ICELAND. 41 



descendants of the Celtic immigrants do not seem to have been exterminated, for 

 many Irish names still survive in the local topograph}^, and one of the north- 

 western inlets is known as Patreks-Fjor^r ("Patrick's Fiord"). The archi- 

 pelago of the Vestmannaeyjar, or " Westmen's Isles," also bears the same name 

 that the Norwegians formerly applied to the natives of Erin. An old tradition 

 relates how the Irish, being oppressed by the Norsemen, were fain to quit the 

 island, but in doing so kindled the volcanic fires which have been burning and 

 smouldering ever since. 



In the year 1000 the A]])ing adopted Christianity as the national faith, and 

 monasteries were founded in many places; but the old belief survived in divers 

 practices, and the memory of Thor was long revered. His name is fovmd in 

 that of numerous families, and to him appeal was made on all occasions needing 

 strength and daring. So late as the first half of the present century the 300 

 native ministers were also blacksmiths, for the working of iron and religious 

 rites were still, as of old, intrusted to the same individual, at once wizard and 

 artifex. 



The Icelandic commonwealth, administered by the wealthy proprietors, 

 maintained its independence till the middle of the thirteenth century, and this 

 was the epoch of its great prosperity. According to the tradition, the popula- 

 tion at that time amounted to 100,000, and freedom here produced amidst the 

 fogs and snows and icebergs of the polar seas the same fruits as in sunny 

 Italy. The love of science and letters was everywhere diffused ; poets and 

 historians, such as Snorri Sturluson, sang or related the national glories, 

 and preserved for posterity the Edda, the precious epic of Scandinavian literature. 

 Thus it is that Iceland claims a place in the history of humanity ; here the 

 learned have sought the origin of trial by jury, and the lingering memories 

 of the old relations of Iceland with Greenland and Yineland may possibly 

 have had a decisive effect on the mind of Columbus when he visited the 

 island of Tile (Thule) in 1477. Eric the Eed, Leif the Fortunate, and Thorfinn 

 Karlsefue are said to have anticipated the discoverer of the New World, and 

 when John Cabot discovered Newfoundland he was perhaps aware that it had 

 already been twice explored by the Icelanders, and hence named it Newly Found 

 Land. 



Iceland lost its independence in 1262, The priests, under the jurisdiction of 

 foreign bishops, induced the people to accept the King of Norway as their 

 "first earl," and their imion under one king ended by a real subjection, first to 

 Norway, then to Denmark. Henceforth they have had constantly to contend 

 against administrative abuses ; and ruled by foreign laws, they ceased to enjoy 

 that freedom of action so much more needed in Iceland than elsewhere. There 

 ensued many calamities entirely depopulating some districts ; famine was fol- 

 lowed by epidemics ; the " black death " decimated the people ; the small-pox 

 destroyed 18,000 in 1707; villages fell to ruins; 10,000 were carried oif by 

 famine in 1759 ; and then came the terrific eruption of the Skaptar-JokuU in 

 1783. Foreign inroads had also added to the misery of the people. In the 

 147 



