A VISIT TO LONELY ICELAND 



By Perley H. Noyes 

 Member of the National Geographic Society 



ABOUT the year 860 A. D. a Nor- 

 wegian pirate named Naddodd, 

 who had been forced to settle 

 in the Faroe Islands on his return from 

 an expedition against Norway, was 

 driven by a storm far out of his course 

 and sighted land considerably to the 

 north, which, from the amount of snow 

 on its momitains, he called Snaeland, or 

 the Land of Snow. Four years later one 

 Gardar Svafarson, a Swede, being simi- 

 larly driven northward against his in- 

 clination, sighted this same land, which 

 he circumnavigated and discovered to be 

 an island. On that account he called it 

 Gardarsholm, or Gardar's Island, and, 

 having spent a winter on its northern 

 shore, at the site of the present little 

 town of Husavik, he returned in the 

 spring to Norway. 



Gardar gave so favorable a report of 

 the new country that the adventurous 

 spirit of another Norwegian pirate, Floki, 

 prompted him to go in search of it him- 

 self, with the idea of taking possession 

 of it. He proceeded, accordingly, first 

 to the Shetlands, and then to the Faroes, 

 whence he sailed northward on his jour- 

 ney. The compass not then being known, 

 Floki resorted to a novel method of ap- 

 prising himself of the proximity of land. 

 He took with him three ravens, conse- 

 crated to the gods, to guide him on his 

 way. The first of the birds he let loose 

 after having lost sight of the Faroes, and 

 it took its flight back thither ; the second, 

 which he loosed later, rose to a great 

 height in the air, and, after hovering 

 about for some time, returned to the ship ; 

 the third directed its course northward, 

 and Floki shortly afterwards landed on 

 the island which he sought. 



He appears to have spent too much 

 of his time in fishing, neglecting the hay 

 harvest, in consequence of which all the 

 cattle he had brought with him died dur- 

 ing the winter. Greatlv vexed at this 



loss, Floki determined to seek a more 

 favorable climate, but before leaving the 

 island he chanced to notice from the 

 top of a mountain near the coast that 

 one of the bays was completely filled 

 with ice, and because of this he renamed 

 the island Iceland, and this name it has 

 ever since retained. In 870 Iceland was 

 again visited by Norwegians, Hiorlief 



An Ice 



.\niuiii" Socks 



and Ingolf, and being well impressed 

 with the country, after a winter's resi- 

 dence there, they returned to Norway to 

 fit out an expedition which should make 

 a permanent settlement on the island. 

 This they did in 874, and the Icelanders 

 date the occupation of their country from 

 that vear. 



