1£2 



OLAFSEN AND POVELSEN's 



compare these incidents with those of a like nature which hap- 

 pened iii our own time > and which we lately described. 



REMARKABLE PLAGES. 



From time immemorial the following places have been con> 

 sidered as remarkable: 



I. The Althing, or seat of the general court of justice* 

 We have already mentioned Keykiavik as singular for being the 

 first habitation in Iceland: built by ingolf; who, as well as his 

 successors, there administered justice, and held the althmg (or 

 superior general court) at Kialarnes, whence it was afterwards 

 transferred to Thingvalle, where it is still held. The river 

 Oxeraa now divides the Althmg into two parts. The spiritual 

 court, which is on the right bank, is held annually in the church 

 of Thingvalle, but only for the bishopric of Skalholt; that 

 of the north is held at Ilugimere, in the canton Skagafiordur. 

 On the western bank of the above-mentioned river is the build- 

 ing appropriated to the proceedings of the inferior court, called 

 Lavretten: this building is now of wood, as is that of the supe- 

 rior court which is contiguous to it. The court called Lavret- 

 ten was formerly held in the open air; but in 1690 a place was 

 erected for it similar to the other buildings of the Althing, that 

 is, the walls were of lava stone, and the roof was of rafters and 

 laths, covered on the outside with their Vadmel or woollen. 



II. The bishopric of Skalholt which was established by 

 the first bishop Isler, about the year 1055: this bishop was the 

 son of Gissur, surnamed the White, who together with Hialte- 

 Skeggesen did so much, that through their efforts, the Christian 

 religion was authorised by a law, and adopted in the year ] 000 

 at the Althing. It was the king of Norway, Oluf-Tryggveson, 

 who after having taken much trouble to no purpose to cause 

 this new religion to be adopted by the Icelanders, sent off the 

 two persons above mentioned to finish the work, but their at- 

 tempts had nearly proved abortive; for the eruption took place 

 at that identical time, which produced the lava called Thuraar- 

 hraun, and at the very moment when they were harranguing their 

 countrymen, messengers arrived with the melancholy news*:' and 

 the Pagans considered the eruption as a token of the anger of 

 the gods, at the blasphemous discourses of the partisans of the 

 new religion. A fortunate circumstance however allayed the 



* The Khristni Saga, chap. II. p. 88 — 90. mentions this circumstance 

 in the following terms: "Ecce autem vir cursu anhelus: ignem subterra- 

 neum in Olfus erupisse, et jam villa Thoroddi pontincis imminere nunciat. 

 Turn ethnici: non miram, si ejusmodi sermonibus excandescerent dii, voci- 

 ferantur. At Snorrius pontifex: quid igitur uxanduerunt dii, cum scopulus, 

 cm nunc insistimus comlagravit? 



