Messrs Marshall and Annandale, The Horse etc. 297 



The Horse in Iceland and the Faroes. By Francis H. A. 

 Marshall, B.A., Christ's College, Cambridge, and Nelson 

 Annandale, B.A., Balliol College, Oxford. 



[Bead 23 November 1903.] 



In order to discuss the origin of the ponies of Iceland and the 

 Faroe group it is first necessary to understand the ethnological 

 history (1) of the islands, for the view that these ponies represent 

 an indigenous race is quite untenable, unless we believe that the 

 species Equus caballus has not only had a multiple origin but has 

 sprung into being at diverse dates in diverse places. It will 

 be necessary, therefore, to consider how the district under dis- 

 cussion was peopled and what intercourse there has been between 

 it and other countries, before we enter upon the question that 

 immediately concerns us. 



The island of Iceland, which has an area roughly one-fifth 

 greater than that of Ireland, was first colonized towards the end 

 of the ninth century by adventurers mainly of Scandinavian origin, 

 the only previous inhabitants having been occasional Irish or 

 Hebridean anchorites, who contributed nothing to the subsequent 

 population. It is important, however, to realize that although the 

 first colonists called themselves Norsemen, over half of them, as 

 is definitely proved by the Landnamaboc (2) — a very ancient record 

 of the names, ancestry and estates of the first settlers — had been 

 living in the British Isles before Iceland was discovered, and that 

 only a minority came direct from Scandinavia. Moreover, those 

 who came from the British Isles did not desert the rich English 

 shires for so remote a home, but came for the most part from the 

 Hebrides and the north of Ireland, and their- records prove, as 

 well as such names as Kalbann (3) and Njal, that they had freely 

 intermarried with the Celtic 1 population, among which some at 

 least of them had lived for two generations. It is reasonable to 

 conclude that they brought with them to Iceland from the 

 Hebrides and Ireland their domestic animals as well as their 

 wives and families. About twenty years after the first settling, 

 political events in Norway caused many of the more substantial 

 chieftains of Scandinavia proper also to migrate to Iceland, taking 

 with them all that they possessed. It appears, then, to be certain, 

 as far as anything which happened a thousand years ago can be 



1 We do not attach any very precise ethnological significance to the term 

 ' Celtic,' but apply it to those sections of the population of the British Isles in which 

 an 'Iberian' (short, dark, dolichocephalic) element existed. 



