TRAVELS IN ICELAND, 



2!5 



which contain an episcopal residence ; but some of them excel 

 to such a degree; that they are famed throughout the country. 

 At Kialarnes, where fishing is pursued throughout the year, they 

 are much attached to this exercise, but particularly in the former 

 season, when they cannot continue their occupation on account 

 of the frost. Besides their common method, they have also a 

 peculiar manner of wrestling, which consists in seizing the ad- 

 versary "by the shoulders, and throwing him down. This me- 

 thod, in which there is so little art, is doubtless that which was 

 anciently most practised : it consists less in the agility of the 

 limbs and motion of the body, than in the strength and move- 

 ment of the head. It approaches near to that of the English, 

 in which the inhabitants in the county of Cornwall are the 

 greatest adepts. 



OF THEIU SAGAS AND HISTORICAL RECITATIONS, 



The most noble pastime was, undoubtedly, that pursued by 

 the Icelanders before the first depopulation of this island, 

 which was that of reading publicly their Gamla-Sagar, or the 

 history of their country written in ,the Icelandic language, 

 Before any persons seriously devoted themselves to writing 

 history, it was usual to relate in societies certain adventures 

 and other facts worthy of retention ; for this purpose, those 

 were chosen who possessed the best information, together with 

 oratorical talents : and they were generally found amongst the 

 :bards, poets, or other persons of distinction. If, in a com- 

 pany, any individual related a history with more precision and 

 detail than others, he w as justly recompensed by the approba- 

 tion and applause of the auditors. After this they transmitted 

 the principal incidents to their posterity, by carving them on 

 their doors, bedsteads, and pannels of their apartments. It was 

 not till the thirteenth century, that the Icelanders seriously ap- 

 plied themselves to the writing of the history of their own and 

 other Northern countries ; they, however, retained the custom of 

 reciting anecdotes and facts of different periods. Their history 

 of King Hciguen the Old, is a proof of this statement, it being 

 composed principally of such recitations at their meetings in 

 the evening, that is to say, in the interval between the decline of 

 day and total darkness ; for, as long as there was any light at all, 

 they continued historical readings. They chose for their reader 

 a young man of the house, of good elocution \ or they some- 

 times gave preference to one of the guests w ho possessed similar 

 talents. If the master of the house happened |q be fond of history, 

 he procured a number of books for himself and his family, whn h 

 he" read on the winter overlings to his $eig%o$rs and friend > 



O LAPS 1£N.] JD 



