one year 

 after the fall of Earl Skuli in Norway. The result of 

 the long period of civil war in Iceland was, that when 

 Hakon had established himself firmly on the throne of 

 Norway, he found this daughter country utterly ex- 

 hausted, and had no difficulty in incorporating it in his 

 dominions. Iceland had, in early days, been theoreti- 

 cally a tributary country to Norway. We see that 

 when Olaf Tryggvason is doing his best to establish 

 Christianity in his own country, he takes measures, 

 almost as a matter of course, to introduce it likewise 

 into Iceland as into the Orkneys, and to the former 

 country Ije sends that Saxon priest Thangbrand, 'a 

 great man-slayer,' who used more force than persuasion 

 in his missionary work. But the tie between Norway 

 and its daughter republic remained of the loosest, till 

 Hakon really incorporated Iceland with Norway, a 

 union whicli has lasted ever since. He did the same 

 with Greenland, that little adventurous colony which 

 was still flourishing, but was destined in the following 

 century to come- to a sad end. The Orkneys and 

 Faroes were already counted among the possessions of 

 the country. 



What of those other parts of the Greater Scandi- 

 navia whicli lay among the British Isles ? Let us take 

 one final glance at them. 



The Danish and Norse conquests in England had 

 long since been merged in the English nation. Oppo- 

 site the Orkneys, in Caithness, there was still, probably. 



